These new Casino R'lyeh cards, courtesy of Arkham Bazaar, offer an eldritch flavor for the poker table. I'll leave the cross-pollinating jokes about tactical bluffing and cosmic blasphemies aside for now. This 54 card deck is definitely one of the more unique items to propagate the Lovecraftian this year. Moreover, they offer a chance for gamers to enjoy poker and many other traditional card games under Cthulhu's malevolent gaze, an alternative to arguably more complicated games incorporating Mythos elements. A Cthulhuvian poker deck is also something H.P. Lovecraft would quickly recognize, were he mysteriously resurrected.
Though Lovecraftian themes are far from simple, adapting them as old favorites may be a hit. There will always be Call of Cthulhu RPG cultists and video gamers. Yet, in the end, Cthulhu cards may extend their Lovecraftian tentacles further than other pursuits into gaming land.
It seems Guillermo del Toro's push to create a cinematic version of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" is not the only project he has in mind inspired by the writer. Comments harvested by GiantBomb.com have confirmed that the director is working in concert with THQ to release a Lovecraftian video game (or possibly multiple games) sometime around 2013. Details about the game are extremely limited, with neither del Toro nor THQ elaborating on the game. This may mean it's in a very early stage of development, or being kept tightly concealed by THQ and del Toro.
You know that weird fiction has entered 21st century media with this planned release of an H.P. Lovecraft iPhone App. The Necronomicon Card Game is an interactive RPG (Role Playing Game) scheduled for a summer 2010 release. The computerized "card game" apparently draws its gaming inspiration from card based strategy games like Magic: The Gathering, and quite possibly this older flash game with the same name. Slide To Play's article has this to say:
Billed as a role-playing card game, Necomonicon is apparently designed for quicker gameplay sessions and will take some influence from dice-rolling tabletop RPGs. We know that achievements will let you unlock new cards, but we're unclear about whether this will be a primarily single-player experience, or allow you to play against other masters of the occult in multiplayer.
Certainly, this game won't be the last Lovecraftian App made for the iPhone and other portable multimedia devices. It's likely to be nothing less than a flagship in a great fleet of strange media setting out on the digital seas from the familiar ports of literature and film.
Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage is a game of Lovecraftian nightmares with a gritty look that should appeal to fans of weird horror and gaming. The first installment, Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder, also contained explicitly Lovecraftian content, but it appears this sequel will draw on even more HPL imagery. Thematically, it will be a mixture of adventures and puzzle solving. Look for it to appear sometime in the first half of 2010.
The video game "LSD" is an old favorite of mine. It originally appeared on Sony's Playstation game system, and was released in Japan as the first and only "dream emulator" of its kind. Through bootleg, import, and emulator, however, it eventually made it across the Pacific to the U.S. Despite an underground history here and abroad, it remained fairly obscure and never really became a highly sought item for gamers or aesthetes. Now, it lives on primarily through PC driven emulators (software allowing computers to play console games), Youtube videos like the one below, and in freakish memories.
Why am I commenting about it here? Because this offbeat item holds a very tenuous, but almost certainly unintentional tie to the weird. The plotless game's origins are said to derive from a creator's "dream diary" and a lot of drug induced visions (or at least imagined approximations of what LSD-laced nightmares would be like). Without knowing it, the game was crafted into a terrible stage performance of weird horror whose best literary representative is unquestionably the fiction of Thomas Ligotti.
"LSD" takes the digital dreamer through many nightmare realms: a deserted urban setting next to the sea, decaying houses peeping through greenish haze, and wild psychedelic environments that hurt the eyes with their senseless imagery and ultra-vibrant colors. Although there are moving objects like rainbow colored trains, wind up soldiers, and balloon elephants, one never encounters another person besides a shadowy figure that stalks the player and, in one curious dream, kills him temporarily with a single well placed gunshot. The deathly loneliness and outlandish dreamscapes, vacillating between bleak and beautiful, are like Ligottian visions teleported to screen.
