Should Ian Curtis‘ most infamous post-punk epitaph, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” not wrestle out the catharsis you’re looking for, a Copenhagen-based designer Gordon Calleja took to bending the narrative of the 1980 Joy Division gem verse-by-verse in a game he’s calling, Will Love Tear Us Apart? Though he and his design team, Mighty Box Games, are a little late to the games-based-on-songs party, what with Pitchfork cornering the new art-intensive frontier with Soundplay, Calleja’s created something special here just the same.
Wrought with a set of sinewy, black and white characters molded from the iconic Unknown Pleasures wave graphic, it’s a harrowing 3D choose-your-own-adventure world built from both the love of the song and the death of a relationship. Or rather in the words of the developers – a journey that “encourages players to reflect on the darker side of love: mis-communication, emotional impasse and the sadness of separation.” By the time we failed to unite two lovers in a beam of light maze and were prompted with an ominous lyric-bent declaration that “It’s not a flaw in timing/One is always left behind,” we couldn’t help but think Curtis would approve. What do you think of the game and what other songs deserve a similar homage?
Why is the bedroom so cold?
You’ve turned away on your side
Is my timing that flawed?
Our respect runs so dry
Yet there’s still this appeal
That we’ve kept through our lives
