gaming

Static Hour puts you in a 1980s newsroom where your broadcasts can cause chaos

Barkbyte Interactive's Static Hour casts the player as the lone night-shift editor in a 1980s local news broadcaster during a violent outbreak, forcing decisions about what to air. Players use retro tools — a rolodex, police-scanner chatter and government emergency alerts — to verify reports, send or ignore field reporters, and shape public behavior. The game is positioned as a retro psychological thriller about isolation and misinformation and will release on PC via Steam with no date announced.

• Player role: you are the only editor on duty at a news broadcaster during a widespread outbreak of violence and must decide what to broadcast.
• Gameplay mechanics: verify stories using a rolodex, police-scanner audio and government emergency alerts; the experience is driven by audio and player choice.
• Consequences: broadcasting or withholding information and dispatching or ignoring field reporters directly changes how the town reacts and can escalate public panic.
• Development: Static Hour is developed by Barkbyte Interactive under founder and creative director Claire Sarmiento and will launch on PC via Steam with no release date yet.