I first saw Linger in Shadows on the Playstation Store Dashboard – the poster image was intriguing, and the game itself is only $2.99. Curious, I clicked through for more information…
Holy crap. It’s Interactive Art. On my Playstation.
The developers are Plastic, a Demoscene group from Poland. Gamespot UK reported on it earlier this year, writing that Sony actually approached these folks and got them hooked up with PS3 dev kits.
Looking to the product itself, I’ve found it to be visually engaging, as well as a bit confusing. Instructions are eschewed in favor of simple icons and a black-box approach: figure out what you’re doing by doing it. I personally love this sort of system, but I can see it being a turn-off for many. Someone involved must have known that, as they offer two modes: Linger, which is the interactive mode, and Watch, in which the demo plays out for you with no interaction necessary.
Could this be the start of the PS3 as a platform for Interactive Art? While it leaves much to be desired in the departments of openness and availability to artists/developers, it does have a fantastically huge userbase and great interface devices (controllers/guitars/drums/etc).