Month: December 2023

Artist’s Statement

I have always had the habit of daydreaming random made up fantasy scenarios, to the point I would consider those made up scenarios a small part of my identity. Therefore I wanted to create an experience where this process is visualised. daydream is a text and image based narrative adventure game/visual story aimed to recreate this experience. The game is made up of a series of unrelated short stories/scenarios that the player jumps between randomly. It is slow paced, has no ending, with the “goal” being to simply experience the stories.

Some aspects of daydream can be considered to be appropriation, as a significant amount of my daydream scenarios are heavily influenced by the media I consume, especially in the emotions they made me feel, and the immersion I felt while reading/watching/playing/listening into those made up fantastic worlds and the stories that happen within them. These influences are reflected in both the writing and artwork, where I included small bits of paraphrased lyrics and titles of my favorite songs; and that my art style is very draws heavy inspiration from backgrounds and scenery of anime and movies made by Studio Ghibli, Kyoto Animation and Shinkai Makoto. Of course, my creative inspirations is only part of the game, the main theme I’m trying to capture here is my creative process: jumping to and from very different ideas, trying to capture them before they slip my mind. I also tried to vaguely depict some of my artistic frustrations and general regrets in some of the stories, as well as my hopes to growth as an artist.

One more thing I tried to convey with daydream through the writing and artwork is a general atmosphere or “vibe” of peace, calmness and tranquility, both as a personal preference of storytelling, but also to create break from the chaotic and extremely fast paced real world with this game. Additionally, I also wanted to convey a sense of slight sense of somberness and melancholy in most of the short stories, but also to instill a concrete ambience of hope, in a “brighter days are ahead” kind of way. I think I did this both because of my narrative preference, but also because I feel like the real world has been harsh and depressing, but media and creative outlets such as creating art offers an escape and makes me feel healed. While I am unsure if I can get these feelings across with the game, as it is quite possible for players to feel bored given the slow pacing of the game, I do still think daydream can resonate with certain players.

Finally, I want to present a lyric from a song by my favorite artist: Get Your Wish by Porter Robinson

The work that stirred your soul
You can make for someone else

I hope daydream and the other games and artwork I will make in the future can inspire others to create art, just like how I was inspired to daydream, to create worlds and tell stories of my own.

Documentation

Sample gameplay video:

Credits and Game Download

Game engine: Twine 2

Writing and artwork: made by yours truly

Download here, extract and open the HTML file to play

Artist’s Statement:

I got the initial idea for this project by looking at what it meant to be an artgame. After reading John Sharp’s, “Works of Game” I was inspired by his description of an artgame game. I understood that artgames use the innate properties of games like interactivity, player goals, and game mechanics to create expressive play experiences that explore metaphysical questions around life, ethics, and aspects of the human condition. Unlike normal games, the systems in artgames tend to model ideas and concepts rather than phenomena from the physical and social world. This concept spoke to me because I have long been critical of the way the current gaming landscape tries to force an experience onto its players. Many modern games explain every single thing from every control to every facet of their narrative. I wanted to get away from that by creating an artgame that centered its interactivity, player goals, and game mechanics to give the player an experience that I found lacking in the modern gaming landscape. I believe that the modern gaming landscape lacks many games that try to get the player to experience a narrative without the use of any words. Even in the case where games do create a narrative without words they often rely on out-of-game descriptions, cutscenes, or endings to show the player that there is a deep narrative present. I wanted to get away from all of that and present the player with an experience and environment that has no given explanation. It’s up to the player to discover everything, end when they want, and interpret the game in their way.

This project relates to a few of the artgames discussed in the readings. One of the games that relates is “The Marriage” by Rod Humble. “The Marriage” does not explain its mechanics, message, or narrative to the player and instead leaves it up to the player to discover and interpret for themselves. The mechanics themselves are simple yet the combination of the mechanics and how the squares react are what make the game so interesting to play. The readings also stated that it was unlikely that people would come out of the game with the message that the creator intended. This game is similar to what I wanted to do with my game because I want the player to experience the game without being told what to do. If they come out of the experience with a different meaning than what I intended that is perfectly fine and even encouraged by me because it will make conversations about my game more interesting. My game also attempts to use its subtle mechanics to help paint a narrative. The game also relates to “Papers, Please” because it has a very stylized art style and ends when you want it to end.

A lot of the other influence and intention is explained in the “Documentation / Process” section below.

