Project development from Autumn term
Current project idea: To create a serious game in the style of interactive games such as Pokémon, Zelda and Mass Effect to educate the player on corporate greenwashing tactics and practices. Based off the research of Naomi Klein, Thomas Athanasiou and other theorists, this project will also explore political ideologies, capitalistic gains and how corporations use greenwashing to try and engage with their audiences in untruthful ways (often which are the opposite of what they’re actually doing- it’s used more of a distraction from the damage they’re really causing to the environment). My aim is to get players to consider how greenwashing may be affecting their lives; to think more seriously about their current lifestyle and how issues of greenwashing are preventing any positive change being made for environmental recovery (as well as how these issues all relate to the environment). (**This statement was written as the project aim for the development module last term. I have edited it slightly. Even though the entire look and design of my project has changed, its objective has not so I feel that it’s necessary to mention this again.)
I was primarily influenced by the climate crisis. After hearing news and conducting research, reading articles from many different sources (The Guardian, The Economist etc), I realised that I didn’t want to just focus on the climate crisis in general. I began to learn about corporate greenwashing and how companies routinely avoid responsibility for their actions and was shocked that it was an aspect often overlooked - I wanted to educate others on the negative impacts of these companies and possible ways to help solve the problem. These corporations have the means to help mitigate the crisis, yet they choose not to for the sake of business- it’s this reality that persuaded me to choose ‘greenwashing’ as my topic.
Arguably, Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything (2014) had the biggest influence on the outcome of this project. I was able to gather facts and theories from her book, using them to form the basis of my narrative; many of which I have subsequently been able to back up with other greenwashing theory proposed by Athanasiou, Laufer and others.
**This part was also mentioned in my process blog for the development module. Everything below this part has been written as a comparison between the project in the Autumn term and how the final design has turned out.**
Following on from the research conducted in the Autumn term, this project is similarly inspired by academic texts by authors such as Naomi Klein (”This changes everything”), Athanasiou, Laufer and many others, including articles found online in places such as The Guardian and environmental research websites. Reading has ultimately inspired the whole project. While I came across Naomi Klein’s book relatively late in the development stage of the project, and although I had already decided to do an environmentally-themed project, I read it fully from cover to cover, extracting notes I believe to be helpful or inspirational for my own work. This influenced the direction of the project to assume a more corporate-based stance instead of producing ‘just another’ project on how bad climate change will be on our planet and the environment. Subsequently, after reading Klein’s book, I went on to read other academic texts about greenwashing, (primarily influenced by authors such as Laufer) collecting information and facts to include in my own game. Inspired also by the lack of knowledge of corporate greenwashing among my family and friends (except those knowledgeable of the climate crisis), I felt the need to create a project that would highlight the dangers and consequences of allowing corporations to feed us misleading information and continuing their environmentally harmful business models and practices. It became my project’s goal to emphasise this aspect of global warming and climate change as the common conception of the issue is a travel-based, fossil-fuel based cause-effect scenario which lies in the hands of the consumer and not the corporations who make and distribute the products sold to us.
While many of the texts influenced my project massively, some of them strayed from the topic of greenwashing to focus more on movements that demanded climate action. While these texts were still very helpful with the information they provided me with, it must be mentioned that these texts also helped me to pick out relevant information that target audiences would be able to sit down and read willingly without being put off at the thought of having to do ‘a lot of reading’ in order to learn about the subject. The research stage itself took a lot of time and I had to carefully consider what information and research is relevant to the overall aim of my project: to highlight greenwashing practices and how corporations get away with it (as well as how they manipulate their PR messages/ do certain things to avoid blame or detection). As making the project entertaining became more imperative as part of the objective, so too did the choice of information and how it would be presented. This leads me on to mention how my project developed from its original concept in the Autumn term to the radically different final design at the submission stage.
To start with, my project was an interactive multiple-choice ‘collection’ of facts and information relating to greenwashing, based on ‘core themes’ that I picked out of all the research that had been conducted. These pieces of information were organised onto post-it notes and then subsequently an interactive web diagram in Twine, allowing me to navigate through the various sections and organise relevant pieces of information together. This organisation was primarily to structure some sort of ‘narrative’ for that game, then fleshed out with more research and examples. This project was primarily based off existing multiple choice stories such as “Choose your own Adventure” and other text-based games highlighted in my process book from last term.
