BLACK BOX - An Analog Horror FMV Game Demo

📍 Los Angeles, CA (US)

🏷️ Video Games

What the Hell is BLACK BOX?

Black Box is an outcry against the all-consuming systems that we live under every day. It's the channeling of the frustrations, anxieties, and fears of two writers working against and alongside digital doppelgangers that threaten their careers with em-dashes and fake bodycam videos. 

Most importantly, it's a video game meant to make you think as much as curl the knot in your stomach. Inspired by the acclaimed FMV game, Her Story, as well as the aesthetics of Youtube series such as Local58 and The Mandela Catalogue, this game will allow you to not only uncover the greater mystery of the emergence of an ancient subterranean being called The Web and its digital army of NODEs, but also think about your complicity with corrupt systems and your responsibility to fight against them. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself--you're here to support a couple film students-turned-game developers take the first step in a much bigger project. In other words, you will be donating towards the filming portion of a game demo (because game development is already expensive enough) and be a part of a much grander journey. 

Who Are Hell Are You People?

Seth Saunooke (Writer/Producer) - A graduate student at LMU who is beginning his Warhammer addiction and loves movies that make you sad, music that makes you mad, and games that make you say "hell yeah."

David Rojas-Tellez (Writer, Creative Lead)

Josh Whiteaker (Director)

Why the Hell Would You Do This To Yourself?

I think our Creative Lead, David, sums it up the best:

"I couldn’t help myself. When one of my best friends asked me if I wanted to make an analog horror FMV game, I couldn’t help myself. Yeah. Of course. Fuck yeah. I’m so fucking down. I heard the horn as I’ve heard it many times before, beckoning somewhere off into the distance, so I went. Marching orders. Some call it intuition, some call it fate. I try not to question it. I know there’s something at the end of that rainbow-- there’s definitely something, it probably isn’t a pot of gold, but it’s definitely something. It couldn’t be nothing. That’s impossible. Everything is something. 

If you really need to know, at the end of the long march is an equally long metaphor. It’s a metaphor titled Black Box and as any good lie, Black Box promises the truth. When you put this much time and energy into a fantasy, you want to make sure you’re taking the mic and spitting as loud and far and sharp as you’d ever hoped for, voice cracks and stutters and all, because fuck it-- it’s not every day you get to do karaoke while there’s this much to say about the State of the Union. Can’t you smell it? There’s Something in the air. Wireless. I smell it in the kitchen, on the road at rush hour and the spaces in between. Control. I can’t help it; the particles keep pouring in, peppering holes into my lungs and nerves. Looking. I breathe a little less every day. All I can do is point my finger.

I could’ve been an astronaut. A reincarnation of Buddha. I should’ve been a lawyer. Instead, I’m begging strangers on the internet for money. Skip the Starbucks today and put those bucks to better use. Limited time offer. Buy one get none. Art. It’s worthless until it isn’t. Suddenly, you understand a mother’s love and the tyrant’s wrath and standing around on this rock makes just that little bit more sense when you realize the centuries old poem was written for you, even if the poet didn’t remember your name. Who’s to say Black Box will even be remembered in a decade outside the team’s memories. Let it live. It’s all we’re trying to do."

Well, he's the creative lead for a reason.