I remember huddling around my cousin's yellowing box computer, fighting for a glance at the screen, as the pirated copy of the claymation game began to load. It was like nothing I’d ever seen yet felt so familiar… something I’d now liken to the womb. The character in the game wakes up in a strange room with no recollection of who he is. The whole game is us trying to figure out his identity, with the aid of randomly scattered tapes that tell fragments of a larger story. The story itself is based on the biblical story of creation. The atmosphere of the game is both intriguing and unsettling… The internal spaces feel safe and calming whereas the open spaces are blanketed by a black sky as the whole world is “suspended above an endless void” (The Neverhood, 2009). There is uncertainty in the in-between spaces though in the world you are basically alone. 

 

Until revisiting the game recently I wasn't aware of the impact it had on me creatively… When I was studying architecture a lot of my buildings had a similar feel to the organic and skewed structures of the game. This is something I would like to incorporate into my paintings as I recreate these spaces from the past. The colour pallet is something I enjoy and have already unconsciously been using it. I think it’s important to reference this game in my work as I’m looking at these memories through the eyes of a child and she was obsessed with this game.