Ghostly Bartending In Summon The Apgrod
By one of the Glitchhikers lot
You may have mixed cocktails for dogs, but have you served spirits to spirits?
Summon The Apgrod puts us behind a bar serving ghosts in a strange night club. You'll eyeball proportions of spectral fluids to mix and meet their orders, which may or may not be contributing to the summoning of The Apgrod, whatever that is. It's the second game in the East Van EP [official site], a collection by ceMelusine of Glitchhikers makers Silverstring, and it's out now. I like it.
It sounds and and look beautiful, between music by Dissonant Descendant and ceMelusine's hard-edged untextured style and ace use of colour. Sound effects like pouring drinks and spinning your serving tray are lovely little musical things too.
The club's an eerie place, and slowly filling with cute and thirsty ghosts. Drinks are mixed from three spooky bottles - with suspended items like a heart or planet to add flavour, and pouring out little ghosts - and eyeballed to demand. (I've always been fond of this method as eyeballing bartenders seem to serve me a pint of straight spirits, but it turns out to be tricky for exact mixes.) They come and go, burbling orders and alchemical equations.
Then the curtains open and the show begins with what I believe is a procedural song/summoning ritual. It's surreal, gently challenging, and pleasantly mysterious.
The whole East Van EP will cost you $6 (£4) on Itch.io, which will also include the final two short games once they're done. The first, Oracle, was an eerie, calming thing about procedural visions.
I had been making a video but gosh I just sound so weary, so here's the trailer instead:
