Mark Essen, who works under the name Messhof, recently graduated with a degree in film and electronic art from New York State-based Bard College and has a foot in two communities – the indie gaming scene and the New York City art world. His game Flywrench was selected for the New Museum’s The Generational: Younger Than Jesus show, which is open only to artists under 33. Essen makes art using videogames as his medium, but his works also succeed as games – from the absurdly difficult platformers Punishment and Punishment: The Punishing, surreal narrative-based works like Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist (pictured above) to off-the-cuff experiments like Stenography Hero, a game in tended to be played with a stenography machine. We spoke with Essen about his experiences in both camps, and where he plans to take his bewilderingly eclectic, utterly un-commercial and yet strangely magnetising work.


^{Photo: Marten Elder}

You started making games in Game Maker before college – when did you start making games as part of your coursework?
It was during an advanced computer animation class, and a couple of people made games. That was the first time I thought of it in that context. It was cool to just come to class and try to think of different ways to experiment with a game, and to change things and see people’s reactions. We had a really big projector, and people would take turns playing. It’s hard to get in front of a bunch of people to play, but then it just becomes like you’re a kid again in front of your first game, and everybody wants to figure it out together.

What was your first gallery show?
For senior year you have to do a project over the course of the year and mine was setting up games in a room. It was six games projected around the room, with controllers and everything. That was a hell of a lot of fun [laughs]. We had drinks, and it was really loud. With six games, it sounded like noise music. I guess the first show aside from that was at Light Industry, which is a film and experimental media venue one of my professors started in Brooklyn last year. They had an opening over summer 2008, so I set up a bunch of games.

Which games are you showing at the Generational?
It’s just Flywrench. It’s a huge show, there’s like 50 artists, so there’s not a whole lot of space for each person. I have a corner with Flywrench and a controller and headphones.


^{Flywrench, which is featured at Essen's exhbition, in which players manoeuvre their ship through colour coded 2D environments}

How has the show treated you so far?
I’ve gotten more respect, and people know me now more, which has been useful and good. I’m getting game gigs, and that kind of stuff. For this show in particular, everyone has a lot to prove. A lot of people are ragging on how everyone’s just a young artist who really doesn’t know what they’re doing yet, and that maybe they don’t deserve that kind of attention. And yeah, it’s a different crowd to the gamer crowd, and maybe not as fun. I don’t know that I fit in. But I think that’s fine.

Being an art major in college, were you always planning to go into art full-time?
Definitely. I think that’s the ideal thing for me, to have this space that I can work in, and do whatever comes to mind, and put all my effort into it, and make a living off of it. [Some indie gamemakers and I] were thinking of getting this big house in the countryside, outside of Gothenburg, a mansion basically. It gets really cheap to live out there in a big place. It would be $100-200 a person a month. I’d like to do that kind of thing, travel around a bit and just work on games and have fun.

Your games are notoriously difficult. Could you speak to why that appeals to you?
Well, a lot of the games are influenced by games I played as a kid. I like the idea of getting in the zone and just focusing on this game because you know you can beat it, you get a little closer each time. I just like that feeling. I don’t think the games are punishing, really, in most cases. There’s no score system or anything like that, so it’s just you and the game, and if you don’t beat it, it’s no big deal.


^{Two player game Cowboyana, which comprises drinking minigames, shooting and riding}

What would you like to try next?
I would like to make games with more choices in them and maybe not do so many pure action games. There’s a game I’m working on where you fly a plane around. It’s like a trading game, but the whole idea is that you get into crushing debt. And your only escape is just to fly in your plane, but then doing so only puts you more into debt. It’s like an exploration game where you can’t explore, because you’re too in debt – like graduating college and going out in the world.

You’ve said Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist was your most narrative work.
There was maybe a strand of a story in there, in the way that the stages are arranged. Otherwise, I don’t know. Control-wise they’re sort of similar, and you get more control as you go, and visually, they get a little crazier each stage.


^{Driving section of Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist}

Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist delivers a particularly harsh sensory experience. What effect were you going for?
I don’t know. It is the kind of game where you watch it more than anything. And it was cool to have the music just affect you, the visuals affect you in a way that’s not entirely involved in the gameplay at all. The music’s just low bass tones, and the visuals are just flashing at you all the time. But you’re not doing much to influence that. I don’t know … I guess the experience feels good, in a way [laughs].

The Generational: Younger Than Jesus runs at the New Museum until May 7th 2009. You can play a selection of Essen's games at his website, www.messhof.com/games.