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    Paradigm Shell

    This screenshot from the game Paradigm Shell shows the roof of a building in a dense fog. In front, a yellow railing is broken open, leaving a gap for the player to balance across a beam to the other side.

    A prototype for an adventure game, 2019 - ongoing, with Jasper Meiners

    In Paradigm Shell, you explore an abandoned oil rig and untangle geometries and timelines dreamed up by a material that fuels capitalism: petroleum. You are the only person left behind after the militarily cleared a rig that was occupied by your guerrilla research group. Soon you realize that puddles of crude oil change their shape, glitch between times and mirror the rig's architecture. To leave the oil rig, you have to cooperate with this mutating material and face petrochemical dreamscapes.

    An in-game screenshot shows the rig’s radar station. Old machinery and screens are distributed across desks, and soft light falls into the small room from a ceiling window. The walls, ceiling, and floor are covered by a dark, shimmering layer of petroleum. A few glowing objects float through the image as though not held by gravity – an ashtray, a comb, a toothbrush and a small box. Hind them, the outlines of a doorway can be made out.