#Hypnospace outlaws how to#
So how to help players get around? Tholen tells me that the first, and most obvious, thing to do was to create a homepage directory. But for Jay Tholen, the creative lead behind Hypnospace Outlaw, it’s critical that this internet feels real and fun to read.
In other words, you surf an artificial internet where clues to finding the things you need could be anywhere. As the maker of a walled garden of websites called Hypnospace, MerchantSoft imposes a lot of terms and conditions on its users, and you’re one of its enforcers, policing its rules, from content infringement to profane activity. It’s 1999, the cusp of Y2K, and you work for a software corporation called MerchantSoft. How did did the three-strong team behind Hypnospace Outlaw make something so playable out of something so chaotic? The answer lay in looking at how the early internet worked. It’s funny, bizarre, poignant, and sometimes dumb, just like the early internet that it spoofs.īut it’s also a game, so its wild thickets of pages, all written by distinct personalities, are also navigable and carefully laced with puzzles to figure out. Hypnospace Outlaw is a game about surfing a fictional 1999 internet, a web of GeoCities-like pages made by a community of weirdo artists, rock stars, scammers, edgy teens, pastors, hackers and spiritualists.
This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they’ve taken to make their games.
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