Technological limits as a creative strength with surreal '90s AI simulator Strange Aeons

gamedeveloper.com:

In Strange Aeons, a cult has summoned you from digital hell. To complete your escape, you'll need to converse with a surreal AI in a world born of early '90s CGI.

Game Developer caught up with Karolis Dikcius, creator of this unsettling experience, to talk about the creative choice to use older software in the game, how having to physically speak with the surreal being created a special connection with the player, and how a single puzzle from Grim Fandango was a major inspiration for the work's personalized, generated music.

What inspired the creation of Strange Aeons ? What drew you to create this conversational escape from hell?

I think it was a continuation of the game mechanics of my first two games, which were text adventures (Desert of Vice and Ladderhead). I feel very passionate about this sort of player-game interaction where the physical action of using the controls closely matches what happens on the screen.

In the case of the text adventures, the story is presented in typed text. So, having the player type words and actions makes for a very literary feeling experience where it seems as if the player is actually participating in weaving the story.

In Strange Aeons, I think this goes a step further. The game is almost entirely based around conversations, and it has you speak into the microphone (or type text, optionally). This is close to a 1:1 mapping of physical actions to digital actions in the game. I think this sort of direct mapping of interactions is a big part of the general appeal of VR gaming, too.

I got most of the idea during one short car ride. I thought about what I would want to make if I participated in a game jam. I thought it would be interesting to make a game where you would have to chat with