Blog & Dev.Log

The Multi-Faceted Mechanics of Critter Catching in Animal Crossing

For years the go-to critique of Animal Crossing has been how it encourages capitalist tendencies such as taking out loans, buying everything possible, and taking natural resources for profit. While these mechanics are undoubtedly a noticeable part of Animal Crossing’s gameplay, the game features other mechanics that encourage a somewhat contrasting ideology. Players are not just encouraged to sell bugs and fish for money, but also to donate them to the museum. Once players donate items to the museum they are rewarded with some fun facts about the donated item, as well as an update to the museum’s appearance. This appearance update takes the form of the donated item living in the museum display. The more things are donated, the more lively the museum gets. This mechanic is an effective mechanism to encourage players to not just use the natural world for profit, but also for education and conservation.

The various motives for reaping the rewards of the natural world do not just end there. Another use for fish and bugs caught in Animal Crossing is as adornments for player homes. If players place fish or bugs in their houses like they would furniture, these creatures will spawn and appear in either an aquarium or a terrarium. This adds another facet to the player’s relationship to the natural world in Animal Crossing. Bugs and fish are not just there for profit or education value, but also can be a part of the more intimate side of things as pets. Finally, the very mechanic of catching bugs has positive implications for player behavior outside of the game. While out exploring the game world, players pay close attention to their surroundings in case they happen across a critter they haven’t seen yet. This attention to the natural world encourages players to appreciate and notice the beauty of nature, something that will likely stay with them once they have exited the game world for the real world.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for the Nintendo Switch.

Radical Game Ideas & Development

Due to the various issues impacting the contemporary world, it has been difficult to decide what topic to use when creating a radical/persuasive game. Initially, I was drawn to critique the tendency of video games to be marketed toward men, and the consequential effect this has had on the video game industry. This would have been explored via an alternative history, where video game companies in the 1980s decided to target girls over boys. The player character would be male, and the game would follow his experience as a male who is drawn towards video games in a world where that interest is dominated by females. It would start in the 1980s with the player character as a young boy who enjoys video games even though they are designed for girls (eg this universe’s version of Duck Hunt is Duck Farm where players are tasked with raising ducks, reflecting the feminine-associated trait of nurturing). The later parts of the game would follow the player character as he tries to pursue a career in the video game industry, which in this world is dominated by women. However, as I thought more about how the mechanics would work, I realized this concept might work better as a piece of interactive fiction or a short story. Apart from exploring the world and talking to other characters, there wasn’t much potential to develop game mechanics with the time frame available.

The second idea I had was a game where players must get past a group of protesters. Originally I had envisioned this taking place in front of a Planned Parenthood, due to the recent laws that have restricted abortion rights. The gameplay would involve the player character trying to get through the anti-abortion protestors to go in for a pelvic examination, or another non-abortion service Planned Parenthood provides. In terms of mechanics, there were several ideas I had in mind. One was platforming or traveling through a maze that was the parking lot, avoiding the protestors who would force you to lose health or start over. This would demonstrate how anti-abortion protesters make life difficult for people and can make people who go to Planned Parenthood feel in danger. 

Since the protester-game mechanic seemed like a better mechanic than the one for the alternative history idea, it seemed like the one I would pursue. However, after mentioning these two ideas in class and on Discord I was approached by other people interested in forming a team. While getting to know each other it came up that all of us have a dislike of Karens, which led to the idea of having one of the protesters be a Karen. This led to the idea that it would be fun to be able to play as or against a Karen. After discussing it in a group meeting, this idea evolved into the game we are currently in the process of making: a fighting game between a Karen and a barista. While on the surface humorous, the subject matter is reflective of how service industry workers are often treated poorly. To emphasize this, one of our mechanics is for every hit Karen serves she gains 5 to 10 times more points than if the barista hits her. The key inputs for the barista are also more spaced out than the ones for Karen, making it easier for Karen to hit more often. In addition to this, Karen has double the number of attacks that the barista does. This leads to a game that while technically possible to win as the barista is, like so many things for the Boomer generation, heavily tilted in Karen’s favor. Hopefully after players experience Ultimate Karen Smackdown (working title) they will treat service workers with more respect and empathy.

Bioshock as a Critical Game

While many have bemoaned the lack of creativity in some game genres, the fear that lack of originality and creativity leads to artistic decline is nothing new. In 1946 Marcel Duchamp warned “a creative lull” will occur when artists merely continue the work that those who came before them had done. (Flanagan, 3) That said, Duchamp also points out that there is hope. Artists can still take from previous creators, they just must adapt what they take to make it their own.  Duchamp’s critique is especially true today. So many games, especially those from large studios, are not of the mold-breaking variety. They are either just part of an existing series or so similar to competing games in their genre that they become indistinguishable from their competitors (eg Battlefield vs Hali vs COD). The homogeneity of games can be confounding and irritating, especially given how game-changing (pun intended) having just one radical element can be. 

