The day-to-day life of an editor is often a lonely, mundane existence, sometimes interspersed with bursts of excitement as you try to keep the feeds alive until your colleagues return in the morning. However, Static time seeks to flip that scenario by asking you to decide what’s worth reporting in the middle of a crisis where you can’t trust the barrage of information coming in.
Set in a small town radio station in the 1980s, the challenge of Static time is to resolve the emergency while being confined to the newsroom and forced to rely solely on information sent from outside. Panic has set in, the government has declared a lockdown, and there are reports of violence between family members while you try to figure out which advice is real and which is not.
To do this, you’ll need to rely on your wits to monitor phones, radio, and the police scanner for information about the truth, or turn to the station’s limited collection of analog technology for more. And during all of this, you also have to follow FCC regulations while managing public reaction to the news, because everything you report will impact the city.
Now, as someone “in the industry,” it’s easy to be romantic about a game that highlights the challenges and successes of being a journalist. But at the same time, it seems Static time captured those vibes in a truly engaging way. The game evokes a mixture of Papers, please with shades of Twin Peaks or even Breakup to create a tense, haunting scenario that feels much bigger than the single room you’re limited to.
In the press release of Static time, Claire Sarmiento, founder and creative director of Barkbyte, said the inspiration behind the game was: “I loved the idea of scary things happening in a small town just out of sight, where the horrors are audio-driven and left to your imagination. relevant today as always.
Certainly, even though we only have the game’s trailer and a handful of screenshots so far, we definitely feel like Static time nailed this directive. And as someone born in the ’80s, the use of old-school gadgets like rotary phones and rolodexes, combined with the game’s muted color palette, also highlights its aesthetic.
Unfortunately, there is no concrete release date for Static Hour yet, but it will be available on PC via Steam.
