This list contains my favorite pieces of new-media art that explore nostalgia, genre, identity, and/or emotion in engaging or inspirational ways. You can expect pieces that explore the boundaries of digital medium and play with scenes and moods through an often retro aesthetic.
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A story about God and the Devil and three kids trapped between them. This visual novel utilizes realistic dialogue, a haunting soundtrack, and mixed media visuals to convey deep, dark emotions that are difficult to give names to.
A comic with a beautiful story about worship and worshipers with an eye-catching style that makes ms.paint art jaw dropping and has excellent use of the act of scrolling that sets digital media apart from analogue media.
Though it's just the demo so far, this turn based RPG both pays homage to its roots and expands upon the expected genre tropes and gameplay. The added focus on identity and illness as well as the striking "HD 1-bit" aesthetic solidifies this as an instant classic.
A collection of thematically connected vignettes about mental illness that uses cultural understandings of nostalgia as a setting to deconstruct our societal nostalgia for the 90s.
Combination of minimalist language and minimalist art to experience just what that Plato guy was talking about in his dang cave.
Much more interesting than actually reading Plato, for the record.
A modern distortion of the gothic novel genre that makes use of every available feature of Twine to tell a truly multi-media ghost story about tarot and queerness. This interactive fiction discusses the interplay between the internal and external features that build the walls of our own prisons through a postmodern narrative structure.
Don't miss the sequel, The House of God, which continues the story and expands on the metaphor, while making unique use of Bitsy's features.
Explore a train, a castle, an apocalypse, the deep ocean, and more with gorgeous art and poetic dialogue.
This is the first of a series of "contemplations" created in Bitsy. Be sure to check them all out for the full experience.
It's like Harvest Moon, but with more existential dread.
A framed narrative - in more ways than just one - touching on the ways that time changes things we loved when we were younger.
A lo-fi dream caught on VHS. This experimental collection of vignettes deconstructs what it means to play a video game. Instead of plot or characters, the audience interacts directly with feelings and imagery in ways that cannot be found in other media.
Part walking simulator, part visual novel, all surrealism. Through the lens of old Macintosh-style operating system for that retro flair.
A cyberpunk romance exploring the relationships between queerness, technology, divinity, and power. The use of line and page/stanza breaks down the expected barriers between prose and poetry, challenging the digital future of both mediums.
