Apollo in the Crosshairs

HUGE PHOTO-SENSITIVITY WARNING. THIS GAME HAS LOTS OF FLASHING LIGHTS.

 

Congratulations on joining the Helios family!

We're so happy you're here.

You are joining a community of thousands working tirelessly to SCAN THE WORLD . We build the software that illuminates the globe. Our defense and intelligence teams keep our soldiers safe, and our skies, shores, and homes secure, while our consumer solutions wing provides data driven operations and intelligent products so that everyone, from teacher to President, may make the informed, swift decisions these extraordinary times so often demand. 

As a [AGGREGATOR CONTRACTOR] you are providing an essential role in helping us fulfill the tenants of our TRANSLUCENT REPUBLIC promise. A world of known unknowns, open and resplendent. We believe that information is power. If a soldier need a better rifle, we should build it, and if a nation has enemies, we should do whatever is necessary to find and understand them. To SCAN THE WORLD is to also understand the world. To understand the world, is to contain it. To contain the world, is to hold what we love most close. [AGGREGATOR CONTRACTOR] take pride in the work that we do here, as we at Helios build a brighter future for civilization as we know it, together. 

 Please read the instructions in your employee hand book carefully to ensure proper handling and maintenance of your SCANNER as employees are liable for any damage to company equipment.  Your wages will be garnished accordingly.

USING YOUR HELIOS 'PANOPTES' SCANNER

Left click - Scan target (hold it down, aggregation takes time!)

Right click - search for next target (you must search before scanning any target! this primes the server to receive the data)

WASD Keys - Move your eyes (not always needed)

ENTER KEY - Advance Dialogue 

if you see an orb, collect them. Find enough and something good might happen to you!
                                                                                                                                                 - Management  

TO SCAN THE WORLD IS TO LOVE THE WORLD! AGGREGATION IS EMBRACE.

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Credits + Afterword (read after playing!)

This game uses two tracks by Laraaji, 'All of a Sudden' and 'I can only bliss out f'days'.  The soundscape on the beach samples part of Ryuicihi Sakamoto's Ubi. Most audio is either courtesy of the intrepid folks of The Sounds Resource or Freesound.org.

I used a shit ton of gifs from gifcities.org and giphy. Several of the loops used for the player's portrait in the HUD were made by giphy users Altered States and Viratz. 

The phrase 'Much Lift, Must Fall!' is borrowed from S*an D. Henry-Smith's poem  'in & for voices', the opening piece in their new collection 'Paces the Cage'.

The background video in the captcha section is video from Palestine Action's brave action against Elbit System in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

+Afterword 

This game started as a way for me to blow off steam (re: procrastinate) in between larger projects. Since i'm still learning a lot of this stuff, I wanted to try making a shooting game but accidentally ended up making whatever this is instead. I love art. 

I had been listening to a lot of 404 Media pods about AI, reading books like Saidiya Hartman's 'Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments', Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren, and S*an D. Henry-Smith's Pace The Cage, and watching shit like the new Ghost In The Shell & Ngozi Onwurah's 'Welcome II The Terrordome. Killer7 (duh) was a huge influence, as well as Jack Clover's Cape Hideous, Flan Falacci's Titanic 2 ,Norman's Room's https://normans-room.itch.io/  Umurangi Generation & those conversations with Keanu Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077.

I think this LLM arms race is the natural end game for a society that has placed industrial progress and economic growth ahead pretty much everything else on the planet. More than just creating bad/vapid art, I worry what these machines are doing to our hearts, souls and the air we breathe. I've seen people call each other some of the foulest names on the planet over images that someone conjured up with a string of words typed into their computer. I've seen a girl's school blown apart, with the children in it, because an algorithm willed it so. I've seen so many around me lovingly embrace the cop in their heart, turn cameras on strangers in promise of clicks, and bring carceral logics into their homes and relationships.

Earlier this year I started a garden on my balcony in honor of a friend who passed in the Spring. It became my favorite place in the city, and a place where I could calm my overactive nervous system. There was a few days span this summer where the AQI was so bad, just spending a few moments outside could burn your lungs, and singe your eyes. I missed my balcony so much in those days, and it made me realize what a privileged it is to not have to worry about if the air you breathe would harm you. 

I worked really hard to make this game. There are things that work, and things that don't. I can't draw really well either, but I tried, and I had so much fun making it. The idea that we should be able to make whatever we want to, no matter the limitations of the hand, to me, feels like a fascist impulse. I like struggling to create things. Wouldn't have it any other way. 

Anyway, thank you for playing, I hope you like it!!