As gripping as a novel, as atmospheric as a video game. It's a unique balance that Argentinian developer duo Fer Martínez Ruppel and Nico Saraintaris of LCB Game Studio aims to strike through its interactive novel series, Pixel Pulps. "Being on the margin validates us", LCB says. "When we created the Pixel Pulps, one of our goals was to create a new genre, to stand at a specific point in time and not just imagine an alternative line of development, but to create it."
This "new genre" in question occupies the curious space between horror game and horror novel. As someone with a keen interest in the evolution of horror games leading up to and including the current horror game renaissance, the concept of a brand new subgenre piques my interest immediately. "Our games are not first-person – they require a lot of reading, they don't have incentives for endless play sessions, and yet, streamers from all over the world play them and share them in something that feels more like a group read than a playthrough," says LCB.
