Violent Delight

There was this game I used to play... It's gone now. I remember you were in a factory and you were asking, you wanted to know what we were making and I told you not to worry, did you know I always regret that moment? But it was just a dream, just a game we were playing. Do you remember that video? It was the first time it expanded my possibilities of what it could mean to die, that it wasn't just the end or a sad illness or justice for what you did to me but it could be funny too. Both kinds of funny, like it didn't make any sense and that's why it was funny... But I'm sure it meant something to whoever's up there, or at least that's what we have to believe. That's what I'm seeing. Fairly random acts of violence on my computer screen. Life is always happening elsewhere in dead pixels. I found out that he didn't make it on a screen. I found out what happened to her on a screen. Watch people die on a screen. That's where we get our trauma when we can't get it at home. It didn't hurt until I found out about it. So maybe I shouldn't have played that game, or maybe I should have played it forever, the game of suspension, the game of withholding... It was all just pixels suspended in fluid. It's all going away now, it's all going to be clean. When your grandma or your friend or your lover passes you'll just know they've gone to a farm somewhere, and then you can have a conversation with them for the rest of your life. We'll all be each other's imaginary friends, and maybe none of us will be real, but at least we were here.

Originally screened at IFComp 2025. Formerly banned by UK government. Released updated & uncut for you to take home.

Winner of Outstanding Decker Game of 2025 and joint winner of Outstanding Use of Interactivity and Outstanding Multimedia Experience at the IFDB Awards.

Content warning: disturbing cartoonish imagery, unreal gory description, violence against children

Thanks to Naarel for the spiffy screenshots you see on the right.