Ishani

The initial idea for this game began with the game Depression Quest on Twine. I remember playing it and thinking it was insanely sad but somehow insightful into the life of people who struggle with chronic depression. I was trying to make choices I would make in real life, in the game. But the game had other plans and followed its own separate path. I also tried to think of things I most struggle with in my day-to-day life. I then decided I wanted to make a game on Anxiety on Twine. This game is thus an appropriation!

There was also part of the Reading Works of Game that really resonated with me: “Central to this type of work is ambiguity— of function or purpose, of operation, and of the role the objects play in our lives. 15 While these ideas may be familiar to artists, they are uncomfortable for most designers. With games, however, ambiguity is already a large part of the design process. The design of the system of a game-defining its actions and goals, creating the tone of the overall experience, and so on— shapes the space of possibility within which players complete the game through their play. Design-wise, the designed space of possibility leaves itself open to exploration and interpretation, which by its nature results in uncertain outcomes. The play experience cannot be known until the game is played. And even then, players are left to make sense of and determine their own intentions and the meaning of their experiences.” It felt absolutely crucial to make a game that was uncertain in outcomes, which is why I made a story based choice game on Twine!

The first iteration of the game was just different choices and not much description in the story! The feedback I got this round was that while the message of the game came across, it would be funny to use humour to add a light aspect to the game. Initially, I was apprehensive. The point of the game was to be hard and dark but on thinking and playing through it more, I wanted a side funny story!

The final prototype had three different story endings!

I’ve also attached the link to the game on Canvas since the link is HTML style and can’t add it onto here!

Sharp, John. Works of Game : On the Aesthetics of Games and Art, MIT Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/northeastern-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3339955.

This project idea originated after the Guest Lecture that Professor Derek Curry and Professor Jennifer Gradecki presented in class. As well as the documentary viewing of The Institute. When I watched the Institue, what spoke to me most was the way people stopped by a poster and started a game based on just texting or calling a random number. This is when I thought of a paper poster format for this project. I also thought of the Twitter game that both of the Professors spoke about and how they used people’s real-life interaction and put it into a game. I then realized I wanted to play around with everyone’s music interest and decided to put up posters of a Spotify playlist all around my dorm building, with the playlist labelled Make your Own Playlist and no prompt whatsoever.

Sadly, my first iteration of this project was not so successful. I quickly learned that we need permission to put up posters around different buildings. For my next iteration, I decided not to go the paper route at all. I decided to put up an Instagram story with the link to the Spotify playlist and the result was 16 users added songs. There were 362 total songs added to the playlist. It was an assortment of every kind of song, a hodgepodge of songs if you will. This was the most enjoyable project so far! I loved seeing the different types of music taste everyone had and the variety of songs I ended up with. Here is the link to the Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LBz5ZvMwGgajSFnwzC9kn?si=3af805ccf2a54f46

Pig Latin Whisper Game

Players stand around in a circle, one whispers to the next something in Pig Latin, the next person hears and repeats in English, this alternates until we reach the last person in the circle. The last person should match the first person’s words. 

Rules of Pig Latin:

Most words in Pig Latin end in “ay.” Use the rules below to translate normal English into Pig Latin.

1. If a word starts with a consonant and a vowel, but the first letter of the word is at the end of the word and add “ay.”

Example: Happy = appyh + ay = appyhay

2. If a word starts with two consonants move the two consonants to the end of the word and add “ay.”

Example: Child = Ildch + ay = Ildchay

3. If a word starts with a vowel add the word “way” at the end of the word.

Example: Awesome = Awesome +way = Awesomeway

My idea with this game was originally inspired by something I read from Marcel Duchamp, “To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.” 

It was so interesting to me to be describing the place that artists get either inspiration/ideas from way beyond any dimension. This stuck out to me, this idea of getting inspired by something stored far away and obscurely in either our memories or as Marcel insinuates, a different labyrinth. 

For me, this labyrinth is my childhood. The happy, joyful times of playing games all day long and silly laughing constantly. With my younger brother, I used to talk in Pig Latin all the time! It helped us be silly and also helped us utilize our processing skills. When thinking back to my childhood, we also used to play Telephone very often. I got the idea to combine both and playtest the game in class. 

During the playtest process, I learnt that Pig Latin is hard. Players need examples in the rules sheet to get used to the game. Furthermore, the rules need to be explained in simple words, not paragraphs. I also learnt that just playing with Pig Latin, made it so the players were just saying gibberish back and forth. This wasn’t the point of the game! I wanted to illustrate that same feeling of being a child and processing all the words in your head. 

This feedback resulted in me changing the game. I made it so that players would alternatively speak in Pig Latin so that each user was either translating from Pig Latin -> English or English -> Pig Latin. This time around, players conveyed the game as being more fun and reminiscent of how quickly they used to do this as kids in their heads. My point of making this artwork was achieved when I heard that from the players!

Documentation:

Find 

I walk around school grounds, 

trying to get my standing,

there are loopy roads and roundabouts,

A little shop called wall-e’s?

It’s all very confusing this property I’m around,

Seems like there’s an overpass,

In the middle of the property,

Purple hues all around it

Kids all around waiting

To be let into this hostel

As a supervisor swipes

And off they go 

My intention in creating this score was to create a kind of puzzle in a puzzle effect. You as the reader, are trying to figure out what specific place the score is referring to in a treasure hunt like manner. As a child growing up, I’ve always been a fan of puzzles. Every game I am fond of has some sort of puzzle element involved in it. I even remember being 10 going to restaurants and my parents giving me sudoku puzzles to keep me distracted. I think this lends itself to this score, I love the idea that someone is reading it in passing and thinking about it as they walk around campus.

The piece was inspired by Yoko Ono’s TRUTH/FALSE in Grapefruit. It sounds like the list of things she’s trying the readers to figure out what’s true and false. But the more you read the more you find similar topics, hidden messages. “All fruits are related species of banana, which was the first fruit in existence. The Bible lied about the apple because they felt mentioning the word banana was too undignified.”  It seems like simple commentary but there is some sort of distaste that Yoko was trying to convey! My score didn’t end up being as deep but used the hidden message idea to make a puzzle!

Documentation:

Here I have attached an image of the “bridge” hallway connecting both halfs of this building. The purple hues, the loopy roads and then finally the building in question in the score is West Village F