As one progresses through the dreams, they tend to get weirder and weirder, interspersed with strange video vignettes of carnivals and UFOs, among other things. The missionless exploration of the video game coupled with its unsettling surroundings and interactive isolation definitely make what can be labeled a weird video game experience. And, in some instances, a Ligottian experience: one that worms through the brain with direct auditory and visual cues, rather than processed literary ones. "LSD" is a genuinely weird performance, perhaps a better video game analog to supernatural literature than any other thus far seen, despite its unanticipated origin that probably didn't have the weird at all in mind when it was strung together.
If an effort were made to trace H.P. Lovecraft's steadily rising influence into pop culture, two contemporary means of his burgeoning popularity come to mind: the internet and video games. In video games, the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) has arguably neared the top of the industry's pyramid in terms of gaming expansiveness, popularity, and lucrative profits for entertainment developers. Examples of this genre include video games like Everquest, Second Life, and World of Warcraft. It's the latter game by the company Blizzard which has incorporated some notable Lovecraftian features.
The H.P. Lovecraft references noted thus far in this game have been referenced by this blog post on "Tanking for Dummies" and this post on "Warcraft and Other Hooha." What these articles make clear is an interesting trend: the Lovecraftian content embedded in World of Warcraft appears to be generated by both users and software engineers within Blizzard. While it seems somewhat natural that fans of science fiction and fantasy would have a substantial number of individuals in their ranks who know about and appreciate Lovecraft's work, it's another matter to see Lovecraftian symbols creep up regularly in such a popular past time.
Moreover, it's likely the names, creatures, and places borrowed from Lovecraft will only spawn further interest about the Providence writer among the game's predominantly young demographic. The looming explosion of Lovecraft in the digital age is rapidly driving us toward the day when he will no longer be seen as an obscure figure in a niche genre of literature, but as a colonizer of strangeness, perhaps one day infusing inspiration into as many types of media as Poe is renowned for doing.
Jerome's blog hosts schematics for two different H.P. Lovecraft inspired paper creations I previously missed posting. As with most other examples of Lovecraftian origami, both are Cthulhu representations. Now, however, everyone's favorite emissary of Azathoth comes in two colors: neon green and demonic red. The two models even include blocky cultists down in the lower right corners of each. It's about about time too. After all, what's a near-omniscient extraterrestrial without worshipers?
The "RPG Examiner" has an encapsulated history of H.P. Lovecraft's potent influence on the Role Playing Game industry. The article contends that his themes have been so powerful, in fact, that Lovecraft's works played a savior role in propping up the Role Playing Game. If this is the case--and it's easy to see a lot of truth to it--then the relationship between HPL and RPGs appears to be a mutually beneficial one. Lovecraftian horror has spawned a large and lucrative RPG line in the popular Call of Cthulhu RPG scenarios. Similarly, it's reasonable to assume exposure to Lovecraftian themes through gaming has opened up countless gamers to H.P. Lovecraft's writings, and perhaps the broader field of weird fiction.
For the record: I'm not really an RPG gamer, but I do find the phenomena very interesting when it's intermingled with the weird. Articles like the one from "RPG Examiner" should have wide appeal to all sorts of Lovecraftians. After all, this is a major component of H.P. Lovecraft's extra-literary existence today, particularly among younger readers.
An incomplete Lovecraftian video game by Swedish developer Cactus Software was recently discussed at the "Play This Thing!" blog. It carries the simple title "The Lovecraft Game" and is an shooting adventure played from an overhead view, a production beckoning back to the days of the GameBoy and older Arcade entertainment. That said, I find myself in agreement with the verdict issued on "Play This Thing!" While the game is a little choppy and not very action packed, it does contain stylistic appeal very much modeled on old black and white films. The game itself consists of little more than running through a forest, encountering a few stereotypical mystery men lifted from Lovecraft's tales, and shooting monsters like zombies and vampire dogs. Don't expect to be astounded in any way, as even the game's creator describes it as an "awful Lovecraft game" on the Cactus website.
Though it seems unclear whether or not the program will ever be brought to completion by its creator, it isn't a total loss for the reasons above. Despite its problems and lack of depth, lovers of retro-style video games and H.P. Lovecraft completists will find a morsel or two of amusement.
