As April draws to a close, so ends the taught component of our MA in ‘Digital Games Theory & Design’. It’s with bittersweet feelings I reflect on the past few months: a whirlwind of a term that has, in some ways, been one of the most challenging times of my life. Our mandate to make ‘a game a week’ saw many a day go by with time spent coding late into the night; our exploration of the socio-cultural contexts in which games are made demanded extensive reading and research; and, to top this off, some fairly major life-related events also added to this term’s fairly fraught feel. Still, I’ll miss the fascinating discussions we’ve had, the thrill of being issued a new game concept and letting my imagination run wild, and my wonderful MA buddies (…who I still intend to hassle, regularly!)
A significant thing of which I’ll speak in this post are the ludic sketches my peers and I have worked on for the past six weeks or so. A ‘ludic sketch’ is, essentially, a game demo: a short ten to fifteen minute experience that offers the flavour of a full game… without, thankfully, having to be a full game’s length!
My ludic sketch was a 2D point-and-click adventure with a dark fantasy theme called The Hollow Girls. Set in the citadel of wicked stepmother and witch, Catherine Marchmont, the player controls a young woman named Meia as she seeks to escape the castle lest she meet the same fate as the stepchildren before her…
It was huge fun to make and was developed using a number of inspirations.
Firstly, there was The Witch’s House: an exemplary horror title made by the developer Fummy using RPG Maker. Despite its simplistic graphics, The Witch’s House builds tension like no other. Clever design tricks, like the constantly shifting geography of the environment (where rooms appear to move and the player can never feel entirely certain of which chamber she’s entering) really heighten the vulnerability felt while playing the game.
Another huge inspiration behind The Hollow Girls was the album The Glamoury by the superlative Emily Portman. I remember hearing tracks from this album for the first time around a year ago and being spellbound by Portman’s brilliantly haunting voice, lyrics and melodies. Such was the power of her music, in fact, that some of the songs refused to leave my head for weeks afterwards.
I also borrowed ideas from Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, the game that invented the concept of ‘in-game sanity’ and used fourth-wall-breaking techniques to toy with players. Taking inspiration from this game, I included a ‘curse mechanic’ in The Hollow Girls (SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM ETERNAL DARKNESS’ SANITY MECHANIC WHICH I KNOW YOU’VE PATENTED, NINTENDO!) I shan’t go into the details of how it worked – after all, you can play my game and find out for yourself! – but I felt that adding this mechanic to my piece helped it rise above the simple point-and-click title it might’ve otherwise become, transforming it into something more memorable.
The Hollow Girls certainly isn’t world-changing, but, despite this, I feel very proud of my little game. Should you fancy playing it, you can download it here.
In terms of my MA buddies’ games, I’ve been blown away by the intelligence, technical expertise and ingenuity they’ve displayed. Games have been produced where the aim’s been to…
- Spread a deadly virus through a range of different organisms;
- Make friends at a new university, building their trust and discovering their secrets;
- Appease an angry goddess who’s been transforming people into wolves;
- Guide a small child through her nightmares and bring her to safety;
- Aid with a minion uprising against the masters governing them so that fairer monster working conditions might be brought about!
It’s been a pleasure sharing in these ludic sketches as they’ve been developed: no two games have felt the same and seeing how the personality of each designer has been showcased in his/her work has been a joy to behold.
A particular shout out deserves to go Abby Flores whose ludic sketch Moonlight Fortress was outstanding. Following a band of survivors as they’re pitted against Troyan, The Ruler of Night from Slavic folklore, Moonlight Fortress is utterly addictive to play and comes with stunning artwork – entirely created by Abby’s talented hands! The piece was, quite simply, a triumph.
While this term has certainly not always been easy, I feel so incredibly grateful for it. To have been given the HUGE luxury to pursue my own artistic endeavours (over which I’ve had total creative control) has been such a gift. I’m aware that it’s possible I’ll never have another time like this again in my life and I feel so thankful for having had this opportunity.
All that remains, now, is the dissertation. Hmm… I better get my thinking cap on.
sonicandstanislavski 