#strangethink

Strangethink

Strangethink, one of my favorite artists working with generative things, has announced that they will be removing their existing projects, so you’ll no longer be able to download them. This partially because new remakes of the projects are in the works (and the source for past projects has been lost) but it’s still quite a loss--I think that you should go and grab the pay-what-you-want downloads while they’re still up: https://strangethink.itch.io/

Strangethink’s CGA aesthetic and beautifully wild embrace of the possibilities of embracing the result of the form instead of behind restrained by its nominal label has made their work stand out. Outliers are, in this case, a very good thing.

I’ve written about Strangethink’s projects quite frequently, if you want to dive deeper into what they’re all about:

Still available (for now): Secret Habitat Mystery Tapes Joy Exhibition These Monsters

These Monsters by Strangethink

These Monsters

Strangethink released a new project last night. While it shares some stylistic similarities with the art galleries of Secret Habitat--its aggressive hostility to the player’s presence and televisions reminds me of a more hostile Mystery Tapes. 

The EGA-ish glitchy colors are a bit less inviting than the pure CGA aesthetic. Darkness oozes out of the televisions, their flickering screens desperately trying to tell us about Them. They want things. This is Their space.

The black doors in the galleries open into other dimensions, each filled with a new procedurally-generated island of art galleries, each trying to tell us a message about what They are like.

Don’t come expecting to find answers: the end of the game exists outside its logic, implemented in the metaphysical realm as the halting problem. Winning the game requires you to find the glitch that They can’t comprehend.