The game I have chosen to present is the indie game Hyper Light Drifter, This game is made by the studio Heart Machine. It is a 2d top view platformer game. The Art style is pixelized style. What really caught my attention of the game is the ambiance, the music, and just the overall experience, it is something you must experience for yourself, for that reason being I will not talk about the story as it is best to play through it and experience it.
Artists Statement:
For this game, I decided to combine two different games into one. I took the gambling aspects of poker and took all the moves of Brawlhalla and instead of betting money or currency you bet your moves and the person who wins gets to keep all his moves but the one who loses cannot use the moves that they bet at the match right after the finish the gambling aspect of this.
The meaning of this project is to symbolize strategy, patience, and luck. the way you can strategize by betting certain moves that you know that you will possibly not use in the match and not have to put at risk losing the game, at the same time applying the concept of psychology and luring your opponent during the betting phase and making him bet what you want him to lose. The symbol of patience is shown in both phases in the betting phase while waiting for that perfect chance to raise the stakes and make the match way riskier at the same time being able to get or a better profit or a bigger loss all f that is up to luck. Inside the game applying the concept of patience is shown as waiting for that perfect chance to use a certain move, which there might be the possibility depending on how the 1st phase went, that might be your only move left in your arsenal, just waiting to use it to try and win the match even in most dire situation. Now to apply the biggest symbol which is luck this one is shown everywhere in the project, the game of poker itself is mostly compromised of luck as you are willing to take a risk without knowing the outcome and hope that your luck is better than the rest of the players so that you can come out victorious. in the second phase of the game, it is compromised of your luck to see how well your opponent is playing and how you can take advantage on that department.
The biggest thing about this was also how to find a new way to have fun with a game that by playing it always the same way can turn out to start getting boring, so implementing this new way of playing can make the game feel refreshed and open a new world of possibilities, not just for this game but to many that chose to take this approach to games. At the end, I want this project to serve as inspiration for companies, the normal consumers, and just about everyone that plays games and sometimes gets tired of the way they are playing them, that there will be always a new way to play them and enjoy the games, the sky is the limit to how you chose to play them, everything is up to your imagination and creativity on how to have fun. This has been my point for this project, hope that it can inspire future projects in the days to come.
How it turned out:
The game turned out well as it played out perfectly as planned with my roommate we had a lot of stress with the poker aspect and the ones who lost got more serious than the ones who won leading sometimes to a case that the ones who lost won the match as they were not relaxed as the person who won. It was an interesting turn of events but it turned out well.
The second iteration turned out pretty interesting as one of the players had lost all of his unarmed moves but he was able to play so well that he was never unarmed and he won all of the matches, that goes to show even if you lost the gambling aspect the part of you that has skill will kick in to replace what you lost and will even the odds and maybe allow you to win.
Rules:
The rules for this game are plain and simple you have all your moves to bet, all of them have a set price, you would play this as if it were a normal game of poker, later on when the game of poker is done, the winner gets to keep all his moves and has no penalty within the game, the loser loses all the abilities that he bet and as such he cannot use them, if m he is deemed to lose this round, again if you win you keep all your bilities for the fight, if you lost you get punished and all the abilities you lost cannot be used during the fight.
Here is the chart of the prices for the game:
Brawlhalla prices – Poker
Inspiration:
This Game was inspired by the in the class activity of the Dada Collage, why? Because throwing many things together and making them work as a different work altogether and making a whole new piece out of it, is one of the biggest things I did with this project. This is also inspired from the reading “Discourse Engines for Art Mods” which discusses the many different ways onto which someone can mod a game both inside and outside the game. And lastly the reading “Sustainable Play: Towards A New Games Movement for
the Digital Age” for the reason being this is a mixture of games that can be implemented into the future and games can take the seeds of this modification and implement it in their own way to new games that are coming out in the near future.
Dropbox video links:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1e6p9vsfkld4yp/20180526_154545.mp4?dl=0
The first video shows the first part of the project which is the gambling part and will be leading up to the second video.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xy4b3g8da2zkc08/20180526_191253.mp4?dl=0
This second video shows the project in its second phase, aka. the gameplay phase.
Overview:
Relationship is a two-player strategy card game, in which the players can choose to either cooperate or compete with each other. The game primarily focuses on how to manage a relationship while having a career at the same time.
Game pieces:
Two sets of Goal cards
A stack of Love cards
A stack of Work cards
Two Relationship Meters
Markers for the meter (8 in total)
One six-sided dice
How to play:
In Relationship, the players would each draw 3 Work cards and 3 Love cards as their starting hand. As the game progresses, they would keep drawing new cards after each turn in order to always have 3 Work cards and 3 Love cards in hand. Note that a player is only able to influence the other player’s Love meter unless noted otherwise, so the cards they play would always apply to the Love meter of their partner, instead of the Love meter of themselves.
