Crestfallen Studios

http://insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4702205,00.html

WTF?? A Columbine game?? I'm sure there have been worse things to come out, but ... wow ...

Plus, it looks like RM2K was used to make it.

Read the Q&A with the creator too:
http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/freePlay/2006/05/qa_creator_of_super_columbine.html#more

Did you even read the articles? I actually highly recommend playing this game. It seems a bit goofy at times, and it certainly isn't a misao winner in any respect, but the game really is this bizzarely introspective look into the minds of Eric and Dylan. When I finished the "school" portion, some of the narration, and the montages afterwords really struck me in a way that I don't think I videogame ever has.

EDIT: Read this one, too.

I read them - the creator sounds very intelligent and articulates his intentions very well. That's kinda what intrigues me, he actually is not going for some random shoot-em-up. I was still sort of WTF after I read them, but it's good that he's going for something a bit deeper. Plus he used RM2K. Don't think it's a terrible thing, just wanted to bring it up for discussion, really.

Have you played it, Jera?

Holstein actually posted a topic about it in the gaming forum a little under a year ago (maybe? I can't find it anymore). And yeah, I've played it.

I like what the creator said about "...how possible it is to escape from the polarized, dualistic thinking the Columbine shooting seems to illicit in most people.". After I played this game I did weeks worth of research on Columbine. It's downright interesting stuff, especially because the stimulus for a school shooting like that haven't changed, 7 years after it happened. To pull out some knee-jerking emotional response (ie this game is horrible, it glorifies killing, etc) is so unbelievably shallow. Yes, there are games which have "clever social commentary" like Half Life 2, Beyond Good and Evil, but it's refreshing to see someone who has the stones to make a game based on a real taboo, and have it be just that introspective. I think school shootings are horrible and a downright bad idea, but if you open your mind, you can almost grasp the psychological limbo Eric and Dylan seemed to have lived in.

I've gotten the game and intend to play it through.

I've made a post on their "thoughts about the game" discussion board, hopefulyl I wont get killed.

The game was too easy, until the part where you went to hell and had to play DOOM to get back to life or something. I don't know, it's been a long time since I've played it.

EmperorJeramyu wrote:Holstein actually posted a topic about it in the gaming forum a little under a year ago (maybe? I can't find it anymore).

I didn't realize that. I just saw a news story about it yesterday so I thought I'd bring it up. I knew it had been out for a while but I didn't know it had been brought up around here already.

EmperorJeramyu wrote: I think school shootings are horrible and a downright bad idea, but if you open your mind, you can almost grasp the psychological limbo Eric and Dylan seemed to have lived in.

I can definitely agree with you on this. I know high school was hell for me, and it can be extremely tough on fragile young psyches. How they ended up dealing with it is terrible, but if you can understand what was going through their heads it makes it an easier task to avoid it yourself and hopefully fix the pressures that may have lent cause to it in the first place.

And the creator's absolutely right when he says that 16-bit pixels aren't going to inspire anyone to do the same.