A trailer for an interesting game called Anderson II: The Rise of R'lyeh is up on Youtube. It seems to be a sequel to the little known Anderson & The Legacy of Cthulhu which appeared in 2007. The original installment starred Robert D. Anderson, an investigator in WWII era Germany who ventured to Europe in an effort to understand his strange origins. It was an amateur video game by JoWood Productions and Home Grown Games. The game combined an investigative and adventure-shooter atmosphere in a three dimensional environment.
Details are scant about the sequel so far. A website is featured here, but no information is posted on it except for a logo at the present time. However, the trailer below offers some tantalizing hints about what players can look forward to in The Rise of R'lyeh. It looks like it's set in contemporary times, and will explore the often mentioned but little realized scenario of Cthulhu bursting into our world after the proper alignment of the cosmos. Look for further details to surface on their website as the production nears release sometime next year.
In 2007, a papercraft artist known as Jerom created several different Lovecraftian items for easy assembly by cultists everywhere. The origami creations, which can be downloaded, printed, and folded accordingly from the images in this post, include two of H.P. Lovecraft's nefarious tomes as well as a Cthulhuvian face. De Vermis Mysteriis and the hideous Unaussprechlichen Kulten by Friedrich von Juntz. These three are, in my opinion, the best of the best found on the artist's blog "Le blog de Jerom."
Curiously, the Cthulhu face posted here is not covered with the characteristic tentacles. However, it seems the unspoken look of malevolence still makes it Cthulhuvian enough--or at least a demoniacally twisted Spongebob character. Visit the blog linked above for a few other Cthulhu Mythos papercraft creations and more related sketches of Lovecraftian goodness.
WildClaw Theater, the troupe of weird performers responsible for putting on plays of Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" and H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House" have been doing an excellent online radio show for some time now. WildClaw Blood Radio features a printed blog and podcast of happenings in the weird community alongside strange ephemera of interest. Their recent interview with Kenneth Hite, who is a game designer, regular columnist for "Weird Tales" magazine, and author of Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales, is a treat for readers who wish to hear opinions from a major observer in the weird field today.
In the interview, Hite discusses performance adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's work (including his opinion on WildClaw's own "Dreams in the Witch House"), the Lovecraftian influence in weird horror today, and his work on the new Role Playing Game "The Trail of Cthulhu." It's also interesting to see Hite name Thomas Ligotti as the "most Lovecraftian" contemporary writer. Hite is not the first commentator on the weird to place Ligotti at the vanguard of weird literature today. Overall, this is a quality interview that takes the temperature of quite a few trends and projects in the weird community--something sure to boost interest in WildClaw's Blood Radio and stage productions as well.
-Grim Blogger
An Interview with Kenneth Hite from Wild Claw Blood Radio
The torrent of Lovecraftian video games appears to be picking up this season, just in time for the relaxing downtime many will have during the holidays. Zombie Cow Studios has released a new work called "Carrion Re-Animating." As you can easily infer from the title, it's heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's story "Herbert West: Reanimator." Unlike the traditional zombie killing game, however, as West you're tasked with the opposite: reviving the dead before the full extent of your nefarious deeds can be uncovered. A host of basement obstacles and the revived dead themselves will stand in your way, but armed with a little re-agent, they can be forced back into the world of the living.
The game's style uses LEGO-looking characters to weave a lighthearted environment for the subject matter dealt with. It also features a black and white look to give players that slightly archaic cinematic atmosphere that's been successfully applied to Lovecraftian ventures in the past, like "The Call of Cthulhu" film of 2005. The website above contains a link to a free download. Please note that the setup file weighs in at roughly 60 MB, so users without high speed internet may want to forego this game or at least plan accordingly.
Spooky Squid, a small video game producer, is in the process of creating one of the most unique Lovecraftian games to date: "Night of the Cephalopods: A Terrifying Experience in Narrative Excess." At first glance, it appears to be a simple scrolling shooter out of the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis days. Listening to the game's sounds will yield a different experience though. Amid the steady blast of gunshots and the expected spooky sound effects is the reassuring drone of consistent Lovecraftian dialog. As in some of the silliest Cthulhu Mythos stories, your character can experience the full horror of combating disembodied cephalopod zombies/ghosts/demons while recounting his experiences in excruciating detail.