Documentation / Process:

This section will spoil a lot of the intent behind the game so I would only read this part if you do not want to experience the game in the way it was intended to be experienced. After I decided on how I wanted to convey my narrative, I then wanted to figure out what I wanted my narrative to be. I decided that I wanted to have my narrative be about a fallen samurai because I had Japanese history and the game “Okami” on my mind at the time. I didn’t want to tell a sad story though, instead, I wanted my narrative to be whimsical and use VFX and audio as well as a well-crafted level to tell its story. This along with inspiration from the Xenoblade Chronicles series gave me a start on what I wanted the level to look like. Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 both feature ethereal, majestic trees that I wanted to try to replicate. I thought that a magical-looking sakura tree would be the perfect place to bury a samurai. Furthermore, a well-respected and battle-tested samurai would likely want to be buried in a peaceful spot where they could be one with nature. This helped me settle on the island surrounded by water and helped me pick the sounds that I wanted to incorporate. I added wave noises that increase in volume as you approach the water as well as the song “Satorl Marsh (Night)” from the Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition soundtrack. I felt that this song would be the perfect choice for the game as it strikes an immaculate balance between Zen and whimsy. The song is one of my favorites and often makes me more in tune with my emotions like I hoped it would for the player. This song choice also helped inform my next decision which was to add a day and night cycle. I wanted to make it feel like even though you were dead the world kept moving, time kept moving. The area of Satorl Marsh (where the song is from) is also extremely interesting as it is unassuming during the day, but at night the trees start to glow, ether starts to float into the atmosphere, and the music gets intense. Using this inspiration I created the ether particles that move into the air to capture the sense of whimsy and beauty that area had. These visual effects also make the island feel spiritual in a way like the tree and particles make the island seem like a place where spirits would want to rest. This idea informed a lot of the decisions related to my mechanics. The spiritual feel of the island made me want to make the player character the spirit of the dead samurai who was chained to this island after their death. To accomplish this I started by creating a movement system with low-gravity physics. This was in an attempt to make you feel floaty like a ghost or spirit. I also added a very high jump/float if you press/hold the space bar to increase this feeling. Additionally, I removed the player’s shadow and made them be able to walk through the sword and tree showing that they do not have a physical form. Despite all of this, I still felt like it would be hard to tell who you were. To fix this, I made it so that particles of a humanoid figure follow where you were at night. This makes it so that the player is rewarded for looking around and that you can see that something ghostly is going on. Lastly, to accomplish the feeling of being chained to the island, I wanted to make it so that the farther away you got from the katana the slower you would move. Nothing is stopping you from moving far away, but it is clear that the island wants you to rest in peace.

Through playtesting, I learned that the tree trunk and the grass were distracting from the overall Zen and carefully crafted feel of the level, so I tried my best to improve them. I also learned that players had extremely different interpretations of what was happening, ranging from “the island is pretty” to “I liked that I was a ghost samurai.” I think the thing that I heard that made me feel like this was successful was when a playtester told me that they enjoyed that they had to think through the game and they liked that nothing was told to them.

Links:

• Game: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Bx_Z0xHtnAee49fLxPxJAqhLteOa47t/view?usp=sharing
• Asset Links:
  • Song: https://youtu.be/jXs0qruX148?si=v24b4TNwgR3rSpzB
  • Katana: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/weapons/katana-4k-pbr-121020

Background:

In 1916, exiled Zurich artists such as Hugo Barr, Amy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Richard Husenbeck, and Sophie Thorber formed a literary society in the local Hotel Voltaire, where they expressed their distaste for the war and the values that spawned it, through discussions of artistic topics and performances.

Requirements: 4-5 players, Dice

Basic rules

Description: This is a board game that requires 4 players. Each player represents a side, they are Military, Workers, Merchants, and Artists. Each side will have 20 million population. If a player’s population is eliminated that means its side is out of the game. If there is more player, they will automatically be civilian side.

Basic Rules: Roll the dice to decide who to start with, with the order of players after that going clockwise.

There will be four identity cards representing the different powers on the field, and each person draws one at random after it is disrupted face down. After that, you will receive your population, and each player will have a total of 1 card with a population of 10 Million, 1 card with a population of 5 Million, and 5 cards with a population of 1 Million. Players will need to place these population cards face down in random combinations around the identity cards to avoid being seen by other players. Players can trade resources with each other (consensual) or money (players can use money to buy other goods and the person they are trading with can’t refuse), or attack (artists can’t attack).

