In the first episode of Black Mirror‘s fifth season, one character chides a friend for playing a “boring” game — which turns out to be Tetris Effect. But as of a year ago, that “boring” game could have been the Australian-made Death Squared, the developer revealed today.
Death Squared was first released on PC in 2017, before getting a mobile, console and Switch release thereafter. It’s made by Sydney developers SMG Studio, the same team behind One More Line.
As it turns out, they were also in talks with the producers behind Black Mirror to have the game featured on the show:
Black Mirror S5 Ep1 features main character playing Tetris Effect. His friend says ‘that’s boring play this instead’
There was a time a year ago that ‘boring’ game was going to be Death Squared!!! but they swapped it out ???? & ????
We could been the boring game!!! pic.twitter.com/h1kSeFjwNf
— SMG Studio (@smgstudio) June 5, 2019
SMG Studio sent over sound effects, game footage and music to help the episode’s production. But the producers ultimately decided to go in another direction.
Dunno we sent footage, msuic, SFX etc but they decided on different direction. Maybe they asked several other games not sure? They did say Charlie liked the game and had requested it specifically which was enough to fill the pain
— SMG Studio (@smgstudio) June 5, 2019
The episode itself features a little bit of Tetris Effect, along with Striking Vipers, a VR game that’s similar to Street Fighter. The VR element interfaces with players through a circular disc that attaches to the side of your head; it’s a little akin to the indicators from Detroit: Become Human.
As for Death Squared, there’s still hope for a cameo. Black Mirror has dovetailed a lot with video games over the past five seasons — the choose-your-own-adventure Bandersnatch not withstanding. Maybe a future episode could do something with the Aussie puzzler. Imagine two people getting dropped into Death Squared and having to survive, Portal-style. That’d be freakish.
Leave a Reply