making of: CHOOSE OR DIE’s graphics

Our very first project for Netflix (that was exciting) was for the feature horror film “Choose or Die”. A complete dream project, director Toby Meakins, along with Anton and Stigma Films, brought us in to design the evil, 1980s video game “CURS>R” at the centre of the film. 

The simulated game (created with modern motion graphics software) was physically displayed on screens for the actors Iola Adams, Asa Butterfield and Eddie Marsan on set, and was triggered live to be as interactive for the actors as possible.

While the game design was a core focus, we also designed the main titles, main on end titles, several other sequences within the film, and contributed to some vfx shots working with the team at ghost vfx. Furthermore, we designed dozens of on-set props, signage, posters, on and on.

This article will give a peak behind the curtain at the making of our graphics for “Choose or Die”.

Choose or Die’s Main Title sequence that establishes the stakes of playing the game, but also provides some insight into what happens ‘after’ the opening scene of the film - the bargain that Hal makes with the game to save his family from further pain.

Kayla, the young woman at the centre of the film, has her life turned upside down by simply deciding to play the mysterious, 40-year-old video game Curs>r that she finds in an old cardboard box at her friend Isaac’s studio.

A frame from the films’ Main Titles, featuring the same pixellated graphic styling that game itself revels in.

Curs>r is the baddie at the centre of 'Choose or Die - the mysterious, 1980’s video game found and then awakened by Hal, which goes on to terrorise him and his family, before moving on to Kayla.

 Our role was to craft the game as authentically as possible. With extensive research, we paid careful attention to everything from the CRT wobble, and RGB cel aberrations, and even the speed at which the cursor flashes.

We studied dozens of ZX Spectrum games, the early computer system from which Curs>r was meant to have be born from, to ensure our creation of an early text-based adventure game, was completely convincing.

But it was the script that brought Curs>r’s personality alive, and as we move from level to level, the gruesome malice of the game becomes more and more exaggerated and maniacal..

The main Title screen for the Curs>r game.

Kayla’s begins to play Curs>r on her laptop in a diner as she waits for Isaac, but instead witnesses a gruesome event that game inflicts on a waitress.

A typical session playing Curs>r, which starts off with inoccuous questions, but quickly changes and becomes menacing, presenting impossible choices the player must make.

Eddie Marsan as Hal, who refuses to obey the game, and pays the price for it.

A full reel featuring a range of our graphics in Choose or Die

The game level that Kayla must play to protect her mother from the “rat king” that is actually stalking her in her physical apartment.

A sketch done on set with director Toby Meakins to work out the movement of the ‘rat king’ around Kayla’s mother’s apartment.

Another level that represents Kayla and Isaac’s drive to find the origins of the game

An on-set image of the game starting up on its own

An on-set image of the Isaac’s desk, and the game he’s been developing call Ghoster. We designed the UI for the software, as well as setting up rough scenes for Ghoster and its characters.

A frame from the film with Isaac at his desk

A frame from the game design graphics we created for Isaac’s screens, which allowed actor Asa Butterfield to manipulate certain details, such as rotating the Ghoster character seen here.

An on-set image of the “aged” black board behind Beck seen in the original 1980s VHS recording of them curse-code experiments, that Kayla and Isaac discover. The symbols (hard to see here, but more visible below) were also created by us, as the basis of the ancient curse, turned into game code by Beck and his company.

A still frame from the film, showing Beck within the video described above. Here the symbols, both the originals and the 8-bit versions we created are more visible. The conceit, not fully explained in the film, is that Beck and his company Valence Software Systems, discovered the curse in ancient texts. They then endeavoured to recreate the curse in the form of game code, using the symbols themselves.

Some of the 32 ancient curse characters isolated by Valance Software Systems

An array of the curse symbols recreated in 8-bit by Valance Software Systems, then embedded into game play, thus inflicting the curse on players of the game.

Some of the curse code isolated by Kayla

A still frame from the film, showing Kayla working with her hand-made keyboard, now retro-fitted to code in curse characters.

Working on Choose or Die was an absolute thrill for us. Having literally grown up with games similar to Curs>r (albeit not featuring curses) on Apple II Plus computers, the aesthetic was close to our heart. And being fans of horror, this was truly a dream project. For more info, please visit the full Choose or Die project page here.