The game also looks inspired by certain choose-your-own-adventure tales. Taking different actions and pathways will yield unique narratives that, incredibly, always seem to form a coherent story. The objective is to fend off legions of ethereal land adept squids until sunrise. The voice acting and graphics for this game are surprisingly good for a home spun production. The colors and environments available thus far in the demo will take you back to a Golden Age of gaming, with the added soothing effect of vivid Lovecraftian narration behind the action. Humorous, challenging in an old school way, and unexpected (but who really can anticipate the next form of lighthearted "Cutethulhu" phenomena in the Lovecraft world?), "Night of the Cephalopods" is a title to keep an eye--or a tentacle--on.
The game's webpage above includes screen shots, a Youtube video, and an interactive demo. There isn't a clear indication yet of when the final version will be released, but production appears to be proceeding nicely. The current version is geared toward PC and X-box 360 users; a well thought variation that opens the game to both computer and console gamers.
One Monk Miniatures has an imposing papercraft Cthulhu available for downloading and assembling. Great Cthulhu, complete with a hieroglyphics laden "summoning pylon," comes in .PDF format with separate pages for each part of the trans-dimensional being. Best of all, it's free. The creature stands about 9'' tall with a 14'' wingspan when fully assembled. According to the website this model is suitable for display or miniature gaming of the sort supported by One Monk. With a little reinforcement, this paper Cthulhu could also make a great decoration for weird oriented gatherings.
The style selected for this representation of Cthulhu is intriguing in its own right. In addition to the small (and rather atrophied) wings long imagined since H.P. Lovecraft's descriptions of the thing, this Cthulhu sports a gaping set of leathery flaps truly capable of soaring into the cosmic aether. Further, it seems the wings are detailed with some kind of bright alien writing. Its bluish glow suggests similarities with the text on any modern digital device. This sci-fi like addition is a unique liberty usually not explored with Lovecraft's creations. This is strange when considering what most of them really are: terribly old, but extraterrestrial in origin. It's usually assumed (or just overlooked) that they're beyond using "technology" as we think of it.
The capabilities of the Great Old Ones will never be fully understood or universally accepted in weird art and literature--and that's more than half the fun. Kudos to the designers for giving Lovecraft fans a free quality Cthulhu, one that departs from the most common designs seen.
In 2005, a trailer was released for Headfirst Production's "Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End." Below, you can see this trailer, complete with action packed sequences of characters battling strange creatures around a fire and a horrific monstrosity rising from the sea (Dagon?). This is all you'll likely ever see of this game. "Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End" was never released, nor are there any plans to do so since Headfirst folded a couple years ago. The game was originally planned as a sequel to "Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth," which was released for the PC and X-Box in 2005. It was to be the second video game in a trilogy based around H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, with the last one tentatively titled "Call of Cthulhu: Beyond the Mountains of Madness."
Alas, there's little hope of seeing any of these ever appear unless Headfirst's creations are purchased by another game maker for use in some new project. This is a real shame, since "Destiny's End" suggested interesting departures from the first video game. Going by the trailer and a smattering of screenshots released, it seems this game intended to incorporate much more action than its predecessor. The lack of large battles and weaponry in "Dark Corners of the Earth" was a complaint among many gamers. The unreleased Lovecraftian production appeared to remedy that, with graphics and fighting very reminiscent of gameplay in "Resident Evil 4," a game that appeared around the time "Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End" would have been released.
Unlike the Lovecraftian movie industry, games based on H.P. Lovecraft's work have enjoyed fairly good success at capturing the weird atmosphere of his stories. It's just a damned shame to see another Lovecraft game that looked promising entombed forever in the catacombs of a derelict software company. Even worse, we'll never have a hint of what the producers intended for the third game, with a storyline presumably based on HPL's "At the Mountains of Madness." On the other hand, if Guillermo del Toro's desire to make a film based on that Lovecraft story takes off, then we may yet see a video game inspired by this Lovecraft piece.