A player can only play one card per round, so they have to choose between their Love cards and Work cards. If a player has played 3 Work/Love cards in a row, they have to play at least one card of the opposite type before putting a fourth card of the same type down. After the first three rounds, if both players’ Love/Work meters are down to zero simultaneously, the relationship would fall apart and both players would lose the game.
Many Work/Love cards also have special abilities noted on them. For example, Oversea Vacation can be countered by Promotion, Birthday Party and Birthday Present add extra Love Points if played together, and keep playing Overtime would drop the other player’s Love Points drastically.
There are five different Goal cards, and each player would pick two of them in secret at the beginning of the game. A player can declare their victory as soon as the win condition on either Goal card is met, and it’s possible for the players to both win if they share the same Goal card.
Inspiration:
A lesson I learned in this class is that games are not necessarily about winning; it’s about the experiences. A game that can’t be won can speak just as much as another game if not more, such as September 12th, Madrid, and The Graveyard. Therefore, I want to make the gameplay process more important than win or lose in my game. Another inspiration was the prisoner’s dilemma, for the player can choose to either cooperate or compete with the other player, but it’s hard to know what the other player’s goal is especially when everyone picks their goals in secret.
I kept thinking about games like That Dragon, Cancer and The End of the World when I was working on this project, even though the genres are completely different. Just like these games, I wanted to make a personal game based on my own values and experiences, even though they might not be able to appeal to everyone. There were times in the past when I felt I was forced to give up on my feelings due to a busy schedule and pressure from family, and this is the first thing that came to my mind when I started thinking about making a game based on my own experiences. The idea behind this game is that one cannot focus on career and love at the same time, and I think it worked well so far. There is one goal in the game that allows the player to win by balancing love and work, but no one has even tried to accomplish it yet in any playtest. Even if a player had picked it in the beginning, they would soon switch to the other goal after seeing their partner focusing on one thing.
Some avant-garde video games such as Passage, Storyteller, and The Graveyard have very unique themes. By selecting a personal and different theme, I wanted to make an avant-garde game that introduces an experimental idea to help engage people in more kinds of ways.
Card design samples:
Documentation:
Overview / Rules
Public Circuit is an Intervention piece with a focus on putting play in a disruptive location. Two teams race in a 3 legged race, with standard rules. This race takes place on the circular walking path of Centennial Quad during peak hours before common class times, such as before 11:45, 1:35, and 3:15. The two teams race to complete the circuit 5 times from the same starting point. They must stick to the path at all times, and must do their best not to bump into anyone on the path.
Artist Statement
This game looks to find meaning merely by transplanting one activity into a different location. The piece focuses on re-contextualization, and how that changes the dynamics of the activity. This is inspired by many happenings and artworks by artists like Kaprow and Ono. These pieces see artifacts or activities taken into different environments or contexts, even changing small things like the scale of an artifact. This piece is also very appropriative, as there are no new mechanics in the game. However, by putting this type of race where control and agility are limited in the context of a busy area, it adds obstacles normally not present. In this case, people become a barrier to your goals, and changes the dynamics and speed of the race. The race no longer relies on the strategies and physical abilities that are present in a normal three legged race, and it instead becomes about navigation, and how willing the racers are to be an inconvenience to passersby.
This games goals in terms of intervention are very similar to the freeze piece in Grand Central Station, where a focus isn’t on audience participation, but rather their perceptions of the event. Whereas that piece focused on mystery and audiences being confused, my piece focuses on more negative emotions. Actively being disruptive to people on their ways to class is an annoyance, and may result in people being upset or inconvenienced. However, this frustration that passersby may experience is directly juxtaposed with the playful competition present in the actual race. This dynamic is interesting, and acts as a break from the fairly direct and one-tracked peoples’ navigation to classes is.
V3 (Final Version)
You have a starting line that everyone starts off at, and your ultimate goal is to make it to the end of the board with a certain amount of points. Points are either accumulated from actions, stolen from other players, or obtained at the end of the board depending on how quickly you make it there (every turn, the end of the board gives you 1 less point, starting from like 20 points or something). Every turn, you roll 1D6 to move, and land on either a blank space or an action space. The action space can either a) give you an action card that you can use at any time in the game or b) immediately cause you to take a certain action, such as moving forwards/backwards spaces, sending you on a different path, causing ‘conflict’ or ‘benefits’ (point -/+), etc. This is decided by rolling the dice a second time and depending on whether you roll a 1-4 or a 5-6 decides if you draw an immediate action space (b) or an action card (b) .
