ETAO Podcast, Episode 56.
Jordan Thomas hides out with us to talk about The Blackout Club. It’s a game that is at once an “infinite meaning machine” and an authored narrative, a game about “extremely rewarding movement” but not “physical combat with a clear victor,” an early access experience that shares much of the appeal of ARGs, but not an ARG as such—and being a horror co-op game about teenagers, it’s scary and it’s funny; it’s cosmic-horror-vast and it’s small-town-intimate.
Talking about it means talking about providing catharsis without “killing the mystery” as a developer, and being “comfortable with negative space” as a player. It also means talking about Question Games’ previous effort, The Magic Circle, and about Jordan’s previous work on the Bioshock series. That, and: A man, riding a horse, riding a lizard.
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• Here’s my previous conversation with Jordan, along with Kain Shin and Stephen Alexander.
• Here’s that other interview with Jordan (not on this here podcast) that I mention.
• The Discord for The Blackout Club is indeed the place to be.
• Those NiER:Automata articles I was thinking of are this one and this one.
• Eldritch was and is so, so good.
• Only incidentally of any promotional value is our new catchphrase. Truth in advertising.
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“All The People Say (Season 3)” by Holly Hyperion.
A bit of music from The Blackout Club, by Patrick Balthrop.
“Apple Blossoms” by Vernon Geyer.
“The Shape My Heart’s In” by Paul & Roy with the Tennessee River Boys.
Main Theme from The Blackout Club, by Nathan Moody.
Some additional bits of music from The Blackout Club, by Patrick Balthrop.
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