Experimental Game Design

Class Activities

Show and Tell: The Magic Circle

by | Dec 3, 2018 | ,

The Magic Circle is a game made by Studio Question. It is about the process of making a game, and the difficulties that come with that process. The game itself is set inside a game that has been in development hell for a long time. It has a crappy, quarreling dev team, a fanatical fanbase, and a terribly designed game space.

The game is about how the magic circle, the idea that the game has its own space where our reality doesn’t interfere, doesn’t exist, because the game is clearly being affected by real world problems. It is built around the story of the stagnant game and the ways it could be better. The game within the game, also called the Magic Circle, is supposed to be a critique of the typical heroes journey and all the dramatic cliches that story writers include in their games, and how all that doesn’t work.

You play as the main character of the game within the game, able to mess with the game’s “code” editing creatures, moving, deleting, and recreating features in the landscape, and interacting with the devs. All of this is made to seem really open, but it’s also very railroady. You never notice this while playing because the game is just so fun and so strong narratively.

Indie Game Show and Tell: Stories Untold

by | Nov 29, 2018 | ,

Stories Untold is an indie game created by No Code that features four short horror experiences. I focused on The House Abandon, in which the player plays a text-based adventure game about an abandoned house on an old PC. It is essential that the player can see and hear their immediate surroundings, as the game eventually restarts and actions the player takes in the game begin to happen within the house the player is in. The horror of the game comes from the duality of the player character – is the player character the one sitting in front of the computer screen? Or is the player character the one being controlled in the text adventure? The text adventure player character encounters the player character sitting in front of the computer, and the uncertainty of who the player is actually controlling gives the player a strong sense of unease.

I chose to present this game in class because it plays with perspective in an interesting way. We often think of the player character as an extension of ourselves, our way of interacting with the game world, our lens through which we view the game. But when a character in a game like The House Abandon has to play a game themselves, who really is the player character? Who is the player really controlling? The House Abandon asks this question, and forces the player to confront their expectations about perspective in games.

Show and Tell #1: Appropriation

by | Nov 28, 2018 |

I brought in memes for my appropriation show and tell – specifically Twitter memes that mix text describing relatable scenarios or cultural narratives with seemingly unrelated videos as examples or reactions.

I really enjoy these memes because of the endless possibilities of humor and weirdness that it opens up. This meme/reaction video in particular has been used in SO many tweets, it’s incredibly versatile.

I also love this one because it speaks to the usage of cultural narratives with this phenomena and also ascribing funny context-less videos with a Bible story which is one of the most universal mythos in our society.

This one is also Very Choice because both the text and video are varying levels of absurd/bizarre but it is also very relatable?? Lots of these memes mix absurdism and hyperbole with relatable, everyday things (the first thing that comes to mind when I think about that version in particular is those tweets with a video of explosions or someone being electrocuted that are captioned “that first sip of McDonalds Sprite”.)

This one is somewhat derivative of this kind of meme because the video has been edited to serve the purpose of the tweet but still uses a video ripped from it’s context (and therefore still gives off the same feeling as the others). It’s also an example of the “relatable scenario” component of the meme.

Honestly this meme trend and weird or hyperbolic videos as relatable content in general are (in my opinion) so much more relatable than earlier memes that are essentially “That feeling when you go to school (pic of grumpy cat)”. A lot of Millennial/Generation Z humor and culture is centered around hyperbole, absurdism, and appropriating media content – so it’s not surprising that it’s so popular online.

Show & Tell: “Genderwrecked”

by | Nov 15, 2018 |

For my Indie Game Show & Tell, I’d like to present a visual novel called Genderwrecked, by Ryan Rose Aceae, because I think it’s a fantastic example of what indie games can do that bigger games currently can’t.

Genderwrecked is a small experience. It’s arguably not even a game: the player sometimes chooses dialogue options, but all the options eventually end in the same place. There’s no strategy. No real decisions. No fancy graphics (it’s all cartoons and ascii art).

