So rarely do I get the chance to experience a piece of art so bad it offends me, but in an apolitical way that makes me laugh. I paid $3 for this experience, which is highway robbery. It would have been a waste of my time to download it to my PS3 for free. This is a 6 minute, real-time rendered movie with all the interactivity of a PowerPoint presentation I was capable of making when I was 10 years old.

As far as I understand it, a “demoscene” like this is akin to a portfolio piece for the types of artists who work in game development and related fields. Reading the in-software description and its wikipedia article gives the impression of the worst kind of modern art hipster culture imaginable, the latter filled with scene-specific jargon like “oldskool”, “elites,” and “lamers.” Linger in Shadows insists that it is not a game, and I whole-heartedly agree.

I am so happy I found this. 2022 has been all about expanding my horizons when it comes to gaming, and here I have found the “failed slam poetry reading” genre of game development in the demoscene. It is vain creation for its own sake, while also chasing clout in such a narrow and obscure art market as to border on parody. So desperate for a unique identity, it has lost awareness that, for the normal person looking in, the demoscene has not transcended the medium from which it originated. This level of interactivity on display here would fail to meet the engagement standards of a 4 year old in an airport with a dead iPad battery. It’s just bad art.

You kill a dog, F rank, lowest score possible. If I had contributed to this, even as a tech demo, I would be embarrassed to show it to anyone I respected. I’ve never encountered an emissary for a new genre that generated such contempt while also making me 100% confident it had successfully conveyed the value of its scene. Rest in piss.