I appeared on another episode of the Moving Pixels Podcast to discuss the indie game Little Inferno. I don’t know what to really think of the game and spend most of my time trying to parse it out in real time with my fellow podcasters. It’s another game I’m very happy that it exists and I enjoyed my time with it, but I don’t know what to ultimately say about it in any final word sort of way. It feels like a lot of half-finished ideas and sentiments put together centering on the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace.
Does it have an environmentalist message? Is it anti-corporate? Is it critical of the tech culture where people sit around and stare at a entertainment machine all day? Not really to all three. It weaves in moments of lighthearted complexity regarding all those issues and never really stakes a claim on any of them. That’s not really a problem, but it muddies the waters on what I can say about it. Maybe sometimes it’s just fun to watch the world burn and it turns out not to be so bad after all.
What I love about this particular episode of the podcast is how much we use that mutli-themed ambiguity of the game a reason to go on numerous tangents related to everything and anything we can think of. It’s probably one of the more fascinating discussions I’ve had about a single video game title for being so free form.