DNR Games Club
The DNR Games Club is organized by artist Sean Kennedy.
This summer, we initiated the Do Not Research Games Club and artist talk series. This project sought to advance discourse within DNR around video games and the artists who make them. These artist talks took place in the Do Not Research Discord and took the form of Q&A panel discussions between DNR coordinator Sean Kennedy and the developer of each game. We covered four games from three developers, all centered around the theme of locality. How does a game create and immerse us in a space that is an abstraction of real life? How does game design orchestrate the way we move through these spaces? How does a game’s unique presentation change the way we view the world around us?
June 8th, 2025 - Despelote featuring lead developer Julián Cordero and sound designer Ian Berman
Our first meeting covered the recently-released Despelote, an autobiographical soccer game immersing us in Julián’s childhood in Quito, Ecuador in the lead up to the country’s first ever qualification in the World Cup. Soccer creates a guide through this time period as young Julián explores a recreation of the park outside his childhood home, and interacts with family, friends, and neighbors. The game explores an idealized past, a perceived golden age where everything was simpler, and the clash that can have with reality. Cordero spoke to us about the early concepts of the game, design considerations, such as recording naturalistic dialog, and his relationship to 3D scanning and how game engines can pull from reality with error. Berman added more depth to the sounds of Despelote. In the production of the game, he traveled to the real-world park in Quito, recording ambiance and dialog. He captured Julián’s parents and childhood friends. Sound makes the memory of Despelote real, and Berman took us through the careful considerations that went into creating this sonic world.
Despelote can be purchased on Steam.
July 9th, 2025 - Betrayal at Club Low featuring Cosmo D
Cosmo D is a musician and game developer whose games weave intricate webs of mega-corporations, music, and conspiracy in a fictionalized New York called Off Peak City. In Betrayal At Club Low you play as a secret agent disguised as a pizza delivery boy infiltrating a nightclub to extract an agent. Along the way you learn the stories of the locals, the DJ, the staff, and the tapestry of light, sound and history that makes a place legendary. Using a variety of different skills and some lucky dice rolls, you work to accomplish your goal by any means necessary. Our conversation found Cosmo in between games. Looking back at Club Low’s award-winning success, he is now developing Moves of the Diamond Hand, his largest game to date. Cosmo guided us through his process of creating places with stories, and how he seeks to reflect New York’s reality in a more exaggerated way in his own games. He also discussed his process in gathering assets, which includes pulling faces from a mugshot database for his NPCs, and wondered with us what that says about the real people behind the faces you interact with in the game.
Betrayal At Club Low can be purchased on Steam.
August 2nd, 2025 - Babbdi and Straftat featuring Léonard Lemaitre
The Lemaitre Brothers rounded out our series with their games Babbdi and Straftat. Babbdi is an exploration game in which the player’s only goal is to leave the stagnant brutalist town of Babbdi. Following a simple narrative, but with wide open movement inspired by speedrunning exploits, the player is free to take in as much or as little of Babbdi as they wish, from above, below, inside, and out. Straftat is a 1v1 and 2v2 arena shooter in the style of 90s and 00s classics like Unreal Tournament. It exists in similar localities and aesthetics to Babbdi, but amplifies the clash between aesthetics and interaction, allowing the player to take in these local environments but experience them through a lens of tight gunplay. In our talk, Léonard, the 3D artist who designs these worlds, guided us through his design philosophy and inspirations. He opened Unreal Engine and gave us a never before seen look at his next game, and the decisions he’s making as he crafts his worlds. His process highlights a stream of consciousness approach to architecture, creating surreal environments with simple extrusions.
Both Babbdi and Straftat are free and can be found in the links below: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2240530/BABBDI/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2386720/STRAFTAT/
