Land of Screens is a poignant narrative-driven adventure about a young woman who ditches social media in search of more meaningful real-life interactions.
The beautifully drawn world of Land of Screens is an all too familiar one – it’s a place where people interact with each other more online then they do in real life. People spend most their life staring at screens and even real-life parties are filled with guests on their phones taking instagram photos, checking how many likes their last witty post gets and so on.
Holland is someone who is reliant on her fix of social media, and at the moment she’s especially worried about what people are saying about her recent break-up. What should she post about it? Should she post anything about it? What will people think if she posts about it? Thankfully she’s about to embark on a road-trip that may help her see that social media isn’t the be all and end all as she stumbles into new experiences away from her phone.
The current build of Land of Screens takes around 40 minutes to play through and follows Holland as she visits a childhood friend that helps give her a much needed human connection. There’s a nice variety of characters to talk to (most of which are addicted to social media in different ways) and the writing is superb – packed full of clever observations about the age of social media we’re living in.
Land of Screens isn’t totally anti-social media and it does acknowledge that it helps people stay connected, but it highlights that the connections are often quite artificial and aren’t as strong. It’s a great reminder to put down your phone now and again and participate in life rather than commenting on it. Sure, playing a video game that encourages you to interact more with people face-to-face may be a little ironic, but seriously, when was the last time you went to a party (or even had a couple of casual drinks) and didn’t take a look at your phone at least once?
Download The Land of Screens Alpha Demo Here (Steam)