Some of the actions can be negated or enhanced based on your species, or any action cards you have in your hand that essentially act as equip cards (green card, family members, previous favors you can cash in on). However, the main problem in the game is this: once one person reaches the end of the map, each remaining player has 1 more turn to make it to the end of the map before the ferry departs for the new land, regardless of how many points the player has. You must end the game with at least 20 points to immigrate, and depending on how many points you end up with decides what place you have in society. 20-29: Working Class. 30-35: Middle Class. 36-40: Upper Class.
So the game overall is more so about a few things: 1) how immigration isn’t fair sometimes even if you do all of the right things (the ferry departing without you on it) 2) how selfish or selfless people can be when you all face hardships together (whether you wait to go to the end so that more people can make it, at the expense of guaranteed points, and also whether or not you steal points from people or intentionally sabotage them) and 3) how not everyone has the same path to success (species, differrent actions and how they affect you, etc.)
I actually made this model after multiple different variations, each with a whole rules list. The second version I made was very different, and the third one is most similar to the first, but is more straightforward and makes more sense. I will only post the second and third versions as they aren’t as in detail as my first (the original).
Also, Original Board:
Games Final V2
There are going to be resource bars called criminality, happiness, and anger. You must have less than 2 anger, less than 2 criminality, and more than 2 happiness to successfully enter Alta. You start with 2 anger, 0 criminality, and 2 happiness. The ratio of what “day” it is is affected by you criminality (You add your criminality by the day, which determines what action will occur). During the day cycle, Dragonborn and Bobblemen roll D6 while Mansepos and Spectres roll D3, reverse in night cycle, which rotates every 3 turns. After 6 turns, the days cycle. On day 3, all rolls are halved in value, rounding up. Each card has a different choice on them and cause different effects to your different resources, then I had a few cards mapped out.
Games Final V3 (as well as the cards included)
Species:
Mansepos
-Start with 20 points.
-All immediate card effects (or cards against you) are doubled, regardless of negative or positive effects.
Sommiticus
-Start with 15 points.
-Start with a D5 (roll a D6 and subtract 1)
-They can use one action card twice.
Spectres
-Start with 10 points
-All point losses are halved.
Frashers
-Start with 10 points
-Start with a D5 (roll a D6 and subtract 1)
-Passively gain 1 point per turn
Purchasing Store: You can use your points to give you an advantage in the game. Abilities can only be purchased at the beginning of the game.
Dice Plus: Increase your dics roll by 1 permanently. 15 points.
Action Plus: Purchase a random action card. 5 points.
Steal Plus: Gives you a chance to steal points from other players based on a double dice roll. 5 points.
Anti-Steal: Prevents a single player from stealing points from you for that turn.
Action spaces (1-4):
Move forward 1/2/3 spaces (Find money on the ground, find a fellow immigrant from your country, get help from a kind immigration officer)
Move backwards 1/2/3 spaces (Lose money, lose your immigration papers, get caught up at an immigration checkpoint)
Take a side path
Gain 1/2/3 points (do a good deed, do a great deed, do an amazing deed)
Lose 1/2/3 points (do a bad deed, do a worse deed, do a terrible deed)
Take 1 point from every other player (cause distrust amongst all other species)
Give 2 points to the player w/ the least amount of points (help a poor immigrant out)
Give 2 points to the player w/ the most amount of points (get strong-armed by a gang of immigrants)
If you have less than 10 points, gain 2 points (poor man’s luck)
If you have less than 10 points, lose 1 point (poor man’s misery)
If you have less than 10 points, move back 3 spaces (detained simply for being poor)
If you have more than 20 points, give 1 of your points to every other player (sharing the wealth/knowledge)
If you have more than 20 points, lose 5 points (get too greedy)
If you have more than 20 points, move forward 5 spaces (use your status to cut the line)
Action cards (5-6):
Take 4 points from a player; give yourself two points and give another player two points (petty thieving scheme)
Move forward either 1, 2, or 3 spaces (read the newspaper, able to predict events)
Send any other player back 3 spaces (plant a false flag on another player)
Move any other player forward 3 spaces (send helpful information to another player)
Obtain a green card (allows you to negate any 1 negative points action against you)
Obtain a yellow card (allows you to negate any 1 movement action you would have to take otherwise)
Obtain a red card (if you are on the same space as another player, you can steal half of their points)
Switch places with another player
Steal 2 points from every player you pass this turn
Push each player that you pass this turn back 1 space
All players with more than 20 points lose 5 points or get pushed back to 20 points, whichever happens first
All players with less than 10 points gain 2 points or get pushed to 10 points, whichever happens first
Landing on a colored space allows you to roll again. This roll determines if you pick from the Action Card pile, or the Action Space pile.