Take for example Bioshock. Parts of it very much fall in line with first-person shooter and action-adventure conventions. While it does take some aspects from previous titles, Bioshock’s creators also adapted it into something unique that makes it more of a critical game than your average shooter. One way they did this was by the little sister gameplay mechanic. In Bioshock the little sisters are young girls that have been bioengineered to grow ADAM (a substance used to make plasmids, which players need to use special abilities) in their bodies. Players can choose to “harvest” the little sisters, which kills them but awards the players more power. 

There is also the option to save the little sisters, which allows them to live and cures them of having to grow ADAM. 

Having to choose between saving or harvesting the little sisters forces players to grapple with the moral question of how much they value human life over power. (6) What makes this question so powerful in Bioshock is it is both concrete and abstract. Players experience the tangible consequence of gaining a large amount of ADAM should they harvest a sister, but should they choose to spare them then they will get to see the sister return to being a normal little girl (as opposed to a sickly glowing-eyed incubator). On an abstract level, players deal with either the guilt that they killed a child or the heartwarming knowledge that they have done the morally right thing. In addition to these consequences that occur immediately after saving or harvesting a sister, there are also implications for the game’s ending. Should players choose to save the little sisters they will get the “good” ending, but if they harvest them they will get the “bad” ending. This further drives home the importance of making moral choices by highlighting the impact they have beyond the single moment when they are made.

Bioshock is available for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.

Sources

Bioshock. Irrational Games, 2007. PlayStation version.

Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. MIT Press, 2009.

Morals & Mechanics of Papers, Please

Papers, Please is an indie game that very effectively expresses its values via gameplay. There are several values that Papers, Please though the most evident one is its critique of ineffective, corrupt governments (represented by Arstotzka, the dystopian soviet inspired country where the game takes place) and the rigid unfeeling bureaucratic institutions (the border crossing where the player works) that are a common stereotype of them. At the start of the game players are presented with a simple objective: let the right people into the country and keep the wrong people out. What qualifies as “right” and “wrong” shifts with each new round, which is experienced in the form of a day at work. Sometimes a person’s photo ID does not match their appearance, other times they are from a neighboring country that is hostile to yours. Such constraints constitute the game’s mechanics on a technical level, though they also express values. The ever-changing requirements for entry highlight how fickle our perceptions of right and wrong our, and the government’s role in influencing them. For example, a trade embargo on another country leads to citizens of that country having to be denied. Overnight individuals who had no choice in the affairs of their government are vilified and detained while simply trying to go about their everyday lives. Especially given the US’s treatment of refugees and immigrants from “undesirable” countries, this message is one that can impact players’ perceptions and behavior towards people in similar situations in the real world.

While this surface-level relationship between values and mechanics is striking in its own right, it continues to develop in complexity the longer players play Papers, Please. While it’s not the first game to evolve in a way that “redefines its own…experiences”, the possible ways they can be redefined highlight the complexity of its message. (Zimmerman) Players can choose to work with EZIC, an organization that claims to want to bring down the Arstotzka’s government, but there are multiple ways this ending can go. Even if players help EZIC at several points in the game, they can choose to betray them at multiple points, such as shooting one of their terrorists or refusing to let the members into the country. It poses players with a hard moral dilemma, as both sides can sound right. If players aid EZIC they are betraying their government, risking the safety and security of their family. But is this such a bad thing when their government is bad? Or might whatever change EZIC wants be worse than what’s already there? While the mechanics of Papers, Please pose moral questions in their own right, the game’s narrative and multiple endings reveal that morality itself is not easy to define.

Papers, Please is available on Steam.

Sources

Papers Please. Lucas Pope, 2013.

Zimmerman, Eric. “Play as Research: The Iterative Design Process.” 2003. PDF.

Let’s Talk Alex Dev Log

Last month I explored in a blog post the impact that visuals can have on interactive fiction. I compared and analyzed the visual pros and cons of a number of pieces of interactive fiction in an attempt to identify what makes each effective or ineffective. Last week I considered the lessons learned while writing that post. This led me to determine the direction I want to take for my own piece, Let’s Talk Alex, which deals with confronting a romantic partner about abusive behaviors. In this follow up to March’s interactive fiction blog post, I’ll discuss how I’m implementing the takeaways from that post and my rationale for doing so.

