Parasocial Relationships and The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio
Hey girl, wanna work the graveyard shift and develop a parasocial relationship with a late-night radio DJ?
The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio is a solo journaling game with a soundtrack. It's about a local radio show in the surrounding area of Akron, Ohio, featuring DJ Mike from 106.6 The Brink, who was doing his late-night show when something strange took over, causing a terrible event to befall its listeners.
Designed by ENNie-award winner and 2022's Dicebreaker Designer of the Year, Banana Chan, the Kickstarter campaign goes live May 7 and will end June 6. The soundtrack element of the game is currently on YouTube for listeners to enjoy.
The full soundtrack to The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio.
Players act as one of the listeners who was working the late-night shift. They will document their work in a journal while hearing DJ Mike undergo his transformation into something beyond this realm. Things will go wrong and both DJ Mike and the character will befall tragic circumstances.
This game is similar to a radio play, but it requires the player to respond to questions and prompts while they listen. The major themes of this game are parasocial relationships and hypervisibility within a small fanbase.
The game comes in a ~100-125 page book edited by Karen Twelves and Yeonsoo Julian Kim, with graphic design done by Ruby Lavin and Jon Merchant. The cover is illustrated by Michael Croteau and interior art is illustrated by Robert Richburg. The player has the option of three different characters to play as: the Clinical Lab Technician, the Gas Station Attendant and the Security Guard, with more character options as stretch goals are revealed.
The soundtrack features actors Aaron Catano-Saez (All My Fantasy Children on The Moonshot Podcast Network), Jasmine "ThatBronzeGirl" Bhullar (Dimension 20's Coffin Run, DesiQuest, Battle 4 Beyond and Certainty Dran on Acquisitions Incorporated), Danny Quach (Digital Thickness), Austin Taylor (Maximum Fun's Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries) and Gavin Stenhouse (Black Mirror, “San Junipero”, The CW’s “Kung Fu” and NBC’s spy thriller “Allegiance"). Musicians include Don't Do It Neil, Omar Star and David Jones-Krause. Production is managed by Herb Ferman.
Become a backer when the Kickstarter launches May 7 and get access to all the different tiers available!