I feel that my reason for choosing/creating a piece such as this is to bring awareness to the issue of discrimination against immigration and against immigrants in general in a game-like way. I want it to cause a powerful feeling, like with the man who posted the names of the people who died in the war in the military war game and the feelings those around him felt. I want to invoke a feeling of unfairness in just luck and who you are, things you can do nothing to change. I wanted to do immigration because I am a Muslim, and over the past months, Muslim immigrants have been getting a lot of trouble for either being a Muslim or just having a Muslim name without even being Muslim. Even someone with a long beard would be pulled aside just because they might have some Pakistani features. I modeled different species after different people, like how the Mansepos have a major advantage in which they start with the most points and the fact that every point or space they move/gain is doubled and how the Frashers start with the lowest points and start with a D5 instead of a D6,.
The Game
The emotional experience the game and its mechanics are meant to convey is the feeling of being in a failing relationship, and knowing you’re in it, but trying to hide those feelings away and lie to yourself that the relationship is fine. The game is played by the player receiving a letter from their character’s long-distance partner each day. After reading the letter, the player “goes to work” by filling out sticky notes of emails, code snippets, and art assets. While doing this, however, the player must also handle their anxieties and mental state by also catching their anxieties in a digital game to hide them from their brain in an attempt to convince themselves that their relationship is in better shape than it is. As the days go on, the letters hint at more and more issues, and the anxieties begin to fall at faster and faster rates, distracting the player more and more. The goal is to complete as much work as possible each day in the given time limit, and to keep their confidence level above zero (this level goes down with missed anxieties). If a player’s confidence does hit zero, they must stop working for the day to deal with their emotions. Any missed work could result in a pay deduction by their boss. The game ends with the relationship ending, but as a result the player can focus solely on their work without the distraction of their anxieties, which represents the weight lifted from them by not having to deal with the pressure of an unhealthy relationship any longer.
The Inspiration
This game was heavily inspired by the games Every Day The Same Dream and the Cannery scene of What Remains of Edith Finch. In Every Day The Same Dream, the player-character goes through the “same” day of work in a cycle unless they perform specific actions that break that cycle, much like how in this game the player is doing the same menial tasks every day of work. In the cannery level of What Remains of Edith Finch, the player is shown through mechanics the feeling and experience of performing a menial physical task over and over again to the point where their mind can wander into much more detailed, complex tasks, just as how in this game the player is repeating the same basic actions for their work while the intensity of handling their anxieties ramps up as they go along. The game was also inspired by Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, in the sense that the experience becomes more stressful and intense as it goes on longer and longer, and that the piece is a very personal interaction between the player and the artist. I played a role in the game as the player’s boss, and the game is pseudo-autobiographical, which opens the player up to experiences and feelings I’ve been familiar with before.
The Materials
Like many ready-mades and flux-kits, many of the elements of this game were pre-made objects that needed only slight interaction from the player. Letters that needed only to be read, sticky notes requiring only a signature or a drawing. The digital element was the only thing I had to create from scratch, but even then the main mechanic of catching falling objects is a simple thing many games include in some capacity. I wanted the pieces to feel genuine and purposeful. As can be seen in the pictures of the letters, as the days go on the letters become less and less heartfelt and the materials used to write them become cheaper and cheaper, representing the partner’s waning interest in the relationship.
The Results
The player’s experience was as close to the target as possible. The player said they had been in an experience similar to what the game was mirroring, and said the mechanics very accurately expressed the emotional feeling of being in a failing relationship and trying to cope with that fact.
Playing the game.
The letters.
The final piece of “work.”
The digital component.
Lingua Franca is a game for 4 players, in which three players have full access to a vocabulary of mechanics while one player starts the game with only the most basic vocabulary needed to play the game, and must build their vocabulary through trial and error.
THE RULES
At the beginning of the game, the four players must decide what roles each is going to take. A player who has played or watched the game before, must not play as the ‘foreigner’ (The one player initially not granted access to the full vocabulary). The three remaining players must decide which of the three following roles they want to play: The Passive, The Aggressive, and The Teacher.
The Passive player wins if by the end of the game, the Foreigner has successfully learned more terms from the blue vocabulary than red.
The Aggressive player wins if by the end of the game, the Foreigner has successfully learned more terms from the red vocabulary than blue.
The Teacher player wins if by the end of the game, the Foreigner has successfully learned the same amount of terms from both red and blue vocabularies. Additionally, the Teacher is allowed to teach the player two terms of choice at the beginning of the game.
At the start of the game, each player receives 2 Lingua points, and the the Teacher declares which two terms they wish to impart to the Foreigner. On their turn, players may spend 4 Lingua points to teach a term to the Foreigner. The Foreigner, however, may spend 3 Lingua points to learn a word at random (roll 1d10).