Warmonger: This is a power ruled by war-mongers who are passionate about selling nuclear weapons or using them to bomb other countries. In the game, warmongers will bring their nuke at the start of their turn, and automatically get one every 3 turns thereafter. Nukes can be traded and used to attack other countries, but only once every two turns. Nukes can be traded and can be used to attack other countries, but only every two turns. two ore and one money can also be spent to actively build nukes. warmonger needs to actively eliminate at least two forces to win.

Merchant: merchants have a great deal of wealth, and they oppress their workers and win through various means. Merchants have six money cards at the start of their turn and gain two money cards every turn thereafter. Money cards can be used to force the purchase of nukes, artwork, and ore. However, only one type of material can be purchased from a single player per turn. The merchant must eliminate the worker force himself to win, and if the worker force is eliminated, the merchant loses his solo victory and has the option of joining the artists in the fight against the warmonger.

Worker: Workers who are hard at work mining ore, and who resent the oppression of the merchants and rebel against them. At the start of their turn, workers have three Ore cards. Every two turns thereafter, the worker mines two Ore Cards. Ore cards can be traded for nukes. They cannot be actively sold but can be purchased by any other player. The worker wins by actively eliminating the trader, and if the trader is eliminated by the warmonger, the worker has the option of surrendering or joining the artist’s side.

Artists: Artists are a group of peace-loving idealists who fight against the warmongers by creating artwork that can’t be attacked by nukes wherever it exists, and the Artists come with two pieces of artwork to start with. Artists get one artwork every 3 turns, and artwork can be sold or purchased by the player. Artworks can be placed on any of the player’s Population cards to protect against a nuke attack, but they cannot be stacked on the same Population card, and a maximum of two Artworks can be used on the field at the same time. Extra artwork can only be stored and not placed on Population cards. The Artist wins if the warmonger is eliminated, but the Artist cannot use or buy nukes.

Special condition: When there is a fifth player or more on the field they are automatically in the civilian camp. Civilians cannot create any resources, open with 10 million population, and can generate a new 1 million population each turn. Population can also be traded for resources or bought and sold. However, civilians must not have a minimum population of less than 3 million or they will be considered eliminated. Civilians can choose one of the four camps at the beginning of the round, but this choice cannot be made known to anyone else. If the chosen camp wins, the civilians win together. If the chosen camp is eliminated, the civilians have another chance to roll the dice and decide on a number. If the result is the same as the dice roll, the civilian camp will inherit the abilities and victory conditions of the chosen camp, but not the population or resources, and will lose the civilian camp’s original abilities. If it does not succeed then it will be eliminated together.

When one phases out another side, that side will inherit the abilities of the phased-out side, provided that civilians have not replaced the original side

• Price list:
  1 Ore = 2 Money
  1 Artwork = 3 money
  1 Nuke = four money
  1million population = 6 money
• Resource Exchange
  3 Ore can be exchanged for 1 Nuke
  1 artwork for 2 ores
  6 million people for a nuke
  4 million people for a work of art
  3 million people for a mineral card.
  Two million people for one money.

Playtest：

I realize that when a set of rules is set up, it works in theory. But when implemented in reality it can be so irrational and unworkable. I got a lot of different feedback from players, so after playtest I improved the rules and added new ways to play.

artist statement:
I started out creating this game originally when I learned about Dadaism and the story behind it in class this semester. I was inspired by the work of many artists against the war, such as George Grosse’s Metropolis. I was drawn to these anti-war pieces and was intrigued by the way they satirized war. I believe that people should live in peace with each other, eliminate prejudices, and cooperate. This is an idea that many Dada artists want to convey.
When I realized that there are still many people in the world suffering from war I decided to make a card game related to war. Because the game allows players to engage in real competition, it has a different advantage than just artwork.
My game contains four camps, they are the warmonger, the merchant, the worker, and the artist. Reflecting some groups in the real world, they check and balance each other, but can’t live without each other. Each camp has its purpose to achieve. But I designed the warmonger to be more powerful because this is the cruelty of modern war, the one who owns the weapon has the real power of speech. The artist camp, on the other hand, represents many peace-loving idealists who may be fighting back hard but can’t change anything. But the fact that paintings can be traded in the game is also my way of satirizing the use of art as a money-making machine by certain artists. I hope that when players play my game, they can feel the cruelty of war, and the feeling of powerlessness when facing a really powerful opponent. At the same time, it can draw attention to and reflect on war. Of course, in addition to these core ideas, I also hope that players can bring in characters and win the game through their own decisions and thinking.

Sources： some icons are from “thenounproject.com”