Game Log 2: Play

Brainstorm

Ideas from our first brainstorm

Ideas from our second brainstorm

Game Description

From our brainstorm we used the Concept Convergence method to boil down all of our idées to a couple idées: First a game build on the concept of sitting in the living room in front of our TV, where you have to get out in the real world (shown on the pictures above). Secondly a dark screen where you have a flashlight to cast a light on different things in a room, f.eks. a piggy bank, where you then get a problem on your screen which you can either close without interaction or you can choose an answer and get a point.

From this we choose to proceed with the idéer about the living room and the TV.

Moodboard

Concept

The game is based on the European value of comfort. In the EU, we strongly believe that we should be comfortable and preferably not challenged too much. If there is war and poverty far away in the world – because, of course, there is none in our little bubble – we are happy to wear a support badge or send a coin to charity. That way, we have done our part and can stop thinking about the problem. Modern technologies like television and the internet allow us to receive information from around the world "up close" – but at the same time, they can conceal distances and make us believe that a problem is far away, even when, in some cases, it is happening to our neighbors.

The player should feel some sense of curiosity in the way we have designed the interactions in the game and the audio design. The ending should get some thoughts going about the state of the world and that way that the war might be much closer than it seems. 

The cultural gameworld is created by inspiration from the EU value of “comfort” and then based our game on being in a living room with a TV. Additionally, the TV is showing a kind of Breaking News of different things such as the nature and animals, school and work but also crisis such as war and fugitives.

The “empowering gameplay” isn’t that visible in this game. In our prototype we haven’t had the time to make puzzles like we were planning - or making enemies that the TV sends out. There isn’t really any obstacle for the player to get out, as we had previously planned. The game doesn’t display any score system or way of tracking the players progress. It’s maybe more of a thematic struggle of being a person in EU, that keeps getting bombarded with news and updates on how the world is scrambling. In that way the gameplay could be a bit empowering, as you want to figure out the message and the “story” that is trying to be conveyed. 

Reflection on our roles

Game Master (Camilla)

Our main goal has not been to show directly how things may be unfair or so to say, but more to show how we hide from reality behind closed doors and screens.

So far we have only been developing a concept for a game but we have focused on creating an artsy/role-playing game that forces people to think about what goes on in the world. As for my role in this, I have not had a specific way to incorporate the different things from the ideation wheel yet. From now on I will have in mind to keep helping the others to find out how to show these things in the final prototype of the game.

Crafter (Mikkel)

The player wakes up in a small living room with a simple instruction – this game is about staying inside and watching your TV. The TV displays a fast-cut feed of news, meaningless entertainment, and war footage, attempting to distract the player from the world outside. If the player listens closely, they can faintly hear screams and explosions outside.

At some point, the player will likely realize that there is more to the game (life? Hehe) than passively consuming information. However, there is no door out of the room, so the only option is to explore the surroundings. If the player tries to interact with the remote control, they will be informed that the battery is missing. The player must then complete a series of tasks:

• Find the battery for the remote control
• Turn off the TV. This causes the player to suddenly "discover" that there is a door out of the room
• Find the key to the door
• Unlock the door and leave the room

The game ends by showing the player's surroundings outside the room/apartment, which are in ruins, and they are told that they opened their eyes too late.

The player controls their character (with arrow keys? Or point-and-click?). The game is seen from a top-down perspective.

Considerations:

• Perhaps the TV sends enemies toward the player, representing the bombardment of information?
• Consider a duality in the aesthetics between the room and the TV to emphasize the concept – maybe the TV is very realistic and colorful, while the room is simply drawn and muted.

Storyteller (Kajsa)

In our game the message is the important part of the game. There won’t be any “complicated” game play or riddles.

 We chose to focus more on the experience of the game and the ending of it. We hope to make a story that will awaken some thoughts and feelings, rather than it being exciting. We want to put awareness to the way that we are living in “bubbles” and that it is maybe a bit too comfortable sometimes. We (europe) are far away from all trouble and war, but when in reality it is close by; even in the neighbouring countries. Freedom is chosen in a sense and that the distractions are only a way of thinking about something else, but it doesn’t change the unfaireness that’s happening in other places in the world. The game incorporates the cultural heritage in how the story’s plot is about being in a confined strange room, and that the instructions are to stay in it and watch tv. We’ve used inspiration from the art installation  “Dawn hours in the neighbour´s house”  as our cultural heritage. The thing we wanted to implement from the artwork was the feeling of no sense of time or space. The big window that changed from darker colors to lighter colors in the art installation indicated a cycle of time, but as the viewer you had no idea of how long the cycle is.  We chose to incorporate the big window and the changing of lighter to darker colors, as it supports the concept of us living in our own bubbles and not really having a clue of the outside world.  Our story will touch upon unfairness in a more abstract way, as it’s more personal to our own ways of handling things and the way that we have the “freedom” to chose when we turn on the tv and watch a war.

Artist (Emilie)

While exploring the Aros Museum and engaging with various installation artworks, we selected Dawn Hours in the Neighbour’s House by Pipilotti Rist as the focal piece. Our objective is to integrate elements from this installation into the concept of our game. The game will incorporate aspects and objects of the artwork, while aligning with the theme of It's Not Fair. We have chosen to interpret this theme through the lens of war, specifically examining the distance—both physical and emotional—from conflict, and offering players a perspective on the situation. By blending elements of the artwork with this thematic exploration. Also by implementing the part of night and day, to give a perspective of the time and current present of the situations that are going on right now.

Designer (All of us)

Our focus in the design have been to actually make the TV screen guard the player from the problematics outside of the world as way of saying, that we hide behind our screens and safe walls while catastrophic things could be happening right outside our window or doors.

We aim to set a thought-provoking tone, encouraging players to reflect on the theme and consider the ongoing global circumstances

How we stand out

It’s nothing new to have a game with a top-down perspective, where you have to solve things in a room to get out. The difference in our game is that it encourages you NOT to do anything to get out - why should you? 

Our game stands out in the way that it challenges the EU value of “comfort”. We want to make a statement, that “we” are too comfortable in our bubble and that all the horrible situations happening in the world can be much closer to us than they seem to be. 

Expert Council

Our Pitch

Feedback

We were told to have more focus on Cultural Heritage, which we want to implement by putting the butterflies from the ‘Dawn Hours in the Neighbor’s House’ on the wall as a symbol of the player being kinda pinned to the wall and observing. Additionally, we want to add the idea of a time interval by showing the sun go up and down outside the window and play with the idea of saturation as the time goes by.

Also we were told that the idea about an illusion of choices is very interesting. But in our timeline right now that is more of a nice to have than a need to have. This was also pointed out by the expert council as they told us to focus on the introduction of the game and the end - everything in between could be added afterwards if the time is there for it. This was good for our work after the feedback as we then had a clear understanding on where to begin.