My exploration of interactive fiction revealed that often the best pieces of interactive fiction rely more on their writing than their style. This is why I have decided to go in a similarly minimalist style for my piece. There will be no visual imagery, allowing the words to paint the scene. I am also leaning towards shying away from extensive animations and dramatic fonts. My hope is that if the narrative is well written the feeling of the scene will be conveyed effectively enough. That said, I have not completely closed the door on implementing such effects. I’ve seen them be effectively used before in pieces like Miss No Name, so I am aware that they can have a positive effect. Yet I’m hesitant to employ them as I’m concerned that combined with the visual changes I have already implemented, it will come off to the reader as too flashy and distracting from the story.

I was very impressed with the thought put into the visual effects of Queenlash and States of Awareness. Though minimal, it was clear that their authors gave thought into their choices. The regal purple font of Queenlash’s text constantly reminds readers of the characters’ royal status, along with all the responsibility, danger, and historical significance it entails. In States of Awareness, the light sickly green text color acts as a subtle reminder of the zombie apocalypse that is the story’s backdrop. While I will be changing the font color in Lets Talk Alex it will not be determined by the setting, as a regular apartment is not as exotic Ptolemaic Egypt or a zombie apocalypse. Instead, I looked to color theory to find what color would make players feel tense, uneasy, and anxious. While red can evoke these feelings, I was concerned about its connotation as a “bad color.” It is supposed to be unclear to readers if their perception of the romantic partner as abusive is valid or not, and having the font be too much of a give away. While it might change after getting playtester feedback, I’m currently planning on having the font be a pale yellow, with links being a brighter yellow. Since yellow is associated with frustration and illness it may have the effect of making readers feel uneasy, but will not overtly imply that something is wrong. By having the links to new passages be bright yellow, my hope is that this anxious feeling will be heightened when players are deciding how to respond, thereby making the confrontation feel more real. While the effectiveness of this and other style choices I have made will need to be investigated further through playtesting, I am hopeful that the insight I’ve gained from other interactive fiction will make for a strong starting point.

Let’s Talk Alex is planned to release in Summer 2022 on itch.io.

Queenlash and Miss No-Name are available on the Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction 2021 Website.

States of Awareness is available on the Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction 2020 Website.

Sources

Miss No-Name. Bellamy Briks, 2021. https://www.springthing.net/2021/play_online/MissNoName/index.html

Queenlash. Kaemi Velatet, 2021. https://www.springthing.net/2021/play_online/Queenlash/Queenlash.html

States of Awareness. Kerry Taylor, 2020. https://www.springthing.net/2020/play_online/TheGolden/index.html

The Multi-Faceted Impact of Free Rice 

Free Rice is a game that was created for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The core mechanic is to answer questions by choosing from a list of four words which one most accurately defines a given term. This in itself is an indicator a social impact game as it prioritizes knowledge instead of the “antagonistic, and antisocial themes” that are embodied by many modern games. (Flanagan & Nissenbaum) However there are a few other additional social and political messages that are part of it. One which the game is fairly straightforward about is that for every question answered correctly 20 grains of rice are donated to the WFP. This acts as the game score tracker, as a bowl of rice and counter are present at the bottom of the screen to remind players of how much rice they have caused to be donated. This visual indicator effectively gives players a reminder of the positive impact their playing is having, as well as reminds them there are people out there who are struggling to have enough to eat. This reminder could potentially open up the door for players to find other ways to help those who are hungry, such as donating to or volunteering at a local food bank.

Similar to the potential consequences of players being conscious of food scarcity, Free Rice has another social message that is not overtly obvious. While there is always only one correct answer, some of the incorrect choices have the potential to seem correct depending on the player’s background. For example, one of the questions has “horror” as the word that needs defining. The options players have to choose from for this question are attorney, small horse, motor, and dread. While it seems obvious that dread is the correct answer, it is possible the others could be viewed as horrors as well. To someone living in a society that relies heavily on animal labor, a small horse could be a horror. An individual who has lived their life in an isolated tribe could view a motor as a horror due to it being a threat to their pre-industrial way of life and culture. In the case of myself, I’m biased towards feeling that attorneys are horrors due to coming from a family of lawyers and being in a relationship with one (both of whom are fans of the “lawyers = bad” trope often found in American comedy). 

This more nuanced aspect helps make players more aware of how “surrounding societies and cultures” promote certain values and how that impacts views of what words means. (ibid.) This combined with the other positive impactful features of the game’s mechanics makes Free Rice an enjoyable and thoughtful game.

Free Rice is available for PC and Mobile on its website.

