Today’s game is something a little more unique. I saw someone online (Sagan Hawkes for anyone curious) write a video essay on some games made by a developer called Kitty Horrorshow. I paused it before finishing it though and went through some of the games. Namely one called Haunted Cities.

The time I spent in these were brief. Really brief. And I don’t think I got to explore all of them. For one of them though I got really insightful in thinking about it. I did the worst thing possible though and went and played Halo with friends which threw off my whole train of thought (it’s on me. I should have taken notes). I’m still going to try and piece together what I remember though.

The game (pardon the poor screenshot), called Leechbowl, gave me some mixed themes. I could not decide if it was more a commentary on how society views women or as capitalism as a whole. There’s a lot of themes of parasites and leeching blood to consume.

Initially my first assumption was the capitalism theme. After all, a perspective of it as a parasite making us “gorge” ourselves on “blood” (the earth maybe?) to turn into Meat to feed the system or something else (This was supported to me by the various boxes labeled Leechmeat around the world).

The thing that made me consider how society views women though is a little more of a reach, but not much I think. There’s a lot of symbolism of taking the “mind” and “flesh” from people. These posters typically feature women on them.

Furthermore there’s a poster in the game where a woman looks on in envy at another one who appears to be more sexualized, with the woman claiming she is “Turgid” with blood.

That is really as far as my thought process got though before I got myself stuck in a fenced in area I do not believe I was supposed to be in. I’m sure there’s more to be found. There was a key for example I couldn’t locate where it goes. And this is all surface level speculation I fear. Perhaps I’m just thinking up something out of nothing.

What I like about these games is they’re creepy without trying too hard. There’s no supernatural enemy after you. No jumpscares. Just you and the environment experiencing some sort of peek into a world so surreal it’s hard to make sense of. It feels like peeking behind a curtain and seeing something that makes no sense but all the sense at the same time. That’s kind of just art I suppose though. We prescribe meaning that isn’t there to the things we experience. It’s a fascinating thing.

The final game i experienced was a little different. I admit I struggled navigating this one. The controls were different than the others but I also just couldn’t figure out what to do. I found a kitchen knife and an old lady whose tv I could turn off. Besides that though there wasn’t much. I wandered off to a graveyard in the distance and there a woman described how she knew which house was mine and she made a shawl from eyelids. I think there’s themes here I couldn’t pick up on due to missing context. Maybe not though. I’d love to hear what others think though about this. Maybe there’s something I’m missing.