Ghosts in the Machine Read online

  “I wanted to take what I liked about Midnight Lake to Summer Storm,” said June. “Tim does the gameplay and can tell you about it, but I wanted something very strange and unexpected; that’s why Pretty Monster’s normal moves are hard to read, and she can teleport and fly. I’m not very good at fighting games, but I wanted, for once, to animate a character who was as strange to play as she was to look at. My favorite thing about what Tim does is that he makes controlling the characters feel like you’re becoming part of them. Pretty Monster’s controls are hard, but they feel more natural to me. Maybe Tim can say something else?”

  “I’m really happy if players feel the same way,” said Tim. “I don’t see my job as being as important as June’s. She does the real creative work; it’s my job to be true to that. Does that answer your question?”

  “Not completely,” said Lilliput.

  “What’s missing?” asked June.

  “Why’s she fun to play with?” asked Lilliput.

  Tim thought about it. Finally, he said “I don’t know if anyone would know the answer to that better than you. What do you think?”

  Pretty Monster had read every forum post by Lilliput, the theories and the cancels and the bugs and the perfect combinations that let Pretty Monster do things that no other character could dream of, even if she couldn’t do any of them very well.

  “Pretty Monster makes me feel like I’m free,” she said. Pretty Monster had never heard Lilliput say anything like that before.

  “I just want to know how you did it. Was it an accident? A coincidence? Did you do it all on purpose?” Lilliput asked.

  “Yes. It was all of that,” said June. “Mostly though, we loved her. We loved all the characters. We didn’t love her more, but we weren’t afraid to let her be what she was meant to be. If you love what you do enough and you know how to do it, we believe things work out. Not everyone will agree, but I am happier than I’ve ever been.”

  Mr. Mikado looked at Pretty Monster smugly. His expression said “I told you so” even more than usual. Captain Summerknife was soaking in the sunshine and he was shining, and his little brother Summer Knight Kite was blushing nervously. Misty Mako looked like she was annoyed about being talked about as if she wasn’t there, but Pretty Monster knew she was really happy, and for a moment Pretty Monster felt a little bad right then for all the humans in the audience who were never that honest with each other, who hurt each other when they hurt each other. She remembered Lilliput joking (though not joking) about being afraid of her dad. She thought about Tim’s kids and if he was able to tell them what he was telling the audience about his games. Looking tired, three cosplayers dressed in each of her forms had propped themselves against the conference room wall. They were almost as much paper mache as people. They were sweating, but they were rapt.

  “What do you think, Pretty Monster?” asked June, and she handed her the microphone.

  She leaned forward. “I think it’s fun to eat people and humans don’t do it enough,” she said.

  The crowd gasped, and then they laughed.

  Who We Are

  Lana Polansky is a Montreal-based writer, game critic, amateur game-maker and professional scowler whose rantings you can enjoy on Twitter @LanaTheGun. She has written for Kill Screen, Billboard, The Wall Street Journal, Five Out of Ten, Gameranx, Medium Difficulty, re/Action, Paste Magazine and Bit Creature.

  Brendan Keogh is a writer, videogame critic, and academic from Melbourne Australia. He has written for Edge, Unwinnable, and others, and is the author of Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops The Line. He writes infrequently on his blog, http://critdamage.blogspot.com and too frequently on Twitter @BRKeogh.

  Ashton Raze is an author, videogame developer and journalist from the South West of England. He is a regular contributor to The Telegraph’s videogame section, author of novel Bright Lights & Glass Houses, and his first game with Owl Cave, Richard & Alice, was released in 2012. Follow him on Twitter @ashtonraze.

  Denis Farr is a German-born, Chicago-based critic interested in how games, queerness, and theater intersect. He has had work featured in Kotaku, re/Action, Five Out of Ten, The Guardian, The Border House, and many other places that have been wonderful enough to have him. You can find him on Twitter @aeazel.

  Maddy Myers is a videogame critic and columnist for Paste Magazine. She has also written pieces about videogames for the Boston Phoenix, re/Action, Gameranx, The Border House blog, and Kill Screen. Read her blog at metroidpolitan.com and find her on Twitter @samusclone.

  Matt Riche is a Visual Effects Artist born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. He's been known to tinker with music and ever-unfinished indie game projects. Check out his music here http://retsyn.bandcamp.com/ and his VFX work here www.matthewriche.com.

  Ian Miles Cheong is a games journalist, freelance writer, and editor-in-chief at Gameranx. He enjoys playing with his dog Isengard and reading all manner of science fiction novels in his spare time.

  Rollin Bishop is a professional writer/editor based out of NYC. You can follow his ramblings about videogames and the weird corners of the Internet over on Twitter at @rollinbishop.

  Dylan Sabin is a games journalist, editor at Side Questing, board game enthusiast and tinker living in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He spends his time building his own worlds and playing Dota 2. Follow him on Twitter @DylanSabin.

  Alois Wittwer is a videogame critic and a true friend until the end of all ends; he will muffle the wails of your frightened soul. You can follow him on Twitter @TB_Love and read his attempts to productively disrupt at mediafactory.org.au/alois-wittwer.

  Shelley Du currently resides in Victoria, Australia and is fond of dystopian fiction and JRPGs with attacks with names that sound like novelty gum. You can follow her unfiltered thoughts on Twitter @BigShellEvent.

  Alan Williamson is the editor-in-chief of videogame culture magazine Five out of Ten. He is a self-exiled Northern Irishman living in Oxford, England. You can find him on Twitter @AGBear and find out more about Five out of Ten here: http://fiveoutoftenmagazine.com.

  Andrew Vanden Bossche is freelance writer who maintains the surreal videogame terror blog mammonmachine.com and the Twitter account @mammonmachine, which is a popular resource for anime puns and flirtation advice.

  Ryan Morning is a freelance copyeditor who occasionally does writing of his own instead of messing around with everyone else’s. He currently lives in Cumbria with his tarantula and his Steam account. You can reach him on Twitter @Edcrab_.

  Max Temkin is a designer from Chicago, Il and maker of Cards Against Humanity, Humans vs. Zombies, and Werewolf. The Chicago Sun Times said that his business has "the sophistication of a lemonade stand." Follow him on Twitter @MaxTemkin and check out his blog, maxistentialism.com.

  Table of Contents

  Ghosts in the Machine

  Copyright © 2013 by Lana Polansky

  Preface

  GDD

  March 2010

  Unto Dust

  Ten Steps

  All Time Heroes

  The Hierarchy of Needs

  Slow Leak

  If the Sun Rises Again

  A Perfect Apple

  See You on the Other Side

  Patched Up

  Supercollider

  Good Losers Are Pretty

  Who We Are