Do Not Feed the Monkeys preys on the fear that drives people to put tape over their webcams. In it, you’re tapped into surveillance cameras that spy on different locations and people going about their lives. But developer Fictiorama Studios did not necessarily mean to make it dark or dystopian.
The studio describes it as a “digital voyeur simulator” that lets you peek into other lives and sometimes affect them. It’s slated for a PC release in early 2018 with possible console versions to come in the future.I was mildly disturbed but intrigued when I played the demo at Double Fine’s Day of the Devs indie game showcase last weekend. I was a part of the Primate Observation Club, a shadowy organization that gives its members access to cameras all over the world. In return, members have to help grow its system of mass surveillance, buying a certain number of new cameras by the end of the month to renew their memberships. Each camera is referred to as a “cage”; the unwitting people in them are “monkeys.” As the name of the game implies, the club insists that its members don’t interact with the monkeys at all but remain silent observers.
“There are all kinds of stories in the game,” said Fictiorama cofounder Luis Oliván. “The cages tell stories – not all of them, but lots of the cages tell stories. And of course there are more dramatic cages. There are some fun cages, some horror and sci-fi cages. But it’s not supposed to be dark and disturbing. If it is, it’s in a light, fun way.
”Oliván and his two brothers Mario and Alberto started Fictiorama. They’re based in Madrid and Do Not Feed the Monkeys is their second title. Their first, Dead Synchronicity, is a post-apocalyptic point-and-click adventure that Oliván tells me is quite grim. They wanted to get away from that, though, and took a more lighthearted approach to their latest game.
Do Not Feed the Monkeys has an innocuous retro pixel art aesthetic, but it’s rather…
The post Do Not Feed the Monkeys or how I learned to stop worrying and love the surveillance state appeared first on FeedBox.