Bad Milk
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| Bad Milk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Dreaming Media |
| Designers | Ted Skolnick Mick Skolnick |
| Programmer | Ted Skolnick |
| Artist | Mick Skolnick |
| Engine | Macromedia Director 7 |
| Platforms | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | October 12, 2000[1] |
| Genre | Puzzle |
| Mode | Single-player |
Bad Milk is a puzzle video game developed by New York City-based developer Dreaming Media, the working name of brothers Ted and Mick Skolnick. It was originally released on October 12, 2000,[2] for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Created entirely in Macromedia Director 7 and intended to be an art game, the game features a number of puzzles involving full-motion video and audio clues. It won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2002 Independent Games Festival, as well as the award for Innovation in Audio.
Mick Skolnick told GameDev.net in 2002 that he had worked in the cosmetics industry, retouching photographs for advertisements, after studying art in college; his brother Ted was a software developer and former engineering student.[3] According to the developers, Bad Milk was created to serve as "video installation art",[4] something the pair were keen to get involved with but which proved too expensive.[5] Mick said the concept of moving this into a video game was the "best way to combine our skills".[3] The pair worked out of their apartments in Queens, New York, since they couldn't afford to rent office space in the city.[4]
Bad Milk was developed in Macromedia Director 7.[6] Mick appears in puzzles throughout the game, recorded with a Sony Handycam and edited in Adobe Premiere. The pair worked part-time on the project, taking a year to develop the final game alongside professional work; they estimated production costs at $12,000 (equivalent to $22,435 in 2025), including hardware. It was released on a hybrid disc in order to be playable on both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.[3]
A demo version of the game was made available on the developer's website, along with a link to purchase the full game. As of 2016[update], it is not possible to purchase the full game from Dreaming Media.[5] To support the game's release, the pair entered a piece of time-lapse footage used in the game into San Francisco-based artist James Buckhouse's online exhibition of screen savers, Refresh: The Art of the Screen Saver. The footage depicts Mick's hair growing and, when reversed, receding and is used in the game's final puzzle.[7]
