Ben disappeared somewhere into the pitch darkness of the Old World. A few transmitter Gather to investigate the monster-filled caves and corridors, only to discover their friend is missing. “Is Ben dead?” one person wondered aloud, right before another person noticed him with a relieved voice. “I’m not kidding, it take it me,” Ben started to say. “It took me a mile underground.” One of his companions interrupted: “Wait, wait, shut up, shut up, shut up! Tell that story on camera now.”
“Oh, okay,” Ben replied, getting into position. Someone shined a flashlight at him. The light shines on a gelatinous monster behind him. It pulled him away, again, before he could finish his sentence. Luckily, this time his kidnapping was all caught on video and content creator videogamedunkey has a high transmission potential in his hand—even in the game, content warningand on his real-life YouTube channel.
In the week since its release, content warning—a co-op horror game about trying to film monsters (and survive) to get views on a fake YouTube—has been a huge success for developer Landfall Games. During the first 24 hours after it attacks Steam, more than 6 million players downloaded it.
Built by a small team of five developers in just six weeks, content warning has quickly become gaming’s latest trending topic by bringing together the very players games are for: game streamers who want to go viral and fans who love to watch them. A perfect meta commentary on how much some influencers will win. Across YouTube and jerkwhere game fans appear the most, people just know what to do: film, film, film.
The team behind ABOVE content warning they felt there was something special the first time they recorded a video of their expedition and watched it together. “It was immediately fun,” says developer Zorro Svärdendahl. It’s not that they did anything special – in fact, they mostly filmed each other hanging out behind the trees and playing peek-a-boo – but the bones are still there. They just need to make the game’s video more attractive.
In the game, players have three days to record footage good enough to increase their online views, but every time they enter the game’s Old World, they take a risk. Monsters tend to appear suddenly from the darkness, sometimes accompanied by shrill screams.
A finished video that the surviving team members gather to watch at the end usually has a section Blair Witch-ian noticed the quality of the footage there—shaky shots taken while running, lots of screaming, and most of all people shouting things like “put this on film.” The game’s goofy aesthetic lends itself to SpookTubers, who have a similar appearance inflatable waving arms and the faces that players create by typing emojis, make the whole game more interesting.
content warning is part of a longstanding tradition for Landfall Games, which releases a small, silly game every year on April Fools’ Day. One year, it was “horse drifting-romantic-road-battle”; for others, it’s a parody of battle royale. This year’s title is about the many players who have seamlessly adapted to become influencers. There’s a huge social element at work, where people role-play with their friends in games. Sometimes it’s the YouTuber type. Sometimes it’s like one news reporter try to make one very chaotic interview. People become creative.