-Grim Blogger
The Lovecraft Video Game That Never Was: "Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End"
"Cthulhu Returns" is a new Lovecraftian MMORPG (Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game) from Cyclopean Studios. The game, which just opened for beta testing, has drawn attention for its unique look and content. Graphically, it resembles the heady days of 16 and 32 bit systems like the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the original Sony Playstation, both of which featured RPGs that have gone down into entertainment lore as legends. Unlike its pre-programmed console predecessors, the PC based "Cthulhu Returns" thrives on interaction between players and live gaming action. Though the graphics may suggest otherwise, this type of game is in the same genre as popular giants like "The World of Warcraft."
"Cthulhu Returns" prides itself on being a complete, period appropriate immersion into the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft. Places, creatures, items, and player classes all have a direct link back to the stories written by the Providence author decades ago. Players can take on a wide range of roles in this new world: Scholars, investigators, cultists, etc. In somewhat Derlethian fashion, good and evil also enters into this virtual Mythos driven world. By completing quests and confronting eldritch horrors, players will contribute to their overall standing in online Arkham as allies or enemies of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones. Working to stop the alien powers or bringing them down on the gibbering masses is integral to the evolution of this online world.
Best of all, the game remains in development. The creators say they have plans to add additional places to the world, as well as special circumstances like the unleashing of Cthulhu (should cultist players successfully release the monstrosity). Moreover, the generous folks at Cyclopean Studios intend to keep the game free, even when the full version is released. They presently welcome donations at their website linked above.
"Cthulhu Tracker" from Themountainsofmadness.com is an innovative mix of storytelling and a GPS-driven game following a terrible alignment of the stars and the gates opened for dread Cthulhu's rise. This is a nice departure from familiar Role Playing Games and others which merely have the player attempting to stop an imminent surfacing of R'lyeh. Here, it has already happened, and seems to be unstoppable. However, the game components (at least for the time) don't appear to be very interactive. Fortunately, this program doubles as an example of storytelling via blog posts, as though the Cthulhuvian apocalypse is happening live. These type of projects have formerly been done online with zombies and vampires.
What will become of the world as Cthulhu and his eldritch minions rampage across the seas and continents? Check up on it at the site linked above to find out. A new post has appeared almost every week since late September, documenting the destruction of H.P. Lovecraft's signature outre one.
EDIT 08/27/2008: It appears copyright issues with the art have brought the original version down. An updated version of this game, temporarily without art, is available here.
Newgrounds currently hosts this fun flash game called The Necronomicon. Modeled after physical turn based card games like Magic: The Gathering, it features many familiar faces from H.P. Lovecraft's stories and surrounding ephemera. Conjure arcane spells to defeat opponents, summon Shoggoths and Byakhees, and protect your sanity from the the King in Yellow. This game has a very nice balance of characters and spells, and enjoys a low learning curve. It seems you're condemned to battling a computer opponent, however, as the creators haven't yet included a human-to-human multiplayer option.
This one is well worth checking out for the Lovecraft fan, and is easy enough for gamers of all skills. It encapsulates the fine balance of strategy and the Cthulhu Mythos that the gaming world ought to see more of.
Youtube's Petitmorte has uploaded several videos of familiar Lovecraftian aliens using the Spore Creature Creator program. Spore is an eagerly awaited video game that mixes elements of evolutionary simulation, strategy, and online exhibition. It allows players to create alien creatures, guide them through their evolutionary processes, and then share them with others after their civilization has developed interstellar technology. It's due out sometime in the fall of this year.
As any online search will indicate, the Spore Creature Creator, put out recently as a companion to the upcoming game, is really quite adaptable. Users can construct almost any manner of alien monstrosities imaginable. Naturally, some have turned toward replicating existing aliens envisioned by others. H.P. Lovecraft's fearsome Mi-Go, Elder Things, and Great Race of Yith have already been generated by enterprising users, and will likely see further permutations as interest in the game grows. Embedded below is Petitmorte's version of a Mi-Go.