Sources

Flanagan, Mary & Helen Nissenbaum. “A Game Design Methodology to
Incorporate Social Activist Themes” CHI 2007 Proceedings • Politics & Activism. San Jose, 2007. PDF.

The Visual Impact of Interactive Fiction

Due to it’s literary foundations, visual flair is arguably something that can take a back seat when it comes to interactive fiction. While researching interactive fiction these past few weeks, I noticed that some of the most lauded pieces were lacking in extensive visual style. For example The Golden, States of Awareness, and Queenlash had the same default black background that comes when making a Twine game. Apart from the font color of each of these  being changed to something relevant to their topic (purple for the royalty of Queenlash, green for the zombies of States, and gold for Golden for obvious reasons) there was not much to differentiate each visually. 

In contrast to this, some of the more lackluster pieces of interactive fiction I’ve read were noticeably stylized. Some Space is memorable for its sci-fi background and futuristic font just as much it’s preference for puzzles over narrative. While it does add a futuristic aesthetic that fits with the narrative of a human immigrating to an alien world, there are also drawbacks to Some Space’s embellishment. The impressive quality of Some Space visuals juxtaposed against its lackluster parts do not result in a positive impression. It makes readers wonder if the writer didn’t spend as much time incorporating the puzzles into the piece as they did finding the right font. Granted this view might be unfair. Everyone has different strengths, and it is natural to want to show off what you’re good at. That said, it’s not entertaining to play or read something that was made just to show off. A piece of interactive fiction can look amazing, but it’s primarily the story being told that makes readers want to interact with it.

Although it doesn’t have as much of a sway on readers as narrative, writers of interactive fiction should still give some thought to the appearance of their work. It is possible for interactive fiction to have a memorable style and story. A good example of this is Bogeyman. The eerie black and white style of Bogeyman’s passages appropriately matches the dark subject of child abuse that is one of its themes. It sets the stage for the dark and intimidating world the protagonist finds themselves in, effectively setting the mood. In addition to color, a different font is used to indicate when the Bogeyman is talking. The heavy slightly jagged font paired with the lack of quotations makes the Bogeyman more intimidating. He comes across as speaking directly to the reader instead of the characters, making for a chillingly memorable experience. Bogeyman, along with Some Space, shows the impact style can make for better or worse when writing interactive fiction. It is worth it for authors to consider how to make their work visually unique, because when done right it can elevate an already good work.

Queenlash and Some Space are available on the Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction 2021 Website.

States of Awareness and The Golden are available on the Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction 2020 Website.

Bogeyman is available on the Interactive Fiction Database.

Sources

Bogeyman. Elizabeth Smyth, 2018. https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=ltwvgb2lubkx82yi

The Golden. Kerry Taylor, 2020. https://www.springthing.net/2020/play_online/StatesOfAwareness/index.html

Queenlash. Kaemi Velatet, 2021. https://www.springthing.net/2021/play_online/Queenlash/Queenlash.html

Some Space. Rittermi, 2021. https://www.springthing.net/2021/play_online/SomeSpace/index.html

States of Awareness. Kerry Taylor, 2020. https://www.springthing.net/2020/play_online/TheGolden/index.html

Glitch as a Reflection of Humanness

As technology has become more a part of our everyday lives, people have become accustomed to it accurately simulating our humanness. At the dawn of the video game era visuals that were not anatomically accurate where to be expected. In the early 1980s if a sprite in an arcade game became visually distorted it would not have been that off-putting due to its already pixelated nature. However, if at that time there was a sprite that depicted highly accurately a human visage this would have been uncanny to users. That was in a pre-digital world, but as Ferreira and Ribas argue we are now living in a post-digital world. This post-digital world is one where we are surrounded by technologies that can accurately depict real world images. Because of this, when glitches occur that distort this intended realism they are especially off-putting.  

This is the case with the invisible face glitch from Assassin’s Creed Unity. A fairly famous glitch that was present when the game first released, this glitch causes characters’ faces to be invisible except for their eyeballs, gums, and teeth. Players found this glitch to be unsettling and horrifying, though I believe for more nuanced reasons than its pure grisly image. By removing the digital features that covered the eyes and mouths, players are faced with features that they clearly identify as human parts. Like humans, Unity’s characters are made up of separate parts that combine to make a whole being. The invisible face glitch highlights these parts, which in turn remind players of their own body parts, which could technically be dissected if so desired. As players face the levitating eyeballs and gums of Arno, they are reminded of their own mortality by the image’s uncanny reflection of themselves. While this could have acted as an opportunity for reflection on human experience, it was not welcomed by many Unity players due to them not going into the game expecting an existential experience.

