LCB Game Studio recently debuted Bahnsen Knights, the latest in their “Pixel Pulps” series of classic pixel-style horror games. This terrifying tale puts players into the role of Boulder, an undercover cop investigating the goings-on of the titular Bahnsen Knights, an extreme religious group that uses their fleet of Ford Sierra automobiles to combat natural disasters in Tornado Alley. Bahnsen Knights is the third in the series, following Mothmen 1966 and Varney Lake – all of which the folks here at GameLuster played and absolutely loved.
GameLuster had the chance to chat with writer Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel about all things Bahnsen Knights and Pixel Pulps including horror genre favorites, Tornado Alley, music, and who would be the ideal choice to play charismatic car salesman antagonist Toni in a hypothetical Bahnsen Knights film.
The pair listed many inspirations that led to the creation of the Pixel Pulps series and their decision to work in the horror genre. Ruppel cited movie series such as Indiana Jones and comics including Mort Cinder and the works of Vertigo Comics. Saraintaris eagerly listed off authors both classic and modern: “Hodgson, Poe, Howard, Doyle, Fort, Lafferty…Langan, Tremblay, Evenson, Laird Barron.” He also stated that math and puzzle games served as a major source of inspiration, specifically calling out chess puzzles and titles made via the Puzzlescript engine.
When it came to pulp fiction, though, Saraintaris clearly had one name in mind: Weird Tales magazine. He encouraged everyone who enjoyed the Pixel Pulps series to read Weird Tales and experience its classic stories by the likes of Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, and more. “The Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg have digitized the entire collection–or almost all of it,” Saraintaris explained. He also encouraged fans of the genre to “vary [their] readings,” explaining how pulp fiction included a combination of genres that ranged from hard science fiction to Gothic horror to the New Weird.
Bahnsen Knights itself is a perfect example of how pulp encompasses many genres and stories in one. It’s a story with many layers: an undercover cop hoping to reunite with his family, a charismatic car salesman turned quasi-religious figure, the pervasive power of cult thinking, the eternal man vs. nature struggle of living somewhere where deadly storms constantly threaten your life and livelihood. When we asked the Bahnsen Knights team why they chose the setting they did, they were immediately exuberant about the name “Tornado Alley,” which they admit is what drew them towards the region.
“Tornado Alley interests us more as a concept than merely a location,” Saraintaris explained. “It’s challenging to evoke so much with so little – two words, two nouns, a pairing that’s not common in Spanish…In our narrative, the notion of strangeness is crucial. Being from Argentina and native Spanish speakers, both the language and the myths and culture encapsulated in the concept of ‘Americana’ feel ‘strange’ to us (just as we are ‘strange’ to them.) It’s within this sense of ‘strangeness’ that we find our footing to create our Pixel Pulps.”
The LCB Game Studio duo may lack familiarity with “Americana,” but that doesn’t show through in their games. Varney Lake clearly evokes the nostalgia of a lakeside summer spent playing with friends, while Mothmen 1966 is a near-perfect portrayal of a middle-of-nowhere gas station along the side of the road.
For Bahnsen Knights, one of the key settings is the bar where Boulder and the other Knights hang out between “road exorcism” missions. In the bar, one of the unique things players can do is play Via Crucis, a modified form of Solitaire. Each Pixel Pulp has at least one mini-game like this, and the duo fully design each game themselves. “There’s something inherent in the design of these rule systems that closely resembles the quest to comprehend our own thoughts, inevitably leading to the question of what constitutes thought itself.” It’s a surprisingly philosophical take on mini-games, but an effective one – the games in all three Pulps are addictive and compelling, and avoid feeling like a distraction from the central plot.
Also in the bar is a jukebox where players – via Boulder – can listen to a variety of tracks inspired by other indie games, such as Frank and Drake and Paradise Killer. The tracks were composed by Ruppel, who explained the process of working with other studios to facilitate the songs’ inclusion. “We collaborate with other studios only by asking them for a piece of information about their game, a meaningful phrase, or a special character. Based on that, I imagined album covers and music. I liked the idea of giving freedom to the player and letting them listen to music that isn’t so tense when walking through the bar. And the nods to those other universes were the ideal way.”
There’s much more to love about Bahnsen Knights than its setting. Like any good horror story, it needs a villain – and, in this case, the villain is Toni, a used car salesman who founded the titular Knights after having what he believed to be a religious revelation relating to the power of the Ford Sierra. On the subject of Toni, the LCB duo had this to say:
“Toni started out as a cliche – a used car salesman who could use his ‘silver tongue’ to convince anyone of anything. However, the character transcends this initial portrayal. He is a survivor and someone who appears to believe he has been signaled by an entity from a higher plane.” They feel that Toni represents the concept of the “charlatan” – he’s someone who can make others believe so many things, but at every moment there’s the possibility that his lies and his charisma can turn against him. When asked who would portray Toni should Bahnsen Knights ever become a movie, they had only one answer, and it was an immediate one: “Nicholas Cage. Without a doubt!”
A good villain needs a hero to oppose them. While Boulder, a new character, is the central hero of Bahnsen Knights, he also encounters Lou, a paranormal writer and investigator who is a recurring character in all three Pixel Pulps. In Mothmen 1966, he’s one of several trapped individuals desperately trying to survive the swarm of titular creatures. In Varney Lake, he shows up to interview the now-adult characters about their experiences with the charming vampire Liszt. And in Bahnsen Knights, his attempts to investigate the cult get him captured and earmarked as a potential sacrifice to quiet the coming tornadoes.
When asked about Lou, the pair revealed that he was a planned to be a part of the series since early development. They described him as “a figure meant to serve as a conduit for what is known as ‘author metonymy,’ the concept of intertwining fictional narrative and the author’s presence within the text. Surprisingly, the character resonated so deeply with us that he took on a life of his own, exorcising our presence from his very constitution.” It’s very likely that the compelling Lou will continue to make an appearance in future Pixel Pulps.
And will there be more Pixel Pulps coming in the future? Yes, the team revealed, that’s definitely the plan. GameLuster concluded the interview by asking Ruppel and Saraintaris if there were any hints they could share about the next entry in the Pulps series. What they had to say was this: “Our next Pixel Pulp features a slasher with a very special killer. We can’t reveal much yet, but we hope to unveil some surprises in the coming months!”
Bahnsen Knights – as well as previous Pixel Pulps Varney Lake and Mothmen 1966 – is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
