Zantar & Other Stories

Zantar is a gelatinous cube that eats warriors in a medieval village. Whenever it eats a chieftain, you ascend to a higher level.

In this anthology of short interactive stories and mini-games, acclaimed artist and solo developer Mitchell F. Chan tells six funny, gripping, and heart-breaking stories about this fictional video game, the ambitious CEO driven to make it most valuable platform in the world, and the would-be millionaires who are pulled into its orbit. As Zantar pulls in more and more users, its ruleset and logic starts leaking out into the real world. The only way to escape? Keep playing.

WHAT IS THIS?

Six Short Stories
Each episode in this anthology takes between 15 and 30 minutes to complete – perfect "short game" experiences that weave together the story of Zantar, a fictional piece of software that aims to redefine the worlds of gaming and finance. Developer/writer Mitchell F. Chan has previously been written for publications such as Artforum, Outland, and The Pembroke Observer.

Six Unique Minigames
The tragic story of a livestreamer bound to produce an infinite stream of content is dubbed over an endless runner game with unusual scoring mechanics. In another episode, a Survivors-Like shoot-em-up slowly morphs into a tragic story about a remote gold-farming operation. Zantar and Other Stories eschews the typical walking-simulator and dialogue-menu structures of interactive fiction, in favour of unlocking the storytelling potential of different gameplay mechanics.

Six Works of Art
The works collected in this anthology have been exhibited at galleries, fairs, and museums around the world, including Nguyen Wahed in New York City, Frieze Seoul, and the 60th Venice Biennale. "Exhibition Mode" turns your gaming monitor into your own personal art gallery, displaying these internationally acclaimed artworks as screensavers when you're not playing.