Kas Ghobadi

15 questions to our next wild heart, also none as “the Static Man”, who is the game author of Stereophyta, an honorable mention at the A MAZE. Award 2020.

A MAZE.: How would you describe yourself?
Kas Ghobadi: I’m a writer and programmer making games about alternate histories and alternate futures. I’m someone who works a lot, especially in my free time, as a form of escape and as a way to confront my greater fears and anxieties. I worry a lot about climate change and the slow (or not so slow) collapse of society. I also worry about capitalism’s constant death march into an uncontrolled technological Singularity. Although at this point, I’m not convinced we’ll even get that far. In the midst of all that, I try my best to hold on to friends, family, and the community that I’ve become a part of thanks to games, my time in university, and just living in New York. 

A MAZE.: Are you a wild heart? If yes, what makes you think you’re a wild heart? 
Kas Ghobadi: The longer I’ve been alive, the more belittled I’ve felt by history and the less I’ve been interested in seeing myself as some broadly unique voice or some highly anticipated auteur. We’re literally sitting around at the self-proclaimed “end of history” building complex and inaccessible toys for niche folks in the privileged classes. Even if the ideas are wild and continue the evolution of video games as a medium, what I’m doing pales in comparison to what’s been done to get humanity to this point in time. On top of that, the way most people will interface with my work is in its digital commodity form, which honestly sucks. 

A MAZE.: Why did you start making games or playful media works?
Kas Ghobadi:I think mostly because I had always played them and been absorbed in them. I began writing fiction in college, right around the time my Uncle Ramin committed suicide (I think it was the summer of 2015). The story I was writing melded with his story and then one day it became something else. The deeper I got through that process of grief, the more obsessed I became with uncovering for myself what I thought the consequences of the Singularity would be. About a year after that, I had the realization that I could make games myself and devoted my efforts to becoming good enough at programming to tell the weird stories I had in my head. It just naturally became my next obsession. 

A MAZE.: Who (or what) is your biggest inspiration? Think beyond games too - musicians, writers, filmmakers, artists, scientists, …
Kas Ghobadi: Besides Ramin, my greatest inspirations range from Marx, Lenin, Rosa Luxembourg, and other political theorists on the left, to authors like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip K. Dick. In film, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Hayao Miyazaki. In music, Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, and Deru. In the games world, I am mostly fueled by my direct peers, their projects and ideas. There’s far too many to list here, but I will say my thoughts on games like Kentucky Route Zero, Hotline Miami, The Swapper, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter coincided with my entrance into making games. 

A MAZE.: Where can we find this in your work?
Kas Ghobadi: I think it’s easy to see environmental themes and ideas throughout Stereophyta and my other games which focus on nature, dynamic music, and use procedural generation to create the world. There’s also this underlying ambition in scope of the works, a push towards grandiosity. To me, Stereophyta is still far from completion and has many pieces and layers to come. My other game project, Onto Maizilind Unto Infinity, and my book The Static Variable, are much more concerned with anti-war ideas, fears of climate rapture, and the impending doom of a Singularity occurring from within capitalism. They’re focused on massive existential threats and these moments in which reality itself seems to end. 

A MAZE.: What message(s) are you sending out with your works? 
Kas Ghobadi: I think the main thing is that without taking serious action in the near future, we are headed into a long-term downward spiral of self-destruction. But ultimately, I don’t really think my games will be able to turn the tides of history or anything. I just think they’re my way of processing what I’m experiencing; trying to understand it, and share it with others in hopes they might get something transformative out of it.

A MAZE.: Is there a repeating pattern in all of your works the players may experience?
Kas Ghobadi: There’s definitely a lot of repeating symbols and ideas. By now, I’ve noticed a real focus on generated objects and automated behaviors which try to replicate the stark contrast between the natural world and the industrialized world.Technology plays an important role; the sun often appears either in its 3D overhead form, or the 2D eye that often appears as emblematic of some greater intelligence watching over humanity. I’ve noticed I often begin projects with sound first. I tend to meld many visual styles together into a single melting pot, which honestly is something I haven’t fully perfected. I’ve always been more focused on conveying ideas through systems and narrative. 

A MAZE.: What influences your work more: Past (history), present (contemporary) or future (scifi) and what are your sources?
Kas Ghobadi: All of them have an influence. When I started making games, I was really interested in the Ancient world and old literature being brought into contact with games. I quickly realized how ambitious that goal was and moved on to something else. As I spent more time writing and making games, and delved deeper into Marxism, I became more interested in the 19th century and this idea that the process of industrialization could either have been averted completely, or done in a different way, one that could coexist with nature. Stereophyta follows that path. My other projects deal with the present and future, what happens if humanity fails in the face of larger material conflicts that we face. 

