An Anti-game to reteach our brains what an art game could be

Levels&Bosses is a transmedia adventure game that explores neo-primordial worlds where all landscapes, technology, and beings are identifiably interconnected.

You play as The-Other, a post-human cyborg on a quest to understand their impact on the biomes around them after emerging from a cataclysmic explosion.

As destruction prevails, you unearth vibrant spectrums of observation and communication techniques to shape transforming conditions across Levels&Bosses.

Reimagining binary gaming tropes of antagonism and hierarchical structures of power, Levels&Bosses gives audiences the choice in interaction towards more sustainable futures.

When shown in exhibition form, the immersive installation invites visitors to play the videogame’s prologue, premiered in an environment that echoes the development of game itself and traces the evolution of the game through oil paintings by the artist, virtual reality experiences, sculptural gaming furniture, immersive video, wall drawings, and more.

The Herramientas exhibition at Locust Projects represents the next stage in the multi-year Levels & Bosses game development project originated by Castañeda, and serves as the launch of a new fine-art video game studio, Otro Inventario, the first of its kind in Miami.

Castañeda, and the team at Otro Inventario have developed in Levels & Bosses, a groundbreaking video game that upends traditional archetypes of game “bosses/adversaries” while players explore nonlinear, science-fiction-inspired levels with a broad range of interdependent abilities, such as camouflage, vibrational touch terraforming, and laser communication. To those that know and understand gaming and game terminology, this expands the lineage of independent games revolutionizing the industry.