JODI's downloadable
game SOD, similarly
feeds on code and pre-existing programming that hybridise the worlds of
gaming, programming and art in an inscrutable way. SOD is presented as a
pull the trigger, knock'em down, skill-requiring computer game. In fact
the root code has been cannibalised from the very popular and mindlessly
violent 3-D Quake game. Like Quake, SOD has elements of a shooting
gallery, except with SOD you find yourself shooting in a minimalist art
gallery. In the game the player assumes an abstract and variable shape
situated in a 3-D black and white environment that looks like a
Constructivist museum exhibition. Now and then a German injunction of
"Achtung! Stehen bleiben! " plus gunshot averts one to the potential
presence of fascist predators. The rest of the action consists of arcane
arcade commands whereby one's abstract avatar can shoot at various
painting, and or scuttle about the 3D space. Neither action really
resulting in any understandable or final outcome. It's the degree zero
of gaming.
