Low-poly dusk over a dark tidal marsh, oxblood curtains at the edge

Translates: melancholic · artistic · Low-poly

Through the convention: low-poly dusk landscapes: flat-shaded facets in bands of sunset colour with dark silhouetted foregrounds

InterpretationMelancholic becomes the last orange of a dusk sky over dark teal water; artistic and Low-poly become flat-shaded facets in a few hard colour bands, with olive reeds silhouetted in front, the way low-poly dusk landscapes draw it. The oxblood of a theatre curtain frames it; a sodium-yellow spotlight is the only bright light.

Made with source for “Melancholic, tense small-town games”: The palette lives as hex constants in the game script's PAL object and the page's CSS custom properties, drawn in flat facets on the canvas.

Away from the sketch: 6 colours

Playbill fat face over a typewritten script

Translates: Theatrical · New Wave

Through the convention: school-play and repertory playbills: a fat-face title over a typeset cast list, acts announced on a card

InterpretationTheatrical becomes the type of a repertory playbill: a heavy fat-face display for the title, act cards and cast list, and the dialogue set like a typed play script with speaker names before each line.

The tide is coming in. The band is not.

Rozha One

The tide is coming in. The band is not.

Cutive Mono

Made with library-font for “Theatrical art-rock stage”: Rozha One and Cutive Mono are fetched into fonts/ and loaded with @font-face, then used by both the page and canvas text.

Away from the sketch: 2 type families

Faceted marsh set pieces and a tailored stage manager

Translates: Low-poly · Modern Tailoring

InterpretationLow-poly becomes every set piece drawn as flat-shaded triangles on the canvas: dunes, reeds, the pier, the houseboat. Modern Tailoring becomes the cast: figures as narrow tailored silhouettes in suits, cut from a few polygons.

Made with source for “Melancholic, tense small-town games”: Every set piece and figure is drawn from polygons by canvas functions, no image files.

Hard curtain sweep between scenes, beat-locked lights

Translates: Rhythmically Charged · Stylized

Through the convention: curtain-and-spotlight scene changes of stage musicals and concert films: the cut is a hard sweep, not a dissolve

InterpretationRhythmically Charged and Stylized pacing replace the soft fade I predicted: every scene change is a fast, hard curtain sweep from both wings, and lamps, the spotlight and the tide clock pulse on one shared beat.

Made with source for “Theatrical art-rock stage”: Two DOM curtain panels over the canvas sweep with a CSS transform transition at every scene change; the canvas lights pulse on BEAT_MS.

Deadpan lines, a pause, then the true thing

Translates: Thought provoking · Deadpan whimsicality · Intimate

InterpretationDeadpan whimsicality and Intimate become short flat lines in the play script, then a sudden sincere one; Thought provoking becomes the singer's questions, which have an honest answer and an easy one.

The tide is coming in. The band is not.

I kept the setlist. I don't know why. Yes, I do.

Nobody tunes out a person. You just lose the frequency.

Made with copy for “Loyal friends, drama and grief”: The lines are written into the dialogue data of the script and the page.

Dress the stage in mirror symmetry

Translates: Theatrical · Resourceful

Through the convention: art-rock concert stagings: bare boards, one hard white spotlight, a band in tailored suits

InterpretationTheatrical and Resourceful become a staging puzzle: on a bare stage grid the player places lamps, amps and a ladder so that each prop has its mirror twin across the centre line, the self-serious care of a school play mounted like an opera.

Made with source for “Theatrical art-rock stage”: The stage dressing puzzle is a grid scene in the script with a symmetry check.

Away from the sketch: 1 new part

Get the band back before high tide

Translates: Drama loving · Loyal · Friendship and community

Through the convention: ensemble reunion stories: one by one the old friends are brought back for one last night

InterpretationDrama loving and Loyal become the shape of the play: a tide clock runs from low to high water, each member won back is a loyalty restored, and the final show in the pier hall plays out with exactly who came, so the ending differs.

Made with source for “Loyal friends, drama and grief”: The tide clock and the final show are the game's state machine; the tide clock is a DOM meter beside the canvas.

Away from the sketch: 2 new parts

Radio dial tuned through static

Translates: tense · Stylized · Mysterious

Through the convention: radio-static tuning puzzles: a dial, a needle and voices rising out of the noise

InterpretationTense and Mysterious become a tuning puzzle: the player sweeps a needle along a dial while static hisses, finds a voice by its strength meter, and must hold it steady against drift until the keyboardist's broadcast is clear.

Made with source for “Melancholic, tense small-town games”: The radio tuning scene is a canvas mini-game in the script, with its dial drawn as the radio-dial scene element.

Away from the sketch: 1 new part

Boathouse rehearsal in three falling lanes

Translates: melancholic · Rhythmically Charged

Through the convention: small-town band-practice rhythm sequences: notes falling down lanes to a cheap drum loop

InterpretationBand practice from the small-town games this audience loves, made rhythmically charged: notes fall down three lanes to a synthesised drum loop, and the guitarist only comes back if the player keeps time.

Made with source for “Melancholic, tense small-town games”: The rehearsal is a canvas rhythm game in the script with WebAudio clicks, its lanes drawn as rhythm-lane.

Away from the sketch: 1 new part