Ben disappeared somewhere in the pitch darkness of the Old World. A handful of streamers gathered to investigate his monster-filled caverns and hallways, only to discover that his friend had disappeared. “Did Ben die?” one wondered aloud, just before another saw it with relief in his voice. “I’m not even kidding, took me,” Ben begins to say. “It took me a mile underground.” One of his companions interrupts: “Wait-wait, shut up, shut up, shut up! Tell that story on camera now.”
“Oh, okay, okay,” Ben responds, getting into position. Someone shines a flashlight on him. The light hits a gelatinous monster behind him. He pushes him away again, before he can finish his sentence. Luckily, this time his kidnapping is caught on camera and content creator videogamedunkey has a potential viral impact in your hands, both in the game, Content warningand on his real-life YouTube channel.
In the week since its launch, Content warning—a cooperative horror game about trying to film monsters (and survive) to get views on a fake YouTube—has been a big hit for developer Landfall Games. In the first 24 hours after arriving on Steam, more than 6 million The players downloaded it.
Created by a small team of five developers in just six weeks, Content warning has quickly become the latest trending topic in gaming by mocking the very gamers it was created for: game streamers looking to go viral and fans who love watching them. A perfect meta commentary on how far some influencers will go to win. On YouTube and Twitch, where fans of the game are most visible, everyone knew what to do: film, film, film.
The team behind in Content warning They felt like they had something special the first time they recorded a video of their expedition and watched it together. “It was instantly hilarious,” says developer Zorro Svärdendahl. It’s not that they had done anything special; in fact, they had mostly filmed themselves walking behind trees and playing hide-and-seek, but the bones were there. They just had to make the gameplay videos more impactful.
In the game, players have three days to capture footage good enough to rack up online views, but every time they enter the game’s Old World they are at risk. Monsters tend to appear suddenly in the dark, sometimes with discordant screams.
A finished video, which the surviving team members gather to watch at the end, usually has a Blair’s wich-ian found quality footage: shaky shots taken while running, lots of screaming, and most of all, people barking things like “record this.” The game’s ridiculous aesthetic for its SpookTubers, who have figures similar to inflatable waving arm and the faces that players create by writing emoticons, makes everything even more entertaining.
Content warning It’s part of a long tradition at Landfall Games, which releases a silly little game every year on April Fool’s Day. One year, it was a “road trip, romance, horse drifting battle royale”; On the other hand, it was a parody of the real battle. This year’s title is about the many players who have perfectly adapted to being influencers. There is a huge social element at work, where people role-play with their friends in the game. Sometimes he’s the YouTuber type. Sometimes it’s like a news reporter trying to make a very tumultuous interview. People get creative.