"As someone who sees game engines like paintbrushes, I pick a palette from a certain era and think, what can I make with it? These old games didn't really choose aesthetics - they were doing the best they could with what they had. That's freeing. When you're working within constraints, you're not chasing perfection - you're focused on getting the expression right."
"I only discovered The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games three years ago, while looking at old 1990s PC games. I'd grown up fascinated by my dad's big DOS game boxes and this book encapsulates that memory. I ended up getting really into the history of RPGs, going back to 1979. This book helped me explore that history - how those games were made and what design decisions were shaped by the limitations of each system."
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley draws on 1990s PC RPG aesthetics and the history of role-playing games dating back to 1979. She treats game engines like paintbrushes, selecting palettes from specific eras to shape visual and mechanical choices. Technological constraints shaped past aesthetics, leading her to value imperfect expressions over polished realism. Her interactive work centers on black trans lives and explores power, bias, and belonging through glitchy dreamscapes, fractured timelines, and complex moral choices. The Delusion functions as a live gameplay test and living archive where audiences help determine narrative continuations. The project examines civic potential and the power dynamics embedded in video-game technologies.
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