Upcoming Philip K Dick-inspired game is appropriately bizarre

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Surreal and menacing, the best of PKD.
Surreal and menacing, the best of PKD.
Photo: Californium Game

Californium is an upcoming first-person game inspired by science fiction author Philip K. Dick. It seems to be about a writer who “slips” between different realities as his life falls apart.

It looks amazing, and more than a bit creepy. Check it out:

If you’ve any familiarity with Dick, you’ll know that most of his fiction — which has been made into movies like Total Recall, Through a Scanner Darkly, and Blade Runner — deals with the conflict between paranoid characters and the world around them, which may or may not confirm their darkest fears.

Californium is vividly illustrated by French artist Oliver Bonhomme, wh may be the perfect fit for this sort of surreal story about Elvin Green, a sentimental writer with not too many prospects. You become Green in the story, discovering a break up letter from your wife, an editor who fires you, and other such travails.

“Your brain perceives a signal,” writes the developer, “the Theta – which seems connected to your collapsing emotional state – shows that there could be a way out : this world is unstable, you can extract yourself from it and thus access another reality! You have nothing to lose!”

Even the diner looks scary.
Even the diner looks scary.
Photo: Californium Game

Sounds like the perfect PKD novel, for sure. The game is also part of a transmedia project, connected to a documentary called “The Worlds of Philip K. Dick.”

The game, co-produced by Darjeeling and Nova Production, should arrive on Steam in 2016.

Via: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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