Final Blog Post: Killbox by Joseph DeLappe

For my final blog post, I wanted to talk about Killbox, a game collaboratively made by artist/activist Joseph DeLappe, and artists/game developers Malath Abbas, Tom Demajo, and Albert Elwin. The first part of the game is basically a simulation of a drone operator's experience. The player views a landscape and buildings from above, and targets, presented in the form of tiny spheres on the ground, can be selected by pressing "T." The player then presses "M" to fire a missile, and a second screen in the upper right corner of the monitor displays an black-and-white animation from the missile's perspective, presumably in a similar format to what a real drone operator would see. Targets are eliminated and surrounding buildings explode into rubble. This process repeats several times over as emotionless chatter plays out in the background. After a couple rounds of this, the player's perspective then switches from the drone operator's experience to that of the targets on the ground, and the player operates the movements of one of the spheres. You can interact with other spheres on the ground, mimicking real-life social interaction, and the game takes on a more whimsical and personable tone, much like a third-person rpg. Then in chilling turn of events, the missiles start to fall and buildings explode around, forcing the player to run for cover. This game forces the player to empathize with both the drone operator and the drone targets' living experience (of course, only through the lens of a screen), and the sudden shift in perspective prompts both personal connection with drone operators/targets and personal reflection on the use of drones themselves. It's free for download at turbulence.com, accessible by searching "killbox" on the site's search engine.