A single-sitting journey that’ll stick with you

I want to tell you all aboutHow Fish Is Made, a weirdly tense narrative-horror-flopping-sim-adventure gamethat’s free on Steam(anditch.io) and can be cleared in 15 to 20 minutes without breaking a sweat — but at the same time, the less said, the better.

Do these screenshots conjure anything inside you? Are you down to clown as “a sardine in a machine”? Is the trypophobia warning on the store page a deal-breaker?

How Fish Is Made game screenshot

If you’re game,How Fish Is Madeis worth a look — it’s tense and strange. It’s should click with you if you’re open to the surreal (in gaming or otherwise), are okay with video games that aren’t meant to be “fun” or mechanically “challenging” (so long as they have a point), and aren’t too stressed out by (very effective) atmospheric sound design. Again, you’re playing as a sardine in a wretched machine — it’s not a pleasant experience!

There’s one standout moment with a certain unsettling real-world creature I won’t spoil that’s just so wonderfully out-there. I won’t soon forget it! And I also like the way the game gnaws away at you. In the end, you’ll make a choice, but will it be the right one?

How Fish Is Made is full of scaly NPCs to chat up

How Fish Is Madewas a collaboration betweenJohanna Kasurinen,Jeffrey Tomec, andMartin Halldin“as part of theFutureGameseducation in Sweden.”

A big chunk of thefree releaseson Steam aren’t as interesting as their thumbnails might suggest.How Fish IsMadesure is though. It even got acoveted Kojima thumbs-up.

The ultimate choice: up or down?

[Nice find,hlarge4]

Article image

Article image

Article image

Article image

Emio’s cover

Bureau of Contacts: a hand holds an EMF reader in a kitchen while a skeletal ghosts stares at a wall.

Willem Dafoe in Nosferatu