War of the Servers

The virtual landscapes of a video game are transformed into an existential tale of solemn beauty.

Ryo Hazuki finds himself seeing his father Iwao die at the hands of a mysterious Chinese man named Lan Di, who also steals an item Iwao had called the "Dragon Mirror". Ryo makes it his mission to get revenge on Lan Di, but first he has to find out how to find him, with the warhouse docks & the Mad Angels gang being his best leads.

Tim Hawkins is a world-renowned stuntman famous for his death-defying performances. For his latest and most dangerous act yet, he sets out to break the Guinness World Record for the highest controlled fall ever attempted — using none other than the Statue of Liberty as his launch point. But the fall doesn’t go as planned. Before the cameras roll, Tim slips prematurely and plummets off the statue, smashing into the emergency security pads below. Though the pads break his fall, the impact leaves him unconscious and in critical condition. While his body lies in a coma, Tim's mind becomes trapped in a nightmarish loop — an eternal, slow-motion fall that never ends.

O, a creator who has become lost within his own creation. As Death arrives at 3:33 am—the witching hour—to claim him, O is forced to confront the flaws in his work and his own mistakes. Through a series of flashbacks, the film reveals O's influence on the world he built, using various characters from different eras to maintain his followers' worship. The narrative explores themes of creation, legacy, and the consequences of a creator’s flawed intervention in their own work, ultimately suggesting that his removal is the only way for the game (a metaphor for life) to be truly fixed.

"TALES FROM STRANGERVILLE" is a 2020 machinima created in The Sims 4 and directed by Alvin Soprano and Harley Coleman. Serving as a sequel to the creator's first machinima, "SOMETHING STRANGE IN STRANGETOWN" (2007), the film continues the story of an unnamed protagonist who was abducted by a mysterious light. Now named Lavinia, she is dropped into the technologically advanced desert town of StrangerVille with no memory of what transpired. The film follows Lavinia as she teams up with George Cahill and Erwin Pries to investigate the source of a mysterious, disembodied voice only she can hear. Their search for answers leads them to a classified government lab at the heart of the town’s strange occurrences, where they must confront the truth behind the town’s bizarre infection and Lavinia’s own past.

Set near the cursed Hellfrozeover Lake, the story centers on Billy Bob (Zachary Chambers), a reclusive and mentally impaired man who stalks young campers engaging in premarital sex. Raised by his puritanical and deeply traumatized mother (Belinda Soprano), Billy was taught that sex is evil and that his disability is a divine punishment for his mother’s own non-consensual encounter with a family member.

Two college couples, Pierre and Sophie, and Frank and Maddison, who seek a relaxing retreat at an Airbnb in rural Cornwall, Connecticut. Their host, Jonah, possesses an unsettling demeanor and provides a curious warning about a locked basement. What begins as a pleasant escape quickly devolves into a struggle for survival as the group confronts an insidious force stemming from the forbidden basement and a broken mirror. As the possessed girls turn on their friends, the couples are drawn into a terrifying ordeal that culminates in the shocking revelation of Jonah's involvement in a continuing, dark ritual.

A master of espionage is hot on the trail of a new kind of computer criminal. Lindsay is a scientist whose latest discovery in energy transformation has the potential to revolutionize the world; it also attracts the attention of Zachary, the leader of a cyber-savvy gang, and Zachary kidnaps Lindsay in order to learn her secrets. Lindsay's sister Ricki soons becomes concerned about her sister's disappearance, and contacts super sleuth Max Knight to find her. As Max searches for Lindsay, he discovers Zachary and his cohorts have strange plans for Lindsay's innovation, which could make it possible for them to leave their bodies and travel wherever they wish through the Internet.

A low-level hitman Ceasar Rodriguez wakes up in the passenger seat of a blood-soaked car with no memory of how he got there. Beside him, the driver is dead. The streets of Liberty City are empty, but his sins are not. Haunted by visions of the people he’s killed — and the person he used to be — he stumbles through a night filled with paranoia, betrayal, and bloody flashbacks. Each clue he uncovers leads him deeper into a conspiracy that may or may not be real. He sees faces from his past. Hears voices that aren't there. Fights enemies he can't prove exist.

