Kill Screen Archives: Richard Clark

The story of the man behind the Doonesbury Election Game

Randy Chase spent years building sophisticated political simulations. Then he took on a truly partisan project.

Oct 2 Articles

The Whatever Gaze

The CGI softcore and coquetry of Lollipop Chainsaw is not supposed to be taken seriously. But are the game’s aggressive sexual politics culpable of its rather serious presumptions of gender? Sorry, it’s not sorry.

Jul 12 Reviews

Blessed Are the Geek

While much of modern gaming revolves around success or achievement in its various forms, Rich Clark argues that a clearer vision of what games could be comes from the well-known Beatitudes, preached in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. After a week of grasping hell, Clark offers a differing view of heaven.

May 17 Essays

Putting Our Best Brain Forward

The way to get us to jog, apparently, is to say that zombies are coming. In Zombies, Run!, an alternate-reality game about health and fitness, Richard Clark sees a more universal experience of being convinced and feeling something real.

Apr 10 Reviews

Fight! Ow, Stop!

Where do we draw the line between reality and fantasy? Richard Clark argues it's where the first punch connects with his face.

Mar 22 Reviews

Can Martian Plants Teach Us How to Wait in Line?

Waking Mars, an iPhone game about researching and growing life on Mars, has lessons in patience and persistence for the earthbound.

Mar 9 Reviews

Andreas Illiger

The creator of the acclaimed Tiny Wings speaks to Richard Clark about his philsophy, life after Tiny Wings, and what it was like to finally fly.

Jan 11 Interviews One Up

Review: To the Moon

An interactive story about a dying man's wish can barely be interacted with. For Richard Clark it's an intimate reckoning with the past and present of his father's life.

Dec 22 Reviews

Review: Epoch

A game where robots shoot robots is an unlkely site of humanity. Richard Clark explains why Epoch's contradiction is a successful, and soulful, one.

Dec 7 Reviews

Review: Leedmees

This game about leadership uses Kinect to project your body as a giant stick figure onto the screen. According to Richard Clark, in doing so it creates a rift between your power as a player and the value of a tiny blip's life.

Nov 23 Reviews

Killing the Turtle

We talk to Jennifer Estaris, a designer of alternate reality games and children's games, about trying to retrieve a sense of childhood and what she learned from Nickoledeon.

Nov 15 Essays

Review: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

For Richard Clark, Uncharted 3's player-character Drake is so close, yet so far.

Nov 8 Reviews

Review: Rage

The creators of Doom and Quake make a case for their roots in their modern-day Rage. For Richard Clark, it cleanses the palate and the mind.

Nov 4 Reviews

Review: Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 doesn't stay true to actual war, and that's a blessing. Richard Clark writes on all the good feelings of videogame war.

Nov 2 Reviews

One Up: Brian Provinciano

In this new series, we talk to up-and-coming independent game designers about their creative and professional rituals and routines. Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage, tells us about quitting his day job to sign more contracts than he ever imagined.

Oct 21 Interviews One Up

Review: Burnout CRASH!

What happens when you take the best part of a racing game and make it the entire game?

Sep 27 Reviews

Review: Quarrel

Richard Clark on the humanity of a war game played with words, and the inhumanity of computers carrying dictionaries.

Sep 13 Reviews

Review: Jetpack Joyride

Why the sublimely absurd Jetpack Joyride is a step forward for endless runners. Bonus: what Richard Clark does before bed.

Sep 7 Reviews

Review: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

The new action game from Devil May Cry and Ōkami artist Takeyasu Sawaki takes the Book of Enoch as inspiration. But it takes a fresh stance on the influence of God, the hero's motivations, and the source of salvation. Richard Clark digs into El Shaddai.

Aug 16 Reviews