A MAZE.: What does responsibility towards your players mean to you as an artist?  
Kas Ghobadi: It’s not really something I consider that often. I mostly think about it in relation to accessibility of my works, which is an important concern for me as my games can get pretty complex. Beyond that, I don’t feel any sort of obligation to do work for or impress a specific audience or type of person. If anything, I feel a responsibility to myself to see things through. I also really just like showing my close friends my games and seeing their reactions to stuff. It’s fun to work off of those kinds of expectations. I’d expect if I had a larger audience, I might feel that sort of thing in a broader sense. 

A MAZE.: What impact is the current pandemic having on you and your work?
Kas Ghobadi: Well, interestingly the story I’ve been working on for Stereophyta for the past few months has to do with illness and the passing of a main character. So it feels a bit strange that this is the environment in which I’ve been implementing that into the game. Being stuck at home has pushed me to work on it more. At the same time, I know many people who’ve been laid off and have no option to work from home. I believe this series of months will further radicalize a lot of folks my age, especially in the US. I’ve even begun organizing with other tenants in my apartment to push for a rent strike. Beyond that, this confirmed many of my suspicions about capitalism in a material sense. There was no way to entirely prevent the pandemic, but its spread would not have been as rapid in the US if our healthcare system was functional and everyone had affordable care. Not to mention the endless lack of protections for workers after decades of neoliberalism propping up big business and the bank cartels. I believe without serious political reform, we will continue to have these crisis moments which affect the entire globe.

A MAZE.: If there is something wrong in the field of games / playful media, what would you fix first?
Kas Ghobadi: A lack of diversity in voices and backgrounds of the folks who get opportunities, a lack of public funding for this kind of work (at least in the US), and an overall obsession with monetization which stagnates innovation in the industry. None of this is all that unique to games, but I do think the kinds of skills and literacy in technology necessary to make them sets a high bar. Now that free tools are prolific, that is changing. It’s just a slow process, and the older generations of game developers still have pretty specific ideas of what’s considered good or interesting.

A MAZE.: What are the three games someone who never played a game before should play? Why those?
Kas Ghobadi: Everyone plays games, even if not everyone has tried video games. Really, video games are not that different from non-digital games and you don’t need to have literacy in them to enjoy them a lot of the time. I think my 3 recommendations would be Spore, 10 Beautiful Postcards, and Samorost 3. I think all of them are accessible to non-gamers and are focused on playful interaction rather than mastery of techniques. Spore has a lot of systems and covers a lot of different ideas in weird ways. As a kid, I was really into just the creative mode and played with it almost more like I played with Legos. I also think Minecraft would be a good recommendation for this reason. 

A MAZE.: How do you relax and find balance?
Kas Ghobadi: By doing absolutely nothing, reading, watching TV, or listening to music. I do find working on my own games quite relaxing at times, especially without deadlines. You can do whatever you want as long as you’re willing to learn what’s necessary to do what you’re imagining. To me that’s really exciting. Now that I have most of the skills I need, putting some vision I have into game form is really relaxing.

A MAZE.: What are the main challenges for artists in your country to sustain themselves?
Kas Ghobadi: Financial stability and mental and physical health. The US hates artists unless you’re rich. Luckily, programming is a highly valued skill and contracting work is fairly easy to come by. In general though, music, visual design, and narrative design are all very competitive careers and most can’t find stability. The country needs a revolution and that is only becoming more and more undeniable. Otherwise, I think people who are able will just start to leave. I expect things to just get worse with climate change. The military is so powerful that fascism is inevitable without a massive populist uprising to stop it. 

A MAZE.: How do you see interactive arts in 10 years from now? In 2030! Tell us your vision.
Kas Ghobadi: I think there is going to be a coalescing of VR/AR technologies and at some point a wearable device which creates a universal model. I’m not sure how serious a shift that will cause in my work, but I think it might cause a shift in game development in general. I’ve always been doubtful of these new technologies, and am more focused on just making interesting games on 2D screens, but nonetheless they do open up new possibilities. I also think with the development of new open source engines and more accessible programming languages, we’ll continue to see a huge increase in the diversity of voices and makers behind the games and media we’re playing. I’m particularly excited about this.