Once setup has been resolved, the game begins.
Gameplay takes place in rounds, wherein each player gets a chance to challenge another player to a die duel (the foreigner always goes last). During a die duel, each player must declare what type of die they will roll by reciting the appropriate word from the vocabulary. Then, the challenger must select UP or DOWN. Selecting UP determines that the player who rolls the highest number wins the duel, whereas selecting DOWN determines that the player who rolls the lowest number wins the duel. The winner of the duel gains a single Lingua point.
Once every player has gotten their chance to challenge another player to a duel, the game moves to the next round.
Throughout the game, players are allowed to utter words from their vocabulary to trigger their effects, changing the way the game plays slightly. The Foreigner may attempt to use one word per duel, and the Teacher must nod their head to confirm proper use of the term, or shake their head to confirm misuse of the term. If the teacher confirms proper use of the term, the Foreigner may spend 1 Lingua point to have the Teacher carry out the effects of the term, without explicitly telling the Foreigner what they are doing. No player is allowed to explain the vocabulary to the player by any means other than this, or spending Lingua points.
The game continues as such for a total of 3-4 Rounds. Once the game ends, players review what words the Foreigner has learned correctly, and declare a winner according to what the totals are.
REMINDER: PLAYERS ONLY GET ONE ACTION PER ROUND, OTHER THAN DECLARING THEIR DIE AND WIN CONDITION.
GREY VOCABULARY
| WORD | MEANING |
| Abboh (AH-bow) | “UP” – Declares highest roll wins duel. |
| Donnit (DOH-knit) | “DOWN” – Declares lowest roll wins duel. |
| Shooflee (SHOO-flee) | “6” – Declares player will use a six-sided die. |
| Shoofa (SHOO-fah) | “8” – Declares player will use an eight-sided die. |
| Shakhi (SHAH-kee) | “10” – Declares player will use a ten-sided die. |
| Grongo (GRON-go) | “Hello!” – A greeting. |
| Zupa (ZOO-pah) | “Goodbye.” – A farewell. |
| Tipi Tipi (TIH-pee TIH-pee) | “Thank you.” or “You’re welcome.” |
| Whoh (Whoa) | “Sorry!” or “Oops!” |
BLUE VOCABULARY
| WORD | MEANING | RANDOM LEARNING NUMBER |
| Plissi (PLEE-see) | “More” – Say this as a player rolls their die. Grants a player’s roll a +3 bonus. May not be used on self. | 1 |
| Sisaroom (Sis-ah-ROOM) | “Tie, Draw” – Offer this to your opponent. If the other player replies with “Sisaroom” as well, the duel is decided with a match of Rock Paper Scissors instead. | 2 |
| Germit (JUHR-mitt) | “Profit” – Offer this to your opponent. If the other player replies with “Germit” as well, the winner of the duel gains two points instead of one. | 3 |
| Bohppet (BOP-it) | “Lucky” – Offer this to another player other than your opponent. If the other player nods, you may roll with advantage (roll twice, take highest). Otherwise, this action is void. | 4 |
| Grumpipo (GRUM-pee-po) | “Tiny, Small” – Declares player will use a four-sided die. | 5 |
RED VOCABULARY
| WORD | MEANING | RANDOM LEARNING NUMBER |
| Bouppa (BOO-pah) | “Less” – Say this as a player rolls their die. Grants a player’s roll a -3 penalty. May not be used on self. | 6 |
| Pacaboo(PAH-kah-boo) | “Steal” – Offer this to your opponent. If the other player replies with “Pacaboo” as well, the winner of the duel steals 1 Lingua point from the loser. | 7 |
| Grimboh (GRIM-bow) | “Gamble” – Offer this to a player other than your opponent before you roll your die. If they nod in response, trade dice with your opponent. Otherwise, this action is void. | 8 |
| Twistett (TWIST-it) | “Unlucky” – Offer this to another player other than your opponent. If the other player shakes their head, you may roll with disadvantage (roll twice, take lowest). Otherwise, this action is void. | 9 |
| Galanga (gah-LUN-gah) | “Large, Giant” – Declares player will use a twelve-sided die. | 10 |
The tally of learned words by the end of the game.
The ‘Foreigner’, being taught a new word.
The ‘Foreigner’s sheet by the end of the game, full of notes and learned words.
Players in the middle of a round, checking their vocabularies.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The original intent of this game, was to represent a familiar experience of mine that can’t be that easily abstracted, or at least, not accurately. I set out to try and accomplish something that not a lot of games have done (as far as my knowledge), which was to condense the experience of learning a new language and adjusting to a new linguistic environment, into a set of concise mechanics. While the game ultimately became more complicated on the players than I intended, that managed to carry the meaning through more effectively.
