Train stations are weird. Commercial art monoliths jammed into awkward industrial spaces for the arbitrary pleasure of the commuter — and cracks, too, for all kinds of people to fall into. It's easy to feel lost in transit. Brush the gross breath that shivers up from inside the tunnels and feel in that instant how easy it might be for you to be lost, while the rest of the world taps crisply past you in business shoes.
Cosmo D.'s free game Off-Peak conjures this kind of space effortlessly. You're a person marauding a dark, surreal sort of Grand Central in search of missing ticket pieces, but as you encounter conversations with musicians, tabletop game players and protesters, it can start to feel like you're looking for where you belong. The use of familiar visual objects from time to time feels very deliberate, like catching sight of someone you recognize just before the buzz of industry yanks them away from you again.
Maybe this train station is where all of us a bit dazed by the collision of creation and industry end up. Maybe we're supposed to be mostly amused, like my friends Pip and Alice were in their journey through. I think you should check it out for yourself — the Archie Pelago soundtrack is really, really striking.
