A whopping 1000 corpses have been found in our ongoing investigation into Anthology of the Killer, Rock Paper Shotgun can reveal. The bodies were discovered in the aforementioned murder mystery "video game", which is out now on itch.io. Following our previous reports we can confirm that exposure to the game's crime-infested city can cause severe disorientation, confusion, uncontrolled fits of laughter, and moderate enlightenment. The streets here are so dense with crime that entire apartment blocks must shutter at night. When Rock Paper Shotgun reported the 1000 corpses to detectives, we were told this was "normal" and "appropriate".
]]>In Anthology of the Killer you do not exit the game using a pause menu. You exit it by walking down a back alley into the quavering arms of two hungry bears. This is just one of many laughs your diaphragm will endure as you navigate "the escalating adventures of a girl trying to make zines in a town of giallo-style masked serial murderers". The horror comedy already won its creators the Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival this year, recognition that has been a long time coming for prolific game maker Stephen "thecatamites" Gillmurphy. If you're unfamiliar with his work, you can get acquainted next week, when Anthology of the Killer gets its full release on Itch.io on May 28th. At which point you can explore its unsettling urban hell of shady corporations and cops who think they're cool. There's a trailer below.
]]>Stephen "thecatamites" Gillmurphy is a familiar presence in RPSland. In the past years we covered many of his games, from the blood-soaked RPG Space Funeral to the Kafkaesque Murder Dog.
His latest game, 10 Beautiful Postcards, is a wandering simulator about exploring hotels — and like all his games, it's wonderfully weird. But where does this developer get inspiration for his ideas? Are DRUGS the answer? Or does he use something even more morally dubious, like COMICS? Rock Paper Shotgun, here to bring you answers.
]]>Court is back in session. The case? The vanishing of dozens of 32-bit Mac games from Apple's operating system. Now, we've been told these are due to so-called "compatibility issues". And yet, a killer canine just made its way to MacOS after eight years off the grid, seemingly unaffected by these disappearances. Your honour, I believe this must be more than mere coincidence. I call my first and only witness, Murder Dog IV: Trial Of The Murder Dog, to the stand.
]]>Stephen "thecatamites" Gillmurphy is at it again. 'It' being 'releasing strange, discordant but oddly soothing game-like experiences to enjoy on your computerbox'. 10 Beautiful Postcards is a gentle trip through a baffling, kaleidoscopic world of hotels made out of pixels, plasticine, paper and polygons, possibly making it this year's premiere PPPP title. Is there a goal? Maybe. Is there a story? Kinda. Is it utterly hypnotic as the caffeine wears off and my drowsy brain is overwhelmed by its techno-dream imagery and mostly-soothing soundtrack? Yeah. Below, a cheerfully musical trailer.
]]>The greatest lie of the information age is that 'the internet never forgets' - it has a memory like a sieve, and we're losing games every second, along with people's records of them. The Lost Histories Jam on Itch (run by Emilie "Coleo Kin" Reed) is about preserving the little things that nobody paid much attention to. A collection of stories, zines, interactive essays and even an album telling the tales nobody else did. There's a Let's Play of Catz 5, a brief history of 'perverted' Dragon Warrior hacks, the history of intentionally awful Mario fan-games and even an RPG Maker community dictionary from TheCatamites.
]]>When the history of our inglorious medium comes to be written, that tome will be adorned with quiet footnotes and furtive scribbles in the margin, all summoning a single name: thecatamites. Because I'm certain whichever futuremonk employed by the Church of Ubisoft to complete this chronicle will harbour a secret love for Space Funeral and Magic Wand and Goblet Grotto and Murder Dog IV. Among those inky lines there might also be a mention of 10 Beautiful Postcards. This is the latest and upcoming undertaking of Mr Stephen ‘thecatamites’ Gillmurphy, a maker of seditious games who remains at large in an unknown location. It is described as a “children's game about exploring a large and mysterious hotel”. Here’s a trailer.
]]>"I didn't get the crystal but I had a lot of fun." So says one character in thecatamites' RPG Magic Wand. Fun is the real objective, or is it the MacGuffin? I thought the crystal was the MacGuffin. Who can say?
The creator of Murder Dog, Space Funeral and (my personal favourite) Crime Zone has included his latest release and 50 Short Games in a brand new winter bundle, perfect for gifting to that one relative or friend who doesn't yet know about the wonders of leg horse. To be clear, there's no leg horse in this bundle, but you can meet that noble beast in Space Funeral. It's free!
]]>While scraping my way through today’s news vomit, searching for a nourishing videogame nugget or chunk amid the Trumpish gunge, I found in my possession a startling and interesting financial report, which my sources inform me has only recently been “declassified”. It is the second Annual Report of the Harmony Zone corporation. “So what?” you ask. Well, as all intelligent reporters know, Harmony Zone is no more than a vast corporate front for one Stephen ‘thecatamites’ Gillmurphy. Aka the creator of Space Funeral, Murder Dog IV, 50 Short Games and most recently the camera-swivelling RPG Magic Wand.
]]>The terrible internet presence known as thecatamites, aka Stephen Gillmurphy, has released a new JRPG into the fathoms of the information superabyss. It is called Magic Wand [official site] and you can come and see what it is all about in this representative videographic sample. Those of you wishing to avoid a ruptured narrative should look away now and go straight to the dataload.
]]>Why do those big knuckleheads get all the attention? We all know about the yearly blockbusters of Ubisoft. And we can all see the behemoth that is EA. Yes, yes, they've got a new FIFA, that's great. But look away from these giants for a moment and you can clearly see the eco-system of game development harbouring thousands of other organisms. In the spirit of our newly launched 'anti-E3 campaign', here are some of those organisms.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
The Murder Dog is on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity. He stands charged with the killing of over 1500 people in a brutal attack encompassing the use of toxic gas, a fire engine and a blunt instrument. When these charges are put to the Murder Dog, his opening response is unrepentant and unambiguous: "My Taste For Bloodshed Remains Voluminous." Welcome to Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog [official site].
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Crime Zone is a game in which you play 'all of the cops' at the same time. Created by thecatamites, designer of Space Funeral, it's a first-person adventure game about cops and criminals, and the zone that they live in. It's an urban melodrama, a noir thriller and an absurdist comedy. It's an experiment in narrative perspective that just so happens to be the closest thing in gaming to The Third Policeman. There are many unusual free games on the bleached beaches of the internet but there are few that will live as long in the mind as Crime Zone.
]]>If you know and thus love what thecatamites have (has) been doing these past few years, chances are you have already downloaded Mouse Corp and are already defacing the graves of an impossibly colourful 3D world. A world filled with sentient vegetation and a wild menagerie of oddities you'll have to traverse, quasi-RTS style, as three mice.
Now, I could go on all about the wild mechanics of Mouse Corp or its wondrously grotesque take on the Sonic universe, but I won't. I will instead provide you with an interview featuring the wonderful Mr. Stephen Murphy -- a.k.a. thecatamites:
]]>Freeware Garden searches the corners of the internet to highlight one free game every day.
Ah, yes, the Sicilian Tarantella. The wonderfully upbeat, allegedly poison-curing and impossibly catchy music from Southern Italy that's a perfect match for weddings, revolutions and the freshly released Tarantella Sicilienne by George Schweinfest. Or is that by the Catamites and their Harmony Zone thing/initiative as part of the Harmony Summer Hardpack Tape 11-in-1?
I am frankly confused, but you really shouldn't care too much. I'm prone to confusion.
]]>Stephen 'thecatamites' Murphy has given us Goblet Grottos, Space Funerals, Murder Dogs, Pleasuredomes and much more besides, and he's never asked for anything in return. I'm tremendously pleased that, for the first time, it is now possible to exchange coin for the deliriously creative creations of one of fringe gaming's strongest and strangest voices. For a minimum of four euros (higher prices are at the purchaser's discretion), you'll receive the titular FIFTY GAMES, each of which was made in a single day during 2013's final months. Along with FIFTY GAMES, you'll find yourself in possession of a loader for the FIFTY GAMES, essays on each of the FIFTY GAMES and illustrated notes about the project. A tremendous piece of history.
]]>A Tuesday morning isn't the best time to play the latest game that has emerged from the bone-dry laughter-well that passes for thecatamites' internet tube. It doesn't matter though because the perfect time to play is thirteen o'clock in the morning on the day after whenever, and you'll be asleep then. My advice? Download Lake of Roaches immediately and if you happen to be at work, invite everyone to gather round and watch your screen. They'll be entranced by the tale of static, vacations, insects fishing and humaning. The basic beats of the story would be intended to frighten if thecatamites didn't confuse and corrupt them, flickering between the comic, the creepy and the cartoon. A playthrough will only take five minutes but the environment and story are dense enough to reward a replay.
]]>"Very important, historical Khan game", thecatamites writes, introducing his latest jolly hockysticks adventure, The Pleasuredromes of Kubla Khan. It's experimental learning, an explorable history lesson with a life of its own that has a rant at Edward Said and then almost literally vanishes up its own backside. There are probably all kinds of gloriously detailed and accurate details to discover but it's possible to rush through the lesson in five minutes or so if you're that way inclined. Go and learn!
]]>Good day, children. Did you do your homework like I asked? You didn’t!? You urinated on your homework and then pinned it to the door of a church in a send-up of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses? How very punk. A gold star for you! Oh, look. You’ve eaten your gold star as an angry criticism of society’s hackneyed educational system of reward and punishment. Excellent! Have another gold star. You’ve eaten it again. I see. Right. No, I get it.
Regardless of whether you disobeyed my instructions (MAKE A GAME) many commenters left a lot of valuable feedback for me to ponder. We’ll be talking about some of those issues as we go but first here’s one from JackShandy that was particularly prophetic:
]]>Lots of free games! I haven't played everything entered into the latest Ludum Dare because I do not have all the time in the world, but I did want to try out some of the other entries after Alec looked at Minicraft. No doubt I've missed the one game that everyone will be talking about 24 hours from now, the one that forms the basis for Valve's next major franchise and blows the minds of everyone who plays it. I probably skipped past it because it was called 'Alone', which is the theme this time around and therefore the title of 78% of entries. For those who don't know, these are games designed around the set theme and created in 48 hours. Here are some of them.
]]>Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog is Crime and Punishment as starring a homicidal, humanoid mutt who isn't at all interested in moral justification for his thousands of remorseless kills.
It's The Outsider, if Meursault actively enjoyed his act of murder (and was a dog).
It's a libertarian rebuke of the modern justice system (starring a dog).
It's a liberal treatise against the covert endorsement and use of violence by police (as made by a dog).
]]>