There were multiple issues with this project, and one highlighted by my tutors when receiving feedback was that it did not really promote audience engagement with the project, nor was the target audience appropriately taken into consideration with the design. A mock test of the rough design is screenshotted below. Initially, the project was supposed to conform to the style of a digital visual novel, and I thought that I need to include various relevant backgrounds to keep my work entertaining.
While there are visuals, this game is incredibly text-based and finding the right kinds of image to fill in the background would have been very challenging and may have removed the player from immersing within the game or kept them from engaging the way I wanted them to with the information being presented. This style of interface, primarily inspired by games such as Energy2020, Oil God and interactive narrative games such as Messages somewhat prevents any capability of immersion with the project as the user is constantly reminded of the existence of the interface every time a narrative branch presents itself, instead of allowing themselves to be drawn fully into the world. Therefore, upon discussing the project with friends and my professors, audience engagement became a big motivator for the whole project as I knew that audiences may not engage with the initial concept design since there was no world to explore or characters that they could relate to.
As an extra point about audience engagement, I wanted to convey information with little political bias so that audiences of all types or political preference could view this project and learn about how corporations use greenwashing to lure customers in and shift the blame of environmental damage on to them- regardless of political orientation, this still happens and I wanted my project to not only appeal to but also include audience members who may not usually be advocates for climate change. From my research, I learned that regardless of political orientation, people generally tend to filter any damaging information to protect their preferred version of society (Klein, 2014:36); in order to keep audiences emotionally engaged, I decided that I needed to offer a sense of optimism for the future as well as deviating from political bias as much as possible. Deliberately focusing blame on audience members who may be of a political orientation ‘at fault’ will not help them engage with the project or be willing to learn from it.
This is the original project’s wireframe, in Twine, of the interactivity each part of the initial informative narrative had with the other. Some parts were more interactive than others, however, audiences could largely choose which narrative branches they wanted to explore. At the time it made sense to connect items based on relevance to the part of information the player was already reading about, however, if the player could choose relatively freely where they could go, some parts of information may suddenly jump from one section to another, risking audience confusion and lack of understanding of the information I was trying to present. As a result, in my current project, the information is deliberately divided up into ‘industries’ where players read about certain facts and information that directly relate to one another/ the same topic in one place and not randomly.
I wanted to create an interactive structure to ensure that the audience had a sense of agency within the game. I realised that, for the initial concept, I could not incorporate a challenging interactive game mechanic into the game as it didn’t make sense. How would I be able to put points to the audience navigating through branches of information? I was originally thinking of ways I could include a mini-game to test the player’s knowledge of greenwashing after playing, however, how the player was to access that part of the game was challenging to think about and whether the player would have wanted to navigate through the whole game was another question. Looking back, I know that the original concept of my project was flawed in multiple ways and did not really consider audience enjoyment but focused purely on the educational aspects, which is why many educational ‘serious’ games have failed before. Since I knew that a mini-game testing player knowledge could be beneficial to maintaining player participation, I decided to include one in my final game’s design at the end of the game to signal to the player that there isn’t much new content they can explore unless they chose earlier on to ignore certain characters and now wish to return to them. My final design does not require players to interact with every single aspect of the game (unlike the original design) and therefore players can choose who to talk to and where to wander in the maps as they please, offering agency despite there still being some form of restriction in terms of the order in which the game must be played. The amount of information learned in-game depends entirely on how much the player wants to learn and points are awarded to the player for being inquisitive (and the more points they have the faster they can progress in the game).
I realised early on, after reading texts on game design, that agency within the game was important to make it entertaining- to give the player a sense of control over the game, allowing them to explore and have a passion of their own that encouraged them to learn more. Although the initial concept idea did have elements of agency, and players could choose which branches of information they wanted to explore, it was still very controlled and did not allow the player much opportunity for exploration outside the very rigid narrative branches that only occasionally offered exploratory options to other areas of the ‘map’. However, the player would not have been able to see where these branches would lead and may end up reading the same information multiple times, potentially risking boredom and loss of interest in the project and therefore not facilitating education on the issue of greenwashing, which contradicted the main aim of the game. After a discussion with a flatmate and my professors, I decided that changing the whole design of the game was necessary in order to redesign how the player would interact with the information and also with the interface, hopefully making the game more interesting and therefore enjoyable in the process.
