FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Design

Go Dark Releases 'Brightwild' as a Video Game and EP

Video game jamming is a thing, and Go Dark does it right.
All images courtesy of Go Dark

How do you translate a single into a dark video game universe? Go Dark, an experimental group out of Oakland, California wanted to create a release that wasn’t what they call “websitehandoff” or “downloadlink-centric” but a living creative experience.

They went the game-jamming route and got a crew together to create a video game in a 24-hour period to celebrate the release of the album. The international team is made up of a collaboration between designers/programmers in Poland and Oakland: SOS Sosowski (McPixel), Tyriq Plummer (Catacomb Kids), Ashley Gallegos (GO DARK) and Adam Drucker (doseone/GO DARK).

Advertisement

“Game Jams are about making all your decisions on the fly, and letting simplicity and limited time inform your design and creation. Since Go Dark music comes from improvised beat-making sessions and melodies and lyrics, which are later polished and focused into finished music, the game jam process speaks to our inner MO, and is a true but more importantly fun way to express our music differently but similarly,” says Drucker, a.k.a., Doseone.

"Brightwild" (Abandon Building Records) is at once an EP and video game where fans can visit BRIGHTWILD.XYZ to play the game for a chance to win the album. Drucker tells The Creators Project, "Ash and I make art and music and execute SoundDesign, the other guys do the hard/cool stuff. Tyriq did all the final illustration and animation, and SOS is the codemaster and programmer. We all design it together as we create.”

Based on the simplicity of movement between the four arrow keys and spacebar on a keyboard, Brightwild contains a heroine/hero on a hill with a swarm of creatures with flames hovering on their heads. The space bar allows you to breathe lights into your face, and again to shoot your resultant face laser. Drucker says, “We thought of a GirlBoy, alone in the dark, who sucks what little light there is on the creatures around them, up into a giant face-sized laser, and then screams at the world with it.”

Essentially, the Go Dark duo wants to push their screams into the world through electronic experimentation in sound and play. They put out another EP with BITCHSWORD, another freewheeling video game release.“We both love games, grew up on them, and also have a lot of friends who make them. Our peers pals and the art they make is our biggest influence, a lot of fandom goes into Go Dark, meaning we are fans of so much art and so many artists both in and outside video games. We also have a huge affinity for chip and low bit, which is sprinkled through out our art and sound.”

Advertisement

Check out this fun video of the video jam process behind Brightwild:

Check out Go Dark's newest release here. Play Brightwild here.

Related:

Gore-Free Indie Game Gives a Child's View into the Afterlife

A Miyazaki Masterpiece Gets Remixed into an 8-Bit Video Game

An Artist is Turning MC Escher's 'Relativity' Into a Video Game

A Guided Tour Through Escher's Paradise | Prefuse 73's "Still Pretending"