sprite_country / well we made it this far...
sprite_country newsletter_1.txt
(ambience)
One
First there was water and the ghosts flowed like droplets down uninvented window panes, their laughter playing among the thunder and bones of small animals. It was a simple time, when haunting was normal and mischief was mundane.
Then came the cities, their square legs reaching into the skies, voodoo witches swatting each zeppelin away like giant, fat flies. Old energies were captured, squeezed, turned into new energies until the clouds came. We caught glimpses of the old demons down alleys, but never for one moment did we imagine that the most dangerous were the new ones, hiding between us and our angled shadows, lurking under our luxurious coats.
But the cities were too small and we outgrew their tiny rooms filled with neon. The blood of the minotaur, running beneath and within the streets, pulsated with hunger until it burst and spilled and twisted out of the grip of its own arteries. Distilled, it turned the corners of buildings and the curls of tree roots into something else - prototypical echoes of themselves, mocking mirror images of what once were dreams.
Piskies fought battles with pixels. Selkies took selfies as they chased waves. Everything clashed as the maze - slowly, desparatly slowly - thickened itself around everything as if it were some insidious ivy.
Years passed.
Two
Welcome to the first Sprite Country newsletter. Grab some water and get cosy. There are tin whistles if you need.
In case you're wondering, Sprite Country is billed as a "labyrinthine gallery of gameworld photography". I love virtual worlds. I love wandering. I love photography and galleries. Think of SC as a personal journal, a stream to follow, and/or a world in itself.
Updates will be irregular and slow because hey, who doesn't have way too much content SHRIEKING AT THEM these days? You don't need more, it just stops you from exploring properly, right?
But I wanted a place to post a few more words. The gallery itself is meant to be a calmer space, a guided meditation working at a lower level of the brain. An exploration rather than an explanation.
So here we are. I'm aiming to post things like:
new trails
work in progress
requests for feedback and worlds to explore
At time of writing, Sprite Country has just four trails to follow, with The Norwood Suite trail being released just a few hours ago. Each time you go to the main page you'll get a random one to enter though.
Yes, it's all rather obscure. Yes, that's how mazes work. Over time, those starting points will get more diverse, but simultaneously it becomes harder to find any single trail. The joy of choice is also its downfall.
So I won't say too much about the trails. They're their own paths, after all. I've scattered a few of the shots from launch that I really like around this update though. Here's another one.
Three
There is a forest, and there is a path leading through the forest. Lamps flicker in the rain as they light the way towards some kind of heart. Whatever is hiding under the damp leaves is laughing softly - but at what?
And where next for all this tomfoolery?
There are some more trails in the pipeline, games from long ago that need sewing together. Suggestions for more gameworlds to wander are always welcome (within the understanding that they run on Linux (including Steam play), Mac, or the Switch).
There are some extra navigation bits I need to add to the site too - in particular, I want to be able to jump sideways between trails, bringing together certain themes into loops you can get even more lost in.
(Fun fact: the site's code is available although largely useless without the data templates. Yet to come.)
In the meantime, thanks for being here, and enjoy the journey.
Godspeed,
- Graham
spritecountry.exmosis.net
Twitter: @sprite_country