Observing other games and movements we studied in this class really helped me with the ideas and direction as to how I would abstract this experience into a game that other people of background different from mine, could run through. The multi-cultural movement of Dada actually helped me quite a bit in this respect, because seeing all of these artists from different areas of the world like Zurich, Berlin, Paris, all come together and create works within the same movement helped me find similarities in the fact that none of those artworks in particular had a language barrier blocking their meaning.
Fluxus kits and movements also really helped me figure out a better structure for the game, considering that they helped me see a path towards better abstracting this experience into a simpler, briefer game. I saw fluxus kits and other works like those featured in Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit, I saw as being great examples of somewhat simple tasks that ultimately carry their own meaning to the “player”.
Not to mention the appropriation unit was integral to the idea of this game, because the basic idea of the game I saw as an appropriation of the card game “Mao”. In the game, no player is allowed to explain the rules to a newcomer, so the newcomer must figure them out through experience. This game did, in that mechanic, include a large amount of the meaning I wanted to convey , but not with the same context. The set of appropriation examples we saw during that unit, such as the projects we had to make (Settlers of Catan, Global Warming style in my example), influenced by altered games such as red chess, helped me find some sort of middle ground between using the same mechanic and being able to draw it into the context I wanted to.
The end result of those influences and my experiences became Lingua Franca, a game that I think does a pretty decent job of really condensing my personal experience with language barriers. Through observing, I could tell that the players were trying to learn but struggling a bit to take in the vocabulary, as I intended. They weren’t struggling on behalf of the meaning of the words, they seemed to struggle in piecing them together to the larger picture of the game and how their actions would translate to how the game changes. This was more of a byproduct of the mechanics, but a convenient one at that.
Gameplay:
This game is based around the idea of privacy and government surveillance. My project is a LARP, choice driven kind of game where I act as an official from the government to help guide the player through setting up his/her first computer. The player will be given information about their character so they can get into character such as the name, email address, country, birth date, citizenship ID, bank information, passport info etc. I, the government official will give the player a set of instructions to follow in order to complete the computer set up process. Some of these instructions include joining certain wireless devices, signing up for government websites, social media sites, setting up an online banking account, enabling settings like cookies, camera on the computer, and agreeing to terms and conditions. So for these different steps, players will be presented contracts, webpages and softwares to fill in their own given personal information to complete the steps.
The choice driven aspect kicks in when players decide whether or not to put in their real information. Players can choose to either follow the instructions, or not. With that said, in the end, players will either have their privacy breached by the government if they follow the instructions, or be put on their watch list if they don’t follow instructions.
For each step, if the player chooses to put in real information, I will present them with a “notification” from the government, complimenting the player’s action and also notify the consequences of the player’s action in a satirical way. For example, a notification for choosing to enable camera / microphone would go like “your computer mic and camera will be accessed at certain times by our safety department just so we can ensure your safety. Don’t worry, you won’t even be aware when we access your camera and microphone”. Whereas if you choose not to enable camera and mic, you will receive a notification telling you “WARNING: your computer camera and mic will not be able to be accessed by us because you disabled the feature. This way, we cannot monitor you at all times to ensure your safety. You are now on your own”. So for every step that the player takes in the instructions, they will receive a notification regarding the results of their actions. So many of these notifications have a satirical aspect to them, where they reflect on what’s going on in society today in terms of privacy on the internet. These notification cards are also a way to motivate players to perhaps go back and forth between putting in real information and putting in fake information.
There really is no win state as the game ends by me telling players how much of their privacy has been breached based on how they approached the overall set up process, and telling players how much notoriety that they have from the government. I believe this game overall serves as a reflection on what’s going on in the internet today, with privacy and government surveillance issues.
The left picture shows a step where players will be given a phone where they have to choose to download these softwares or not. The screen on the right is another step where players have to choose which wifi device to join. They can choose to join the official wifi, or other alternatives.
Example of one of the forms that are required in the steps. So players choose to fill these parts in with real or fake info.
The official instructions, the different steps like terms and agreement, finger scanning, picking interests and enabling cookies / notifications / location. The last picture shows the different information of the player’s character (bank card, ID, passport), and the notifications.
Playtest:
So I playtested this game with a few people and they seemed to enjoy it, especially the notification cards that they received. I think the LARP aspect definitely brings life to this game too as we pretty much play out a scenario like in banks when you set up a bank account with an employee there. I’ve noticed that many players either went full in with filling in real info or fake info. So they don’t really go back and forth for the set up process. I think a way to fix this is to give players something to lose, so perhaps adding stats to the game. Stats like health, money, notoriety, privacy level, government watchlist level etc. And the choices that they make for each step will impact on these stats, thus motivating players to go back and forth between following and not following instructions to try to balance / prevent these stats from dropping. Perhaps I could make it so if a certain stat reaches a certain point, then the player would lose.