The main inspiration for the new design of my final project were the Pokémon games, aided by other games such as Mass Effect where I similarly utilised changing narrative branches for characters in-game depending on various factors such as the player’s level and what point they were at. All this adds elements of surprise (and therefore enjoyment) as the player can continually explore and revisit old areas while still discovering something new, unlike the original concept where players could end up revisiting old areas and repeating the same thing with little or no new ways out. The main visual inspirations were Pokémon and Zelda Nintendo Gameboy/DS era games, where the open maps mean that players can roam around as they please and interact with NPCs whenever they want to. Other interactive elements in-game mean that the player can choose to investigate laptops, computers and books and still be able to ‘do’ something, be it read a fact, find out information, see what exists in the world of the game or even access ‘information menus’ that provide the player with a (albeit text-heavy) breakdown of all the key information for the industries relating to greenwashing. I decided to include these information menus so that the player has a point of access where they can view the main greenwashing points quickly and easily without having to play the game for 45 minutes trying to find the right NPC who provides the information they are looking for.
Above are all screenshots about the aforementioned information menu. It’s currently one of the only menus in the game that does not overlay the main map. This is an issue I will try to fix after I have completed all necessary components for the project submission- it works at the moment and do not want to risk ruining the functionality of the game this close to submission. I included this menu primarily as a function the player could access to read information in one place should they choose to do so.
Sound in this project was essential to add atmosphere and depth as it’s a project that does not rely on spoken voice to convey information. I needed to find background music (BGM) that does not distract the player or take their attention away from the game itself. Music is not the main focus of my project and therefore that means I had to be very selective about what sort of BGM I choose for the game. Not only am I trying to convey the aesthetic of the Gomeboy/DS-era games (so a selection of 8-bit/chiptune BGMs must be considered) but I am also trying to avoid political bias; evoking any form of emotion with BGM choice is essential to avoid (as evoking emotion at certain points can be an indication of how I (the creator) may want the player to feel, contradicting the aim of the project as I want audiences to discover for themselves how the information in the game makes them feel). I want my game to be educational and to make players aware of greenwashing so that they can form their own opinion and therefore make their own choices and actions to help mitigate the problem. The objective is not to name corporations individually (as this is a form of bias) but rather highlight how industries in general are using greenwashing to misinform everybody and avoid compliance with environmental policies and restrictions.
The source of BGM is dova-syndrome (dova-s), a Japanese royalty free background music (BGM) search website. Select BGMs also originated from another source, Fesliyan Studios. I would also like music to help ‘transport’ the audience into the game itself, engaging multiple senses and adding atmosphere.Transportation is not only important for enjoyment of the narrative but also how much attention the audience pay to the information held within; the BGM choice thus reinforces both the retro Gameboy/DS aesthetic style I am hoping to achieve and also subsequently facilitates learning within the game (which is another reason why the BGM choice must not be distracting to the player).
Upon researching game theory, I learned that narratives should feature characters the audiences can relate to and identify with. The original project concept was primarily educational and, for some reason, I was going to refrain from representing any characters at all in my game. If I was going to include characters, my thought process at the time was to include ‘shadows’ of people that may be talking. It did remove any problems regarding representation within my work, however, it also removed any possibility of the player being able to relate to the information being mentioned as there are no visible people or characters the audience can identify with. I realised, after researching game theory, that having a game with no characters or world to explore would be a big mistake as it would not be interesting or exciting for the players to play through. I noticed in the development module of this project that the Pokémon games’ narratives were effective at keeping their audience’s attention because they were capable of providing the player with an opportunity to ‘fill the character’s shoes’, if even only for a brief time. However, because at that time my project did not feature any characters who the player could become, commenting on that aspect in relation to my initial concept idea was impossible. However, my current project idea features many different characters who all work in different places, have different hair styles, different skin colours and even different attitudes depending on the player’s level as a journalist. This provides the player with plenty of scope to identify with some of the characters. While the player assumes the role of a journalist in-game (and can even become a different gender!), it’s not just the characters the player should be able to associate with on some level- the maps themselves have been designed specifically to resemble corporate settings, including a supermarket where the player can find milk and bring it back to their office (but bringing it back is not necessary to continue). My new project idea thus allows the player to successfully ‘assume’ the role of a journalist, even of a different gender if they choose, and live that character’s life, even if only for a short while. All of this should aid immersion with the project but, combined with the nostalgic graphic style and familiarity of the world being presented, simultaneously remind the player that they are in a simulation of reality- and therefore what the player learns in-game also applies to life outside too.
