Control had been on my radar likely since around the time it launched. It's probably a good thing I didn't play it then: I would have struggled a lot more with even the basics, because even a third person shooter on a controller is hard, and without the accessibility features I would have had to stop. I've said before that I expected to like it, but I never imagined getting so caught up in it, or walking away with a new found favourite... let alone one that would break my lifelong trend of creating a fansite relatively quickly, if at all. The art direction! The sound! The story! I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It's masterful. I really, really liked it.
It's kind of like, "I want to go back and play through this experience again for the first time, but seeing as I can't, I'll preserve that feeling". I wish I had thought or been able to do it with other things. This time, though. So here we are.
It's a little bit messy, a little bit incohesive: but then again, I haven't made anything new in seven years, at least not since I've settled into the daily routine of having severe M.E.. I just wanted to talk about a game I loved, and I've definitely succeeded in that. When I was still theorising how I'd present this site – making a layout is what I did first, always a slippery slope of "I just want to see if this would work" to "oh, well, I guess I have to do it now" – I knew I wanted the presentation to be somewhat odd; like nothing else I've ever coded before, to really lean into Control's strangeness. That's why it's a one pager. Why I don't mind so much about swapping backwards and forwards between first through third person at a whim: that's just how it plays. That's why I learned some new CSS things, relying on presentation alone to split the page up as I did, to really echo what I thought Control achieved so well. The lack of background is shocking to me (past Rems is shaking). It doesn't need one. In all my years of designing sites I've never used the triangle selection tool before and I doubt I ever will again, but I'd like to think together it all pays off, at least a little.
Resonance was opened on 11th July 2024. I will likely return in a few months to fine tune things and do a little tidying, but I anticipate this site will otherwise be static for the foreseeable future.
" Resonance "
You are a worm through time. The thunder song distorts you. Happiness comes. White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye. Through a mirror, inverted is made right. Leave your insides by the door. Push the fingers through the surface into the wet. You’ve always been the new you. You want this to be true.Resonance was an easy name. Much like humans the Hiss and Polaris could not possibly be more different in their methods. But it's not only about them, but about how Jesse resonates with others. She grows in confidence and later shines. She trusts not only Polaris, but those around her. Interacting with the world. Living in it.
I miss those things. I know how difficult it is to be isolated. But there are voices of others that help.
Given the nature of how this site is written, it's also about how the game itself resonated with me, my thoughts and feelings. In this way, the name is perfect.
Fonts used are Montserrat and ITC Avant Garde Gothic Bold. You might recognise the second as being the font Control uses for its title and area reveals - which I chose deliberately! I wanted the layout to really rely upon simplicity and sporadic colour, and for imagery to be used sparingly throughout the page, which is a very different approach to what I usually take. Montserrat is sourced directly from Google Fonts.
Resonance © Rems 2024-2025.
Control © Remedy Entertainment and is published by 505 Games. No copyright infringement is intended. Opinions written here are my own, and are not a reflection of either company, as I am not a part of them. No profit is made from the running of this site.
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