We Made a Video Game
Introducing Blippo+, our most ambitious project to date!
From the band that brought you See Mystery Lights, 5 Every Day, I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler, The Triforium Project, Broad Band, The Computer Accent, and far too many other projects connected only by their makers…comes Blippo+!
Q: WHAT IS BLIPPO+?
A: It’s a sci-fi movie disguised as a TV streaming service disguised as a video game.
If you’ve been following YACHT for a while, you’ve probably heard us allude, over and over, to being “heads down” on “the biggest project of our lives.” We’ve spent the last five years building what we feel is a culmination of our work—something that puts everything we’ve picked up along the edges of the pop culture highway over the last two decades to use. And now here it is, finally: WE MADE A VIDEO GAME!!!
The story’s simple: on the other side of the galaxy exists the radical post-capitalist Planet Blip. It’s like a version of Earth where humanity evolved from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse characters instead of primates. They love TV, and Blippo+ is their streaming service of choice. It’s got sitcoms, soaps, news, weather, dance and cooking shows, teletext messages, and more. And when something big happens on Planet Blip (spoiler: something big happens on Planet Blip) Blippo+ has it.
The game is nearly impossible to describe because there’s never been anything like it. Somewhere between FMV game, linear broadcast TV, interactive movie, alternate reality game, and hypertext fiction, it’s a narrative puzzle where each piece is a live-action TV show playing in real time—and the only way to figure it out is to change the channel. All told, Blippo+ features over 100 actors, comedians, artists, musicians and performers. Claire wrote it. Rob and Jona composed the score, sound effects, and soundtrack. We did a million other jobs too: see the full credits.
There are two flavors of Blippo+. We launched the first version, in 1-bit black and white, for the Playdate handheld gaming console last month. It’s designed as appointment television: a real-time, collective experience that spans 11 weeks—so players get a new installment every week, with new episodes of their favorite Blippo+ shows, new messages, and more. It looks like this:
There’s even a TV Guide-style website that keeps tabs on the weekly programming:
We’ve never seen such an enthusiastic, instant fandom for anything we’ve made before. Blippoheads across gamer Discords and Reddit have already transcribed every line of dialogue, put forth wild theories, and scanned every frame of TV static. They’ve even made a Wiki. It’s wild—and after so many years of hard work, such a relief, too. They really get it!
The second flavor of Blippo+ is a full-color version for Nintendo Switch and Steam. It’s slated for a fall 2025 release; please Wishlist it on Steam! It feels destined to be something really special. Watch the color trailer here:
Beyond being a game, Blippo+ is a video time capsule of our Los Angeles community. Everything was filmed in LA at Telefantasy Studios, under the savvy directorial eye of the video artist JJ Stratford. Here are the full credits! You’ll recognize lots of people here—from cult musicians and fine artists to underground comics and performers. We’re so lucky to have worked with so many talented people: our genius costumer Kiki Stash, our makeup artist Joan Grey, our best friend Mike Merrill, who wrangled the hardest parts of production, our brilliant Playdate developer Dustin Mierau, who is such a legend he literally made Napster for the Mac, our dedicated Switch & Steam developer Mark LaCroix, currently hard at work reinventing color TV, our amazing cast, and our generous publisher Panic, who believed in this absurdly ambitious, undefinable concept from the get-go.
Making this game has been the most meaningful project of our lives. Planet Blip is a better world, revealed through the medium of television. We hope you can tune in.
Boing boing,
Claire, Jona & Rob
PS - Follow Blippo+ on Instagram and Bluesky. We also have some sick merch on the Blippo+ Teleshop!
In other news:
We just got back from Europe, where Claire gave an amazing keynote talk about biology and AI in Stockholm. Her latest feature for WIRED, about neuroscientists trying to code a digital worm, is a must-read.
Rob has been painting nonstop; he has a solo show opening in July at Brackett Creek Exhibitions in Bozeman, Montana.
We just unearthed a fresh stash of Shangri-La deluxe white vinyl LPs, which we thought were gone forever. They’re beautiful and on Bandcamp now!
Y'all are super fucking cool, and this is sick. Congratulations!
Hello this is amaze-ballz. I saw teenage engineering and a programming firm discussing a device online where its hand held, looks simular, and dishes out a new game perhaps monthly. Is this 1 in the same? Either way kudos for envelope pushing on the art, tech, music space. Meanwhile the PJM grid in NE USA is maxxed, from LLM AI, even with 3 mile island reactor on. Overlay a hottest heat dome ever and were blowing out.. 100% full.