hunterverses

[hunterverses]

Introduction

Hey! My name is Hunter or Ash, and I create lots of groovy stuff. 

In particular I record videos on indie games, talking in depth about their designs, narrative, mechanics, vibes, and everything in between while being delightfully and hella lewd.

I am also a writer and an indie developer myself, with my aim to make experiences that are odd, atmospheric, story heavy, and elaborate mechanically.

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLTOnjwItxv0LBsJhxBIY9Q

Itch io https://aftermath.itch.io/

Other links https://hunterverse.carrd.co/

[hunterverses]

Some behind the scenes shots

[hunterverses]

Graffiti and telling stories.

Been seeing people talk about graffiti, which tangentially also brings up a conversation about notes, in video games and I wanted to talk about it a bit as well! Let me clarify something first, graffiti is something that has a bad connotation attached to it.

Whether you personally vibe with graffiti as a form of art or not, akin to every other form of art graffiti is used to say something. To speak on matters that are true, and reflect on a place's current social climate.

Akin to other forms of media, it has been scrutinized by people in more privileged positions. Cited as being eye sores, a bad influence, a moniker of rough neighborhoods, and egregious property damage. Which all plays into a myriad of gross ideologies- racial stereotypes, capital rights > human rights, overzealous criminalization and etc.

But graffiti isn't that. It's art that can be profoundly beautiful, touching, memorializing snapshots of a past time that can warm the heart, or even be a reminder to be better. Look I'm not saying all graffiti fits that bill, hell me seeing "call me" with what I think to be a dick nutting isn't what I would call high art- but my point is that graffiti has a place just like any art does.

Getting back to video games, Graffiti can work exceptionally well. I know that people scoff at dead space’s “cut off their limbs” signage in particular, but at the time and even now I still feel like that was done wonderfully. As it not only played the role of being a mood setter for what was to come next, but it was a nice in game tutorial without popups, or ui, which gelled well with the minimalism that dead space is known for. Now as much as graffiti can be effective, I also feel like a lot of people fall into the trap of those gross connotations I mentioned earlier, while also overusing graffiti.

Developers may not intend to cause harm, but sometimes, especially in more horror focused games, I’ve seen time and time again, graffiti to be used as a way to show that a place is shit, run down, or in a terrible state in general. I won’t say that there is a lack of more positive representation of graffiti in video games, but for sure there does seem to be a giant disparity between the two.

Along with that as well, and this is more of my feelings rather than something factual like the former point, but goodness, when graffiti is used, sometimes moderation matters a lot- and this kinda flows into me talking about notes in video games as well. Both elements of a game, graffiti and notes share a similar usage in video game design. They can be used to establish tone, mechanics, worldbuilding, discuss prior events/off screen happenings and so much more. And so I find baffling, that a piece of graffiti that I saw at the start of the game, is also at the end areas of a game, or repeated throughout the entirety of a game for no discernable reason.  As much as it’s also baffling to have every single character in your game write notes/ keep a journal about their every single move. Which I feel oversaturates a player to the point that they can become desensitized to what you’re trying to get across from your graffiti or your notes/dialogue/recordings.

Look man, I don’t know, use the shit in your games and don’t be an asshole about it or don’t use graffiti at all.