Video Games That Don’t Exist

Video Games That Don’t Exist brings together a selection of Kieran Nolan’s AI machinima works with exclusive new material in a special festival edit. Machinima is a form of filmmaking that uses real-time computer graphics, typically from video games or virtual environments, to create animated films or videos.

The movie explores AI, authorship, and game aesthetics. Using clips generated by OpenAI’s Sora, the piece embraces AI’s unpredictability, turning glitches and deformities into creative elements. It reflects on the evolving relationship between human creativity and AI in digital art, blending elements of breakdancing, racing, and surreal YouTube culture.

Video Games That Don’t Exist was premiered at the 2025 Milan Machinima Festival in Los Angeles as part of the festival’s Game Engine Cinema programme at Microcinema MUBI @Vidiots.

Artist Statement

Sora is a powerful creative tool, but is not perfect by any means, and this project embraces these limitations. To borrow from the philosophy of circuit bending pioneer Reed Ghazala, the accidental glitches aren’t considered bugs in the context of this work, but an integral feature. At the time of writing AI video generators are evolving to allow greater levels of granular control. The current state of the art of this tech is always the worst it will be, but why idealise the perfect future medium when right now you can enjoy working with AI that rapidly unlocks so many creative possibilities while often doing its own thing and hallucinating as standard? I imagine that further down the line this imperfect style of AI will continue to be explored and experimented with by artists, its inherent constraints functioning as an incentive, just as with so many legacy digital platforms that live on on as creative mediums beyond their mainstream commercial shelf-life.

Upcoming screenings (2025, 2026)

Video Games That Don’t Exist will feature at Le Cube Garges, Paris for as part of the Machinim_ai programme over a series of 6 screenings on 25/10/2025, 29/11/2025, 12/02/2026, 27/03/2026, 22/04/2026 and 01/07/2026. https://www.lecubegarges.fr/en/

Additionally Video Games That Don’t Exist will also screen as part of the exhibition Comment ne pas jouer le jeu? (How not to play the game?) at Matricule Bis, Festival du Jeu Vidéo et des Arts Numériques at Orléans School of Art and Design, France 23/01/2026 to 31/01/2026. https://linktr.ee/matriculebis

Video Games That Don’t Exist will also screen at the RENDR Creativity and Tech Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 12-13/02/2026.