Despite all this, though, Genderwrecked feels ridiculously real. Over the course of the game, the player speaks with eight or so vaguely monstrous characters, while on a quest to discover the meaning of gender. And every one of these characters, whether they’re a robot dad or a pretentious tree or a pile of gay worms, feels like a real person. Furthermore, many of the odd creatures in Genderwrecked remind me viscerally of genderqueer people I personally know. It’s unusual to play a game and not only grow to like the characters, but grow to realize that the characters are actually just the people you see every day.

In succeeding so utterly at creating recognizable genderqueer characters, Genderwrecked illuminates a flaw in the commercial game industry: any game designed for profit must inherently cater to the largest audience possible, which leaves some people left behind. Indie games, often made to deliver a specific message rather than make a specific sum (Genderwrecked retails for the flippant price of $6.66), can better tell the stories of more marginalized groups. In addition, with smaller teams, indie studios can focus on a single person’s story and perspective more easily than a huge development firm.

In summary, I really believe that everyone should play this game. Gender is a frickin’ confusing thing, and a frickin’ important thing, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better meditation on it than Genderwrecked.

Get it here: https://gendervamp.itch.io/genderwrecked

Appropriation Example: Disneyland Paris and Nars Man Ray

by | Nov 13, 2018 |

I showed two things: the Disneyland Paris version of Space Mountain, and the Nars x Man Ray makeup collaboration.

Instead of a Tomorrowland in Disneyland Paris, they had a Discoveryland, which was themed after a steampunk future and based on the works of HG Wells and Jules Verne. Space Mountain specifically was themed around Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. In the queue, guests go through the meeting place of the Baltimore Gun Club and can see their plans for the gun that will launch them into space. The story on the ride is that the guests are aboard the vehicle to be launched. I chose this because it was a very obvious example of direct appropriation, and it ties into my interests in theme park history. Disney is known for its frequent appropriation of other intellectual properties, especially without proper compensation.

The Nars x Man Ray collection was a makeup line from the brand Nars, with artwork and packaging using Man Ray’s works. I chose it because of its use of a Dada artist, tying into our discussions in class. However, the makeup itself doesn’t do much with the Dada inspiration and instead just uses it as an overlay and a tool for selling products, which contrasts with the actual ideas of many Dada artists.

Indie Game: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo

by | Nov 12, 2018 |

Full Game / Full Video Playthrough

One of my favorite indie games for a while has been The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, a horror Twine game by Michael Lutz. In it, you play as a child in the nineties who is going over to a friend’s house for a sleepover; their uncle, who works for Nintendo (hence the title), will be visiting at midnight. Throughout the night, the main character has different memories of playing Nintendo games and their friend acts suspiciously. When the uncle arrives, the player can choose to hide in various places or go and open the door with their friend; no matter what, the uncle takes over the screen with lines of code and “eats” them. The true ending is unlocked after experiencing some of the major endings.

 

The game explores themes of childhood, nostalgia, and fitting in, as well as how games shape our lives, as described in essays unlocked after completing the true ending. I also love the game because of how it creates a very specific tone using text, simple visuals, and powerful audio. Later in the game, it directly plays with the affordances we typically expect from video games, and ties video game functions (such as saving) and other aspects such as bugs directly into the narrative for the player to take advantage of. The use of game affordances as a narrative tool has always intrigued me, and games that do this have recently been breaking more and more into the mainstream.

Art Game Show & Tell – That Dragon, Cancer

by | Nov 12, 2018 |

That Dragon, Cancer is an autobiographical game created by Ryan and Amy Green about their son Joel’s fight with cancer. The majority of the game is a walking simulator, with the player taking the role of both parents as they struggle to cope with their son’s illness. The game focuses on ideas of love, loss, religion, and purpose, abstracted as chapters in their life with Joel.

That Dragon, Cancer does an amazing job showcasing what games are capable of, and I believe is an excellent example of an art game as it embodies values and affordances of both contemporary art and video games. The game defies the conceptual affordances laid out by the gaming community immediately. This isn’t a heroic game, or escapism, it’s a game about a real family’s struggles and hardships that are unavoidably brutal. Ryan wants players to face the harsh reality of death and to know that no matter what they may be going through that they are not alone.