Artist statement:
I think my unconventional gameplay is inspired by many of the art games that we looked at in class such as September 12th, where instead of killing terrorists you actually end up killing innocent civilians. In addition to the many other games that were introduced by classmates in the indie show & tell, I think that many of the games talked about in class had significant socio cultural contexts to them. For the September 12th, it was a game criticizing the Iraq War and the controversial damages that were caused by the US military. So I really liked how this game isn’t served to entertain, but to protest against an important issue.
I think my game is also highly similar to the “Institute” that we watched in class. With players given instructions on what to do from the institute, it definitely makes the gameplay linear but also really fun and interactive, almost like a LARP. So I think my game is also very similar to that, given that it’s a LARP but also has that similar linear style gameplay to the Institute. I think the Institute screening definitely played a role behind the inspiration for this project. The idea of making things interactive in real life, by intervening certain social spaces / situations, I really wanted my game to have those elements too. My game was also highly inspired by the topics that we discussed about in regards to happenings and scores. Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit consisted many sets of instructions, guiding players to do certain things based on their own interpretations. So my work was inspired by that as you can tell, I give a set of instructions and it is up to the player on how to go about those instructions. I really liked the freedom and open to interpretation aspect to the scores created by Yoko Ono so I wanted to incorporate that into my game too.
Finally, the Dada movement in Berlin was a big inspiration for my game. Given that most of the art works made in the Berlin Dada movement was some form of protest or criticism against the government and World War 1, I wanted my game to be a work of criticism too of an issue that I’m passionate about, in this case I made it a form of criticism against privacy and government surveillance. I just really liked the idea of using art as a way to address contemporary issues because it is a great way to capture people’s attention. Hence, my game was highly based on the ideas and motivations behind the different artists that used art to criticize during the Berlin Dada movement.
Ice Cream Social is a game about the social dynamics in friend groups and the feeling of being left out.
Each player is given an ice cream flavor and four happiness tokens at the start of the game. Each round, the player with the spoon distributes a new player card to each person. These cards have roles and instructions on them that dictate how a player must act when the round begins. Any cards that activate immediately are then revealed.
The dealer then counts down from three, and every player then flips their player card upright and reaches out to grab two other players. If two players reach for each other, they grab on and form a group. If any players are not in a group once everyone has reached out, they lose the round and discard a happiness token. The spoon is then passed to the next player. When one player runs out of happiness, they lose and the game ends for everyone.
Near the beginning of the semester I found out that one of my some of my friends were going out to ice cream, so I sent my roommate a text asking if I could come as well, but I never received an answer. He did intend to respond, but forgot to hit send on the message he wrote. I went to bed early thinking that my friends were ignoring me. About a week later the conversation turned to the ice cream run, and only then did everyone involved find out that my roommate forgot to hit send.
I wanted to try to make a game that simulates that feeling, but that was still fun to play. As I tested various versions and added new cards, the game started to become more of an exploration of the different social groups I have been in over the years. Each card in the deck is based on either something I have experienced or someone I have met, for better or worse.
After repeated play tests and tweaks, I feel like I have managed to capture the feelings of trying to manage social dynamics and personal happiness. In each test, people felt bad when they got left out, and some people actually developed grudges against others in the game. People even banded together to try and keep players from going out, despite that being against their goal.
This game was heavily inspired by the things that we learned about tin this class. The presentation of the container and all of the pieces inside was inspired by the various Fluxkits of the Fluxus movement, as well as the concept of scores. The visual design of each of the cards (and even the container) was inspired by the presentation of scores in Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. Taking this farther, each player card is also like a mini score that dictates the actions of a player in a given round. The game is also contained in an actual ice cream tub, which I appropriated for this game. As a result of these things and the social nature of the game, as well as the tactile nature of reaching out and holding onto others, the game also essentially becomes a happening in a box.
This game was also inspired by some existing games, and it appropriates some mechanics from them. I took the concept of hidden roles from games like Mafia and One Night Ultimate Werewolf, though without the social deduction aspects. The idea of having two players have to choose each other for things to happen is also inspired by the Jackbox Party Pack 4‘s game Monster Dating Monster.
Overview:
New Games is an pervasive interactive fiction game where the player is the newest friend in a friend group in college. The player is given the numbers of several actors, who improvise as these characters. Throughout the game, timed events will occur that put pressure on the group. This is a format that can be adapted to any group of people, story, and time span.
