the BlueSuburbia demo is now available on Steam!
🌘⭐👁

"Forgotten dreamscapes and open worlds are yours to explore as you venture on your quest to find hope in the darkness."

Click "Download Demo" on the Steam page 🎉

If you had trouble running the game on itch.io the Steam version may work better because Steam automatically installs certain redistributables necessary for Unreal games: DirectX End-User Runtimes, and June 2010 Visual C++ Redistributable 2022...

This is the first demo. I will be gradually building on it, and releasing new additions to it until the game is done.
The next part that will be coming is the open world area where you can explore poetry.

Both the Steam demo and the itch demo are the same, with more bug fixes to them... For example, in the "Heaven is Empty" level with the spider, many people didn't get the poem at the beginning of the level because it wasn't loading (not fast enough, too much lag), so I swapped that part with a classic 2D Bitsy poem (instead of the 3D).
I'm still learning how to include HTML games with Unreal...

The reception to this has been pleasant. I was worried that people wouldn't be able to play it (at all), but seeing that there are a couple streamers that finished it I think that it's generally stable.
I never timed it either. I'm surprised that it's about 30 minutes. That's a nice demo time!

Modern Horror Gaming did a playthrough (without commentary)...

There's also this adorable playthrough (with commentary) by Rin Plays Games.

and Indie Game Plus wrote a beautiful review of it

"BlueSuburbia takes you to a place that is filled with a lonely kind of menace – an oppressive fear that crushes you as it tells you that no one will come save you."
- ‘BlueSuburbia’ Stirs Up a Deep, Solitary Fear

 Indie Game Plus is a beautiful little oasis of an outlet that constantly writes about undiscovered or unknown indie game gems. I can't recommend them enough. If you don't know about them... do check them out. I find lots of indie gems because of them.

I've also been trying to wrangle up old writing about BlueSuburbia. The project has been around for over 20 years, and had a strong cult following way way way back.
I would regularly get emailed about it, even after the death of the Flash player... from people telling me how much it meant to them, how much it helped them through a hard time, if I will do anything about it now that Flash is dead and it's not accessible anymore?...
This is largely why I'm bringing it and all the old poetry back. I suppose if it meant that much to people I should try to revive it in a modern way.

I also think that the term "game" is big enough of a term where the existence of things like BlueSuburbia don't need to be justified anymore. I don't think I will get harassment and angry emails about it because you "have to read poetry??" in it... like I did so long ago. Things have changed to be more inclusive to experimental work. It goes without saying. So it just seems right to do this.

Seeing how people used to write about it in the older pieces that I did manage to find has been quite a trip down memory lane. For example, this Get Under Ground piece in which I was the featured Underground Poet way back in 2003...

"Distant flowers lead to intricate close-ups and secret passageways; rat traps swirl into demented poetic offerings. Don’t be surprised if you end up tripping on some sort of psychedelic whirling sculpture or marveling at the sickly detailed backgrounds. And the next poem is always a surprise, in composition, theme and presentation."
- Getunderground.com Underground Featured Poet

It's interesting to see these, and see how writing about stuff like this shifted. It wasn't uncommon for me to be featured in all sorts of places with this type of work that today we call "games". BlueSuburbia was featured in poetry magazines, net-art circles, interesting NSFW places like this one called "Sensible Erection"... a lot of varying outlets and online spaces lol.
Today, if you do get featured with this type of interactive work, it almost always comes exclusively from Video Game Outlets (specific to gaming)... if at all. The way games (art like this) is featured seems to have been relegated to the very specific video game niche. Even in mainstream outlets it will usually turn up under the "game" section... I think maybe, for this reason, back then it was easier for your work to be known to a larger audience because it wasn't just stuck inside the "game" bubble.
I don't really know what to do with that observation, but I think the way that dust settled is just interesting.

I'm not sure what the future for this type of work holds, but I've been at it for over 20 years now. I've seen things come and go. Important people with big platforms come and go. Online spaces come and go... What does stay is the art if the artist has enough tenacity to keep it relevant.

So here's to reviving this and keeping BlueSuburbia meaningful to people!

Check out the demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2431510/BlueSuburbia/