Hello and welcome back inside our spherical deep sea exploration craft! This week, Keith reveals his love for games with multiple simultaneous lead characters, while Florence walks out of a door. Christian is poorly and has been confined to the sick bay – get well soon, buddy!

There will be no newsletter next week as we are taking a short break on dry land, but we’ll return the week after. Thank you for joining us on our expeditions!

The Bathysphere crew
Christian Donlan
Florence Smith Nicholls
Keith Stuart

Contact us at bathyspherecrew@gmail.com

Delightful games

Today I was mesmerised by how to walk out the door, which I could describe as a melancholy FMV typing game, but that doesn’t do it justice. You have only 20 seconds to walk out the door, can you type fast enough? Feels like holding your breath in a once familiar room. FSN

Like anyone who remembers using cassette tapes, I am drawn to games that let you record and replay things. I’ve only just started MotionRec, a mostly monochrome puzzle platformer, in which you tape and then restore your character’s movements in order to navigate each 2D map. Can’t cross a chasm? Record the little chap walking, and then replay the captured footage on the edge of the platform and he just walks across the space. It’s really clever, not too taxing and the visual style is sharp and cute, like a lost Game Boy classic. KS

Interesting things

Voidspace Live has an open call for interactive performances, installations and exhibitions to be shown at Theatre Deli in London next June. I went to this year’s iteration and had a great time learning how to design an escape room, among other things! FSN

Also at Theatre Deli next year, Adrian Hon is organising a Jubensha convention. Jubensha is a “scripted murder” game format involving roleplaying and group sensemaking - it's a distinct genre that has become immensely popular in China where it originated. This is a great opportunity to try out some English language Jubensha and meet designers as well. FSN

Essay: multiple control freaks

As someone who hates multitasking (and is awful at it), I’ve nevertheless had a lifelong obsession with video games that allow you to control two or more characters simultaneously. In the late 1980s, I used to design Dragon 32 games with my friend Jon and at some point we came up with a scrolling platformer in which the lead character finds her consciousness split into two bodies and two parallel realities; the idea was that the player would have to control both versions of her and get them to the escape point at the same time.