Cast:
For my run of the game, it was a 5 character story. The characters are as follows:
Alex Lahey: Alex is the straight man of the group. Hes a pretty confident charismatic guy who is pretty chill and kid. Hes had a fairly good upbringing, he has a younger sister, but his parents are recently divorced. He keeps his head up most of the time. Overall, he’s an optimist. He cares a lot about his friends, but he isn’t an emotional anchor in the group. he’s always down to listen but advice isn’t his thing. He also doesn’t talk a whole lot about his issues, but to be fair he doesn’t have a lot of them. Computer Science major with a music minor. Very knowledgeable about his passions, but sometimes can be pretentious about them and gatekeep a little.
Charlotte Web: Shes a long time friend of Krista, and found her way into the overall friend group. She’s kinda jaded and standoffish, but she is fiercely loyal and cares a lot about her people. At this point in the story, everyone is her people, even Jacob, who is kinda new. Sometimes she can get a little shrewd, but ultimately she is a good person, who can be very caring and empathetic. However, sh is also very competitive. She also holds a really high expectation of herself. This kind of intersects into the fact that she is a really devoted gymnast and has been from a young age. She often pushes herself too hard. She also has a lot of personal image issues, including an eating disorder that she has been living with since middle school. She never went through proper precautions to remedy the eating disorder, so its still very present. She’s also pretty closed off about her issues.
Krista Sartano: She’s an architecture major who is kinda cynical and goofy. She had a lot of medical issues all her life. There’s a lot of tension in her family because f it. So she kind of ignored a lot of her medical issues recently, trying to be independent. She is dating Kate. Shes in the middle in terms of introvert vs extrovert. She’s strong willed and socially competent, but she’s very loyal and focused on small amounts of people. She’s not a large party goer, but enjoys medium sized social events. She can be very gentle. She also has minor depressive disorder and anxiety, but feels invalidated by other people’s pain, so keeps it to herself.
Kate Mulligan: Really sweet person. Very kind and selfless. She is a little bit straight edge, but tries not to judge others too much. Comes from a very sheltered background with a lot of privilege. She’s beginning to try and reform her perceptions and biases. Raised liberal in Boston, but lived in a very white neighborhood, so she has the paradigm that comes with that. She is a very happy person, who gets stressed sometimes from overwork but stays chill most of the time. Sometimes lacks true empathy from lack of experience. Kind of has a holier than thou attitude when giving advice. She is dating Krista. She has an older sister, they’re pretty close.
Jacob Dark: His parents died when he was 9 years old. Lived with family friend (Mom’s old friend). He was a single father. He was kind. Two foster sisters, one younger, one older. Jacob was verbally and physically abused by his older sister, and even raped by her when he was 11. He moved across country for college to escape. Very quiet, highly depressed and introverted. Not many hobbies or friends. Reads and watches TV a lot. Really good artist, doesn’t show off art to anyone. Studies a decent amount, gets okay grades. Undecided major. Got into the friend group through Kate, kind of distant from the group, but cares a lot about everyone. Asexual, mild PTSD, beginning to come out of his shell. Doesn’t pick up on social cues, but is very careful about what he says.
Events:
Before game starts: Kate and Kris have been fighting because Kate doesn’t listen well and just tries to fix Kris’s problems.
Thursday Evening: Game begins
Friday Night: Kris is admitted into the hospital from unforeseen medical emergency.
Saturday Morning: Alex learns that his Dad is now dating a family friend who he had been close with during the marriage.
Saturday Night: Kris is diagnosed with very aggressive Brain Cancer, probably terminal.
Sunday Night: Jacob’s abuser calls him.
Monday afternoon: Kris falls into a coma.
Monday 6:00: Game ends.
Process:
I gave the actors a lot of creative liberties to make the character their own. People stepped up to the plate, even role-playing with each other to work out character interactions. The game is reliant on frequent texting and competent improv. Many elements of the game were figured out on the fly, but the overall game became very cohesive.
The biggest issue in the game was schedules. This was a very hard week for a lot of people, meaning that people couldn’t text the player as much as they wanted, and there would be large gaps in time where nothing would happen. This game would work a lot better when people aren’t so busy.
Chat Logs:
All conversations can be found in the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RYWYUXm0pWpQEpsNjlhYOKpJ52RykAsZ?usp=sharing
Inspiration:
This game was made in attempts to find a new way to tell a story. I love how games can be non-linear and player-guided, and I knew I wanted to tell a story about people. I settled on some sort of Interactive Theater, where I would use actors to interact with a player. But, inspired by a lot of pervasive games we looked at, I wanted this game to feel like something more than a game, and to take place over a longer period of time.