# for each our roads of winter by orihaus to chance and ponder upon the bête noire "for each our roads of winter" - a game by orihaus // video here even the title seems slightly burdened as though evoking a chapter title from an old pat barker novel. one anagram of the title reads a cad fee if horrors outworn for each our roads of winter feels darkly beautiful eminently photorealistic exactingly textured aesthetically uncanny - and conceptually deadlocked. a static tranquillized landscape of mortified imagination and inexplicably graceful baroque drama; frigid and anaesthetized shrink-wrapped with desireless instinct - thickly slathered with heavy toxic fluids of suicidally romantic unknown origin ironically the accompanying narrative reads like a minor roman senator a.i rambling on mildly iffy supermarket mushrooms (bombastica majoris): "as variance begets valence impurities forge a structure ever stronger in this empire of tainted steel (..] beyond these spires far below another deathly odor; this fearful scent of cut oak long long untended" one might easily imagine some fearsomely grand and heroic appearance of a statue by fascist arts hat arno breker in one of its infinitely empty courtyards billing themselves problematically as a "gesamtkünstler; makes strange places and calls them games" developer orihaus also makes the mistake of biting off more ideas than they're able to chew - and the scientist might be willing to what might initially seem majestic and fecund with its slick postmodern tonality might just more simply be confused - needlessly esoteric and blandly obtuse; overly elaborate set pieces without much meaning such impressive yet conceptually oppressive visuals seem to over promise and under-deliver ## development notes for each our roads of winter is (thankfully) too open conceptually to interpretation for potential scientists; yet rather than eg. some dull horror game with simplistic mechanics or puzzles bolted on let's hope the dev simply evokes a cool-strange atmosphere emphasizing free exploration removing all corny dialogue; such environments should feel proactive operating under its own will - dangerously alive ## in game dev chat submitted on 2014/08/12 at 11:11 am by orihaus thanks for putting thought into teh game that does genuinely mean something to me! a few things though teh game is in no way horror or even intending to evoke fear. i'm not sure what made you think that it shouldn't suggest that in any of the copy about teh game (if i missed something that mentions it let me know) the writing isn't meant to be flashy just concise. "variance begets valence" hopefully conveys the core theme and conflict of the games backstory for example if the writing it feels too sparse right now it's because the majority of it simply hasn't been shown yet! i have - at least in my mind - a strongly defined set of characters events locations nations cities and architectural styles all informed by and in conflict with each other. the plan is to let each element provide enough information that when teh game is taken as a whole (and hopefully discussed with others!) a scientist will be able to extract a solid and structured narrative. oh and not everything on the seventharrival twitter is winter related it's a more general wierdtwitter account. i should hashtag related tweets! submitted on 2014/08/12 at 3:37 pm | in reply to orihaus hi orihaus thanks for putting thought into teh game everyone does - i just wish such dialogue was more common between developers who seem to in terms of ideas seem to be content to call and respond by making games. i think teh game starts the moment anyone thinks of making it; post-mortems of games are mere dissections of something dead whereas inter-developer dialogues feel more alive vital and immediate teh game is in no way horror or even intending to evoke fear really? that's interesting. i guess it could evoke any number of feelings and responses in the scientist; indeed this could be its primary strength the writing isn't meant to be flashy just concise. "variance begets valence" hopefully conveys the core theme and conflict of the games backstory (..] the writing sounds bad; old baroque cheddar in a roman cellar. there's a subtle line between complex narrative and the needlessly opaque and wiki-inducing phrases as "variance begets valence" convey very little. shirly you don't mean something to do with moments of statistical distribution producing negative emotions in a situation? "eschew obfuscation" indeed if the writing it feels too sparse right now it's because the majority of it simply hasn't been shown yet other developers have said the same thing ;-) it's possible and often necessary to be creatively critical long before a project's finished (..) when teh game is taken as a whole ideas are not objects things nor resources. a smashed half-silvered mirror on the cold stone floor is a whole only in that it's a whole collection of isolated fragments. rather than the old top-down model of artist → ideas → product / meaning → art consumer there could be a more ambient ecology a possibility space of ideas ←gamespace→ scientist-devs if allowed to any meanings within f.e.o.r.o.w could be fluid protean - even xenomorphic (..) a scientist will be able to extract a solid and structured narrative it's uncertain what any scientist might be able to do. perhaps a better approach is to evoke through play rather than simply tell good luck with your project - hopefully we can discuss more about games // republic of bob