Plucking samples from the recent Bill Reichle interview, the FAQ page has now got clickable mp3 soundbytes, thanks to the easy-to-embed Google Player. Let me know if you run into any issues!

It’s a great introduction if you’ve never heard of Chronicles of Skin.

The interview covers an overview of the game, with insights from the author.

There’s a new picture of the printed game!

In the meantime, the CoS website will need a little tweaking, so excuse the maintenance hiccups.

In the coming weeks, Bill Riechle will be interviewing me for the Director’s Commentary, so watch this space.

Actually, it’s about everyday mythology.

Actually, it’s about hate.

Really, it’s about all those things, and the stories that allow them to exist. How do you think about your neighbourhood, your neighbours or even your nation? If you live in a good area, why do you believe it’s good? What stories have you heard, told or experienced (or are experiencing) that support your belief?

As an Irishman, I’ve grown up with the hate-mythology of the vile Britannia. We’re taught to despise the English and we’re given stories to perpetuate it. If I’m not remembering those stories, like how Cromwell drove us to the west, I’m fabricating them (by using the word “us”). It’s very difficult for me, even though I’m here in the UK, to separate Irishness from kindness, even though I would struggle with that association back in Dublin. I love London, so how come I’m being such a fool? I’m confusing myself, living inside this mythology, peering through a stencil of stories that I learned in childhood.

Chronicles of Skin is a game that helps me to look at propaganda, hatred and history from a safe place. It helps me to understand why I’m still hating. In real life, I forget that hating is a choice. But in Chronicles of Skin, I am aware that I am constructing cultures that I will both hate and love, by the nature of the game process. I am given two sides for the same story, and I am witnessing atrocities every time.

So how does this relate to art? It is the recording of the story and its conclusion, the creation of the closed unit of time (the history), and crafting of symbols that helps compartmentalise the history into separate stories. These stories and symbols become the keystones of an interesting mythology: one culture was better than the other.

You just finished of game of Chronicles of Skin. So how much of that story you just told is a lie?

As twins, myself and my brother used to invent games using pencils and paper. We didn’t have a ZX-Spectrum or an Atari, so we tried making computer games with paper. We called them Computer Games On Paper. Imagine a sheet of paper like this:

On the top you’d have your different weapons, ammunition (shown as boxes), health points (the heart), and so on. The bit underneath, with all the silly doodles, would make up the bad guys for the level. You would draw your stick man on a tiny, torn piece of paper, and move him around the level, trying to avoid or overcome the obstacles.

The other player would take the role of the computer, trying to kill you, and making fair judgements whether or not you could be attacked by the enemies. When you shot someone, you’d flip a piece of paper (one side marked hit, the other marked miss—with certain weapons you could flip it a few times, like the grenade). When enemies shot you, it worked the same way. As you progressed through the level, you’d both draw shooty lines and explosions (and make all the noises).

In the end, it might look like this:

In a way, that’s where Chronicles of Skin began. Why not try this with your kid and tell me how you get on?

If you did, thank you so much! We did it, and nearly tripled our target. Seriously, tripled!

If you didn’t, no worries! It will be in the shops soon.

Why don’t you go and subscribe to the IndieGoGo thread to find out updates about the project.

Love Sebastian.