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Ummmm so to the 3 other people that played mixtape, cass and Rockford totally had something going on right? “People who have interests are hot” plus literally every song that played when Stacey thought of her… being called a lesbo… sorry Cassandra is a repressed bisexual to me
You guys are getting an extra stream today! I'm going to check out that controversial "fake" indie game Mixtape. Written by Johnny Galvatron, a 45 year old man who clearly wishes he a teenager in the early 2000's.
I'm going to mute the music and just sing random 90s songs instead.
Join me at 4pm EST!
Soooooooo I love Mixtape. I love these 3. I love them so much.
I have been eating/sleeping/breathing game design to prep for Red Salem and I thought it'd be a good exercise to post a
Mixtape Script Doctor
the biggest problem with the story is that there's no stakes, no motive, no conflict, and no character development. this is a saccharine rose-tinted vibes only mocktail trying so hard to romanticize youth it swings around to being totally alien and false
so, treatment numero uno, stacy needs to acknowledge her flaws and change, for better or for worse. (probably better, considering the game's tone). her friends should be annoyed by her mixtape monologuing, have their own opinions about what the song should be, and push back on her obsession with "the soundtrack she planned" while more serious shit it going on
stacy being callous about cassandra's dad isn't wrong, but just a few dialogue options could go a long way in making your relationship feel personal. are you more sympathetic or rebellious to her problem? this could effect cassandra's actions, attitude towards you, her father, and jenny
likewise with slater. in flashbacks, you could have the option to come on to slater, but it goes badly, adding depth to the player character that can be achieved by just a few lines from slater. or, if you go the other way, plays out like you rejected slater... classic teenage misunderstanding and anxiety. the stakes are still low—teen love, you're obviously still friends. but it'd add conflict and tension to the 3 hours of exposition we got...
Mixtape wants me to think being a teenager feels like flying, but being a teenager feels like ass! you have to grow up, you have to leave everything behind, your emotions are turned up to 11, and nobody takes you seriously. Sure there are moments of liberation and excitement, but those highs can't be felt without the lows
which brings me to Bella Deltone. it's established that the extremely pretentious and overly confident Stacy has chosen to "stalk" this woman for a chance at a career instead of going on a road trip her friends have been planning all year. for a minute, it seems like this may be the climax of the whole story. it isn't. it comes to nothing.
instead of trying to make a climax out of Cassandra's totally out of left field, random, uncalled for "standing up to her dad" for setting a house on fire—WHICH WOULDNT WORK—the friends could change a leg of their trip to incorporate stacy's new york pipedream... with or without Jenny Goodspeed, depending how much of an asshole you've made Stacy
Stacy experiencing the relatable emotional low of having your dreams crushed as a teen would naturally lead to a satisfying conclusion where she and her friends ride off into the sunset enjoying her music and not having to make it about how trying to join the industry is more important than your friends 🙄
it'd still need work because it's such a nothingburger, maybe taking advantage of the giant map they built and letting me walk around?? but it's a start
Can I keep it so for real with yall?
Mixtape might be one of the absolute worst games I’ve ever played…?
Look, if you like this game, good for you. I’m happy it exists for that reason alone.
For me? This was absolutely miserable. And not for like a ‘oh, this game is too WOKE’ way or something. I find all three of the main characters annoying in their own way, and, I think that was the point, at least in Stacey’s case. And I love me an unlikable protagonist. I think that type of character is great. Stacey is just annoying. And it feels intentional, but in the wrong way. A GOOD writer can make a character annoying to the other characters and not to the audience, but this game does something weird where she’s only annoying to the player and not to any of the characters? Also, the fact that she calls her ‘Jenny Fucking Goodspeed’ every time just drives me up the wall.
But my biggest issue is the gameplay. I get it, this is an interactive story, the gameplay isn’t that important. However, if an interactive story doesn’t have, you know, a good story, then what is there to latch onto? No gameplay, that’s for sure, because this is a glorified movie. I heard from somewhere that this was originally supposed to be a movie but no one wanted to make it, and that tracks, because the ‘gameplay’ is fucking mind numbing. Visual novels are more stimulating than this.
Take the shopping cart escape for example! I decided to test something. I put the controller down and watched the entire section play itself. I literally got an achievement for not crashing one time. If that doesn’t represent everything wrong with this game, I don’t know what does. I feel like most of this game was filler so the runtime would be over 2 hours and you wouldn’t be able to refund it on Steam.
This game just has this pretentiousness to it that I don’t see in a lot of games nowadays. Even some of the most abstract and artsy games like, say, Silent Hill 2 don’t have this feeling of ‘this is the deepest shit ever’.
If you liked it, good for you! Like I said, I’m super happy you can find enjoyment in a piece of art that I couldn’t. I’m just gonna go back to the games i actually enjoy…
This crossover ship collage is of Katie Mitchell and Stacy Rockford, I got the idea from how the two view the world through films and music, and Stacy has said that some of her favourite sound tracks are from films. That's why I like to think that they could get along, as they talk about movies and how the music helped to bring it out. If they were to do a movie together, Stacy would act as the music supervisor of the film's sound track.
I have named these two StacKatie, but if you have any subjections on what their other ship titles could be, please share in the comments. Also, please keep any negative comments towrds the ship and the collage itself to yourself, otherwise those comments will be deleted and the user who left them blocked. This collage was made for pure fun.
It's not a game, it's a 3-4 hour interactive "frisson" that turns music into a time machine. A lysergic mix of stop-motion and Spider-Verse, where every frame is a painting and every memory is a video clip.
Cassandra (the oppressed rebel), Slater (the struggling artist), and Stacey (our Ferris Bueller-esque guide).
Disclaimer: I am playing Saros right now, so this goes right into the backlog. I'll pick it up as soon as possibile.
Who will break our hearts and who will put them back together? (theory)
In my opinion, Stacey will tear our hearts apart. She's the one who already has one foot on the flight to New York; she's the one carrying the weight of farewell and the end of an era. But what will put it back together, piece by piece, will be the moments of pure "goofing around" with Slater and Cassandra. It will be their ability to be "normal" and united despite the looming future that will make us feel that, deep down, everything will be okay.
Team Freak (Silverchair): It's the raw energy, the rebellion, the moment when you throw toilet paper on the principal's house and feel invincible.
or
Team Atmosphere (Joy Division): It's the moment of "flight" over your 18 years, the pure melancholy, that beauty that hurts because you know it's ending.
If I had to choose… I'd choose Atmosphere. There's something magical about the idea of flying over school buses while Ian Curtis sings "Don't walk away in silence."
Trigger: End of Saros. Action: Insert the Mixtape and let it wash over you.
The Uncomfortable Corner: The "Manual" Kiss (spoilers!)
I found the scene in the X timeline.
haven't played mixtape myself yet but i did see a youtube playthrough and people are being like "oh it's a game that doesn't want to be a game, it wants to be a tv show or a movie" but there's something so endearing about it. dunno what it is. i just love the trio. as for stacey? she reads as definitely Not Straight to me too.
This game absolutely does not want to be a show. It’s too intimate and personal for that. God forbid a game’s play style be a bit more mellow or abstract!!
I found it extremely nostalgic and a really good encapsulation of those last few moments of youth when everything just feels a lot bigger and you know it’s so fleeting.
And yeah Stacey’s gay as fuck