In 2004, Bella Goth disappears without a trace. Nearly a decade later, her teenage children, Cassandra and Alexander, uncover a secret: their mother’s disappearance was not natural — and may still be preventable. Using experimental time-travel technology, the siblings go back to 1984 to find their young mother and warn her about what’s to come. But time is fragile. Their well-meaning interference causes unforeseen changes to the present. When Cassandra and Alexander return to 2013, they find everything... perfect. Bella never vanished. Their childhood was happy. Their family is intact. But something feels wrong. Reality is unraveling beneath their feet. The price of rewriting history is catching up.

Lilith Marek doesn’t remember the man’s face. She only remembers the alley, the darkness, and the sensation of dying. After surviving a brutal sexual assault that left her unconscious and transformed into a vampire, Lilith wakes up changed — body, blood, and soul. But she doesn’t run. She doesn’t hide. She hunts.

Clear Skies follows a trio of down-and-out misfits who've seen no end of bad luck. John Rourke is the obstinate captain of the Clear Skies, a Tempest class battleship manufactured by the downtrodden Minmatar race of New Eden. Rourke's attitude toward his hazardous chosen lifestyle is cavalier, although this does not sit well with his friends among the crew.

These likeable dropouts from the entrenched corporate lifestyle of New Eden eke out a meager living on trade runs and the odd courier job here and there. Still, they manage to find humor in their grim lot as they narrowly avoid being blown out of the stars by pirates, hired thugs, or whatever threat awaits them on the other side of the next jump gate. This is life aboard the Clear Skies.

Late Night Caller is a slasher horror machinima centered around a quiet neighborhood where a series of disturbing phone calls escalate into a night of terror. A group of teenagers begin receiving cryptic, threatening messages from an unknown caller — who seems to be watching their every move. When one of them turns up dead, the tension explodes into violence, and what begins as a prank spirals into a full-blown killing spree. As the body count rises, secrets unravel, and the surviving characters must figure out who the killer is — before the next call comes through.

Stranded is a short horror survival machinima created by Alvin Soprano, made using The Sims 2: Castaway. After a shipwreck, a Sim regains consciousness on a remote tropical island with no memory of how he got there. He begins to gather supplies, search for shelter, and attempt to send signals for help. But as time passes, eerie signs begin to emerge — strange carvings in the rocks, whispers in the jungle, and footsteps that don't belong to him. As his grip on reality begins to slip, the Sim must face the possibility that the island isn’t uninhabited — and that something is watching him.

Simterview with the Vampire is a 36-minute machinima mockumentary created using The Sims 3. Acclaimed journalist Jonathan Parker (Dean Roman Castiglione) accepts a mysterious invitation from Anastasia Vassiliev (Aylin Baykal), an ancient vampire intent on revealing her true nature to the world. Jonathan arrives at Anastasia’s mansion in the Hollywood Hills, where he is welcomed by her loyal familiar, Penny (Alvin Soprano). Throughout the interview, Anastasia shares her personal history and her philosophy on vampirism, while introducing Jonathan to her adopted vampire daughter Natalia Svetlitskiy (Evie Campbell), who remains forever fourteen. As night turns to dawn, the interview takes a darker, increasingly unsettling turn—culminating in a revelation that changes everything.

Markarth is shaken awake by a strange sight: a colossal dragon calmly seated in the middle of the town square. Initially assumed to be a threat, the townsfolk panic and report it to King Erik. In response, he dispatches the kingdom’s finest — Dragon Slayer Xander — to eliminate the creature. But things aren’t as simple as they seem. As Xander prepares to strike, the mother dragon’s children emerge from hiding, revealing that this wasn’t an invasion — it was a family seeking refuge. Before anyone can act further, the town is suddenly stormed by aliens, throwing the entire narrative off course.

If you have everything, you have everything to lose. John Rourke and his crew run the shiny new Maelstrom. But when Mr. Smith has a new job offer, everything changes and pushes New Eden again to the edge of chaos. JR, Charlie, and Sol are back for one more adventure, that takes them from a dull daily grind to trying to save an entire star system that's been taken hostage. Time to trust in rust for one last time.

After an AI robot on an asteroid mining facility disappears under mysterious circumstances the company sends an investigator.

10-year-old Danny can’t believe how naive and dumb Little Red Riding Hood from Grimm’s fairy tale is. Determined to save the girl and her grandmother from the evil wolf, he decides to travel through time and change history. But Little Red Riding Hood is not stupid at all. And she certainly doesn’t need to be saved …