Assassin’s Creed Unity is available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Sources

Ferreira, Pedro and Luisa Ribas. “Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art.” xCoAx 2020. PDF.

Thoughts on the Skyrim Space Program Glitch

A glitch is a type of noise, both in the positive and negative sense. In terms of the negative, a glitch is something powerful and alarming. (Menkman 340) However, these negative qualities also can have positive consequences. It redefines the meaning of normal and what is thought of as good. (ibid) This is seen in a number of video game glitches. Such glitches are almost always unintentional and are frequently immersion breaking. While not all glitches are welcome (especially the game breaking kind), it is not uncommon for gamers to react to them in a positive way.

An example of one such positively received glitch was found in the initial release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. While Skyrim has a number of noteworthy glitches, the one referred to by the community as the Skyrim Space Program is particularly noteworthy. When players were fighting one of the game’s giants, a certain attack from the giant would send them flying into the air. At first glance this would seem like an immersion breaking bug that needed to be fixed. Bethesda did not design Skyrim to appeal to the same audience as Goat Simulator. Recognizing it as a disruption to the type of gameplay Skyrim players expected, Bethesda put out a patch removing this glitch. However, community backlash at the removal of the feature led Bethesda to add it back in a following patch. Despite disrupting the typical, more realistic gameplay that makes up most of Skyrim, the Skyrim Space Program glitch is a feature many players enjoy for a number of reasons. Some feel it adds to the game’s immersion by showing how strong the giants are, while others enjoy the humorous visual of their character rag dolling hundreds of miles into the air. There are also those that utilize it as part of gameplay, luring enemies to giants who send them flying far away from the player. While it is undoubtedly an alarming visual, the positive consequences of this glitch have surprised the negative in such a way that it has been embraced by the game’s community and developers as a feature. 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available on Steam and for Xbox and PlayStation.

Sources

McNulty, Thomas. “Skyrim Giant Takes To The Air In Hilarious Glitch.” ScreenRant, Jan 07, 2022. https://screenrant.com/skyrim-glitch-funny-elder-scrolls-v-giant-air/

Menkman, Rosa. “Glitch Studios Manifesto.” Video Vortex Reader II : Moving Images Beyond Youtube. Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. PDF.

Countergaming Mods in Fallout 4

Given the nature of counterculture games, it can be difficult to find mods for “normal” games that encapsulate the essence of counterculture. This is because counterculture games subvert an original game’s framework and tone, which can lead to the original game being barely recognizable or even playable. Thankfully, not every counterculture mod is as hard to play as JODI’s Untitled. Although originally intended for counter-cinema, Peter Wollen’s theses can be applied to countergaming as well. In addition to providing specific characteristics of countergaming, Wollen’s theses open up the possibilities for what could be considered countergaming. This is seen in the description of countergaming as “foregrounding”, “reality”, and “unpleasure.” (Galloway 110) Based on these characteristics, a mod that breaks the fourth wall could be considered an example of countergaming. This is because fourth wall breaking is upfront (foregrounding), breaks immersion (unpleasure), and causes the player to face the fictitiousness of the game (reality).

There are a wide variety of mods that break the fourth wall. While there are some that are more complex, these are not as common or plentiful as those that simply replace or add un-immersive assets to games. Due to the intention of many of these mods being comical, often the replacement or addition is from a source with an opposite tone of the game. For example, the Buzz Lightyear paladin armor mod for post-apocalyptic open world game Fallout 4 is inspired by the titular character from the children’s film Toy Story.

There is also the mod that replaces the death sound with the iconic clip of Steve Carell’s character shouting “No” from the sitcom The Office.

Other mods are even more upfront about their breaking of the fourth wall, such as a t-shirt which openly references itself as a mod, or the one that proclaims it’s immersiveness despite not being so at all. There are also those that refer to real world individuals, such as the Nicolas Cage paintings mod (which has echoes of Velvet-Strike’s plastering of off-putting images). While these examples are not as grand as some of the more ambitious mods for Fallout 4, they still hold importance as representatives of countergaming culture.

Fallout 4 is available for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

“Buzz Lightyear Paladin Danse.”  Nexus Mods, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3579.

Galloway, Alexander R. “Countergaming.” Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 2006. PDF.

“The Most Immersive Shirts Ever.” Nexus Mods, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14989/.

“Nicolas Cage Paintings.” Nexus Mods, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1687.

“Peaceful Fatigues.” Nexus Mods, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14874.

“Steve Carell shouting NOO – Death sound replacer.” Nexus Mods, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2384.

%d bloggers like this: