Anthology of the Killer

I mentioned a free computer game called Space Funeral in a previous post about ten years ago. The creator of that game, thecatamites, has since released several other creations that are worth a look, such as 10 Beautiful Postcards.

But what I wanted to focus on here is something new, a series of eight horror-themed freeware games that are collectively titled Anthology of the Killer.

Although they are horror games, the style is cartoonish and the games are not particularly scary or disturbing. What violence there is is mostly implied. There’s a nice, unsettling atmosphere at times but even that is tempered by the playful writing (which includes occasional strong language).

These are all short games, each of which can easily be played in one sitting. You follow the same protagonist through them all, but it doesn’t really matter what order you play them. I’d recommend the whole series, but I think my favorites are Blood, Drool, and Ears of the Killer. Hands and Heart are up there as well.

The individual download links are on the itch.io page but I’ll also include them here:

Finally, if you like the music from these games you can also get the soundtrack for free.

 

Witch House Music Revisited

About ten years ago, I created an entry in this Web log about “witch house” music. Since then, I’ve discovered a lot more things that fall in that category. I guess it’s become one of my favorite genres, though I’m still not sure exactly how to define it.

The following are a few things I’d recommend to someone curious about this type of music.

New COME

Lovedied

Some witch house music combines modified versions of existing songs from various genres with additional layers. Lovedied is a good example of this. Unfrotauntely, this Australian artist took his life not long before I stumbled upon his music.


Here’s another example of that approach by another musician, using a Ladytron song. (The original song is good, too. As is most everything by Ladytron.)

∆AIMON


GL▲SS †33†H

DVЯK SE▲

(Dark Sea)

калигари


SPIDER▲WEBS

Conspiracy Foundation

My favorite tracks by this artist are the comparatively long ones.

§ (Silver Strain)


I could go on listing musicians, but I’ll just end with a few selections from a series of compilations on the МYТАНТФАНK (Mutantfunk) record label. Some of these compilations are free and each of them includes a generous number of tracks.





The image at the top of this entry is an image that I generated using Midjourney. (I also got some nice haunted houses from that prompt.)

 

AI Image Generators

I like to see examples of using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to create images. This Person Does Not Exist, for example, features realistic AI-generated human faces. And Janelle Shane’s “AI Weirdness” Web log is consistently entertaining.

The more powerful systems are not available to the public, though as of this writing I’m on a waiting list for one that I’d love to try (DALL·E 2).

But there are more limited applications that can be used by anyone, and they get better all the time. Here are a few of those. For each, I’ve included examples of things that I’ve entered when I tried them.


Pix2Pix

This application enhances line drawings. However, I think it’s no longer available because it became too popular for the host to afford.



This one produces abstract images based on text prompts. For example:

“a monster coming through your bedroom wall at night”


“a man robbing a candy store”


“who actually greets you when you get to heaven”

This one produces slightly less abstract images. For example:

“a shopping mall flooded with oatmeal”


“fish swimming in cheese dip”


“the most beautiful skeletons travel”


This is a limited version of DALL·E. It also uses text prompts and I find it impressive. For example:

“Robocop fights Ed-209 in a Hieronymus Bosch painting”

“Katamari Damacy as a Katsushika Hokusai woodblock print”

“Katamari Damacy as a Junji Ito drawing”

“Katamari Damacy as a Roger Dean painting”

“Dark Souls birthday party”

“Silent Hill water slide”

“The Exorcist Saturday morning cartoon”