In my initial project idea, I tested the possibility of inputting some sort of ‘lives’ counter so that an element of difficulty would have been added, building on criticism from the participants of a study by Ouariachi et at (2017) on the educational environment game Energy 2020. The participants of the study suggested that the design and challenging aspects of the game were not good enough to be as entertaining as they had hoped. Looking back on my idea, it seems pretty far-fetched that I would have been able to put in a lives counter, unless I inputted a whole multiple choice game where the player would lose points or lives for incorrect answers. While I was trying to adhere to the standards of a ‘serious’ game, the result would not have been entertaining as it still did not develop other issues with the idea (such as design, interface, characters and narrative). Regarding my final project, I would still class it as a serious game- whose primary intention is to educate and inform. However, I have specifically created the game in a way that is reminiscent of existing games that many players may have enjoyed themselves when they were younger, encouraging participation through motivation (as players may know how of its exploratory nature and remember enjoying these games in this style). As mentioned earlier, entertainment and enjoyment became key factors in considering how my project was going to be created- so even though the game itself may be ‘serious’, it’s still enjoyable through the interactive opportunities it offers the player. (As a side note, I got my brother to play test the game earlier in April and he continually asked me “Is that fact true?!” as he was playing through. Clearly he was engaging with the game and the information presented and seemed surprised with what he was reading, which, in a way, means I achieved my project’s goal in some respect!)
I would like my audience to be anyone who is interested in learning about greenwashing or how corporate capitalism adversely affects environmental policy. However, more specifically I would like the audience to be young adults who currently have the most influence in terms of making decisions that will in turn affect their impact on the environment (as young children cannot yet do this). Young adults are more ‘in-tune’ with technology can are therefore more willing to engage with digital media; they are also capable of having influence over other generations’ behaviours.
For my initial concept, the audience remained broad and therefore the game’s design lacked any solid cohesion or stylistic influence that would appeal to any group in particular. Due to this, when I redesigned the project, I took into consideration aesthetic styles that the audience may find pleasing and/or recognisable. The Nintendo GameBoy/DS aesthetic style was chosen as an influence so that members of the audience who may have played these console games themselves as children may recognise my project’s style and feel nostalgic- playing the game (maybe at first) primarily because they want to remind themselves how playing a Pokémon or Zelda game felt. The game lets them momentarily relive their childhood playing a game that allows them to become somebody else and explore a different world while gathering information. Because of these style choices, I hope that the target audience will become more engaged with the project and that it may also appeal to those who may otherwise not have been interested in the project at all, simply because the style is similar to one they remember. The game aesthetic has been remediated to fit another purpose- the original games of this style were completely escapist and set in a fantasy world, whereas my project reuses the style to offer a similar escapist experience but set in a world that isn’t different from our own (with the intention of making the audience reflect on this fact).
In my final version, players can choose which gender they would like to be, and also can choose their own name. They can assume an entirely new identity within this game. In the initial concept idea, there was no capacity for the player to ‘become’ anyone else- the player could not be a character. This removed them from being fully immersed within the game’s environment which would have then prevented them from engaging properly with the information being presented.
This is the tutorial available at the start of the game. It enables players to see how to play the game as the keys needed to play are slightly unusual.
Overall, my design changed radically from the proposal in the Autumn term. While the design has change, its aim and objectives have not, with the primary focus of the game still being to educate players of corporate greenwashing- although elements of enjoyment have been taken into consideration this term, ultimately altering the overall format the project’s being presented in. The design choices reflect heavily on their influences, meant to engage the audience and including multiple aspects of interactivity meant to keep the player entertained and immersed in the world presented to them.