The game also subverts formal affordances with its strict limits on the player’s agency. Often you can only walk and interact with objects, with little to no choice throughout, furthering the idea that this journey is inevitable. The characters are also abstracted, with the simple geometric faces not going for hyper realism, but a more or less blank canvas in which the dialogue from the real, struggling family can convey their emotion.

Finally the experiential affordances are entirely different from what one thinks of as the typical video game. There isn’t an inherent challenge for the player to conquer, or enemies to shoot. The player is living the lives of a family who is trying to survive, and is powerless to change anything. That Dragon, Cancer is about the player to facing and eventually accepting the harshest realities life has to offer, not escaping them.

As a whole, That Dragon, Cancer is a wonderfully unique game, both in it’s subject matter and approach to game design. It is unflinchingly real, not avoiding any of the paranoia, fear, or cowardice that comes when faced with an enormous struggle. The game design itself is incredibly minimalistic, with the undeniable focus being the story itself. It’s a game the provokes long and thoughtful reflection, and that captures a unique essence of fear and love that so many games fail to replicate.

Indie Game Show and Tell: The House on the Hill

by | Nov 10, 2018 | ,

House on the Hill

I don’t play many video games (gasp!), but those I do play are usually browser-based, and a lot are text-based games. One new of my favorite Twine games is The House on the Hill.

At the beginning you choose a character, and then you move through the house using cardinal directions and finding different rooms. You only get a few moves per turn, and depending on which room you end in you find different things. Notably, there is no map, so you have to build a mental image of which rooms lead to which. And you can’t see your stats, but are told when you lose or gain a point in their different categories. During the game, you realize that you are playing as a board game character, along for the ride in a friend group’s game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. After a slow first half, the game accelerates into stopping the betrayer.

I liked this game because of its game-within-a-game qualities, as well as the memorization that made it more challenging than I assume the board game is. It’s fun to play a “multiplayer” game with just myself (which also adds to the horror element being more impactful).

(This game also warrants a mention, for its accuracy above all else: https://noskyvisible01.itch.io/realistic-wrestling)

Indie game S&T: Samorost 3

by | Nov 9, 2018 |

 

I chose the game Samorost 3, a point and click puzzle adventure where the player interacts with a detailed and immersive world through the curious character Gnome. Gnome is equipped with a musical tool that allowed him to activate spirit like entities that inhabit objects in the environment. This game succeeds in many ways at knowing what type of game it wants to be, which is an immersive journey, and focusing on that in every way. The player engages with the game through discovery and solving puzzles in order to progress. The difficulty of the puzzles is balanced and relatively easy which has a positive impact by letting the player be equally as engaged in the challenge of a puzzle and the experience of solving a puzzle while existing in a new world. The art process utilizes a wide variety of digital painting and image manipulation (of things like horse hair and rocks) to create beautiful realistic outlandish visuals. The mastery and complexity in visuals is also matched with an beautiful soundtrack that mixes tribal tonnes, rich nature sounds, and an almost metallic biological noises at some parts. Headphones are a must.

I chose this game because of my personal affinity and it’s a strong example of how art intersects with games. In game art, as talked about in the readings, “challenge is often found in the unconventional themes and there mechanics to explore them” (Works of Game : On the Aesthetics of Games and Art). In In my opinion this game exists strongly in the space of art because of its ability to present challenge in the context of its unconventional visuals and mechanics.

Indie/Art Game Show and Tell: Night in the Woods

by | Nov 9, 2018 | ,

The game I showed was Night in the Woods. Night in the Woods is a narrative driven game that uses platforming elements and mini-games to tell the story of Mae, a college dropout who is returning home to her dead end home town of Possum Springs. The story is full of delightful characters and story threads and expresses the feelings of returning home after being away to find that while things look the same on the surface, they really aren’t.

To me, this game is important as it expresses a lot of the feelings of being excluded and trying to fit back in when the place you call home has changed without you being there. As someone who went across the country for school and is moving to the opposite coast for a job after school, the feelings of missing home but also not really fitting in back home ring true. The moments of trying to relive the glory days but knowing that you aren’t a high school student anymore and it won’t last ring true to my own personal experiences.