![]() Tuning feels purer, “get a ball to its goal”, but the world gradually shifts, forcing the player to change her perspective and see like the designer does. It throws everything at the player, (snakes, zombies, troll kings) and gives you an arsenal that’s just as varied. Life/Death/Island is operatic in its violence. Both are ambitious and represent Söderström’s pet themes taken to their extreme. He’s been tinkering on Life/Death/Island and Tuning for years, perfecting and tweaking. Dick, Lynch, Jodorowsky, Stanis?aw Lem and Cronenberg. He’s switched to longer experiments, leaving his bursts of creativity and noise for something more sustained, taking notes from his influences, Philip K. Until recently I haven’t had the focus to do so,” Söderström admits. But doing all that takes a lot of time and when you have many ideas that makes it hard to flesh out them all as much as they deserve. “The idea of being able to make a whole suite of graphics, music, gameplay, story and even a world for other people to explore was extremely fascinating. Lately, he’s moved away from the throw-anything-at-the-wall approach. ![]() For years he churned out free games every few weeks, each a lo-fi explosion, a digital punk song. Söderström is revered for his output in the indie community, but is mostly unknown to the mainstream. His games are about Lynchian logic puzzles ( Mondo Medicals), men who want to become cars ( Hot Throttle) and shotgun-wielding ninjas ( Shotgun Ninja, obviously). ![]() ![]() The 26-year-old Swedish designer, who goes by the name Cactus, makes games that traffic in the disturbing and surreal. Like when you repeat a specific word out loud over and over-you notice how it deteriorates from having a meaning to just being strange sounds.” “I feel that everything in life has an unsettling side to it, but it’s not always something you notice since you’re so used to looking at it a certain way. Jonatan Söderström is flattered when his games are called disturbing. ![]()
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