scmower

My class blog for interactive Media 21

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The Evidence for Videogames Having a Positive Impact on Mental Health

With the whole conceot and idea of Survival being based around mental health and trauma, I figure now would be a good time to share the evidence for video games helping people overcome/live with mental health issues and PTSD.

The most recent example that I could find comes from an Oxford University study published in November of 2020. The study led by  Professor Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, focussed on players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. The study explored the association between objective game time and well-being, examining the link between directly measured behaviour and subjective mental health. Previous studies used self reporting from participants to calculate game time, which can vary wildly in its accuracy. In possibly one of the only defences for the always online connectivity of certain games, the study was able to use accurate data of play times from EA and Nintendo North America.

Results showed that gaming does have a positive affect on mental wellbeing. Play time itself was not as much of a factor for wellbeing as the user/participants subjective experience while playing the game. Those who recieved positive enjoyment from playing the game experienced a more positive wellbeing.

Professor Przybylski also noted that “Our findings show video games aren’t necessarily bad for your health; there are other psychological factors which have a significant effect on a persons’ well-being.”

This study shows that videogames can have a positive impact on wellbeing, but they can also be usedhelp those who are already suffering from low wellbeing, specifically PTSD and anxiety. In an article for Wired on October 20th 2020, US Navy Veteran Alex Miller described how playing Mass Effect 2 stopped him from comitting suicide while struggling with Covid 19 and depression.

“Fortunately for me, I’m feeling well enough today to play Mass Effect 2. All I need is a controller and a pillow. I can’t lift my head, but at least I can play. This is how I’ve prevented my own suicide. Otherwise, PTSD and the nearly unbearable effects of the virus would have ended me. For many vets, gaming is much more than just a waste of time—it’s a godsend.“

Around 18.5% of US veterans returning from operations meet the criteria for depression or PTSD according to the RAND organisation. Gaming has been used as therapy to help treat among veterans who suffer from PTSD.

Michelle Colder Carras is a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who specializes in treating veterans, and a gamer. In her 2018 study on how gaming can help veterans recover from mental health challenges she discovered that Veterans use games in a variety of ways including connecting with others, coping with symptoms of PTSD, suicidality, or substance cravings, or creating meaningful leadership roles or even jobs through games.Prolonged Exposure, or PE, has also been proven to be effective in helping veterans, with Carras adding that  PE “involves people practicing thinking about the traumatic events they’ve been through—at a time everything is fine—to help them realize that those memories are not harmful.” 

These will no doubt make their way into my project proposal for evidence of video games having a positive affect on mental health and healing from traumatic experiences.

Links to the studies and articles are as follows:

Oxford Study

Videogames helping Veterans recover from mental health challenges

Alex Miller WIRED Article       

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Advertising

Ahead of the pitch for Survival tomorrow I wanted to do a quick note on some of things I’ve not mentioned before, more notably the price for the game and what kind of advertising strategies it would employ.

For starters, I hate advertising (sorry to anyone who works in advertising). For the most part, I tend to consider ads to be shallow, manipulative attempts at appealing to our insecurities in order for us to buy some overpriced product. But, when thinking from the context of having a product you want to sell, it becomes a necessary evil. So what would be the marketing strategy?

Traditional advertising would be one aspect. I say traditional in the sense that they would be print, online and trailers for tv and youtube. Given the nature of the game and its theme of surviving trauma I believe there could be potential for sponsorship or exposure through various mental health charities. Approaching specifically gaming led health charities could give the opportunity for features on the game and help raise word of mouth.

Contacting streamers would also be an option. Many streamers now are sent advance copies of games and asked to preview them to their audience. In times past it was more of a shady practice, being more dishonest about a gameplay video being sponsored content. Now companies and streamers are more open about sponsored videos which, perhaps contradictory, I don’t hate. We live in a world with advertising, it’s not going anywhere. However being more upfront about something being an ad is more honest, feels less like it’s trying to manipulate you.

Most of these streamers play these games through to completion if their audience enjoys it. More videos equals more exposure. More exposure equals more sales. I feel dirty now.

This would all be under the marketing budget which is seperate from the main development budget. There is an unwritten rule embraced by many when it comes to marketing budgets for videogames. To paraphrase it basically says for budget 25 - 50% based from the dev budget. So based on Survival’s 516k budget, the marketing budget would be between 129 - 258k. Yikes.

The game would retail at £14.99 with a pegi 16 rating due to the content. Based on a combined marketing and development budget of 774k the game would technically need to ship around 52k copies to recover costs. Doesn’t seem too bad I suppose.

Hopefully these numbers and strategies are on the right track. I’ll find out tomorrow. Pitch Ahoy.

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Budget Redux

The last time I had came up with a very rough budget for Survival I quoted somewhere in the region of 25k before marketing. Well, we can all wish can’t we. I felt like this seemed too low in comparison to some other projects I could see, but those numbers were what the number crunching gave me. Having gone back and done a more thorough review, that number is going to fall far short.

While I’m sure an indie game can be made for 25K I went back to the handy game number cruncher and selected a different option, this time assembling a company rather than hiring out for one. Obviously this was still a ball park guess as salaries and positions that would theoritically be used to create Survival weren’t included in this estimate. However, £240,000 per year to pay all the salaries for the positions seems a lot more realistic, if frightening.

Revisiting my earlier post on budget I took a look at a document of average salaries in the UK games industry helpfully provided by our course lecturers, looking at the salaries for the positions I mentioned and a (hopefully) overly generous development time of 2 years. From my own calculations the yearly budget for positions that I have so far is around £215,000, 25k less than the internet calculator but possibly more accurate to the specifications of Survival. Of course, that was without a 20% contingency budget. With that the estimated yearly budget would be around £258,000. Over a two year development the game would cost £516,000 to develop. This is before marketing.

This feels much more realistic. Of course this may change slightly before the final pitch from more research. But as it stands this feels like a much more suitable (or horrifying) budget for the project.

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Greg Thompson is the best Oblivion NPC

Almost fifteen years ago (come the 20th of March) The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion released. I missed it at the time - my first Elder Scrolls experience was shouting really loudly in people’s faces in Skyrim. Over the years, the awkward AI and voiceacting of the NPCs in Oblivion has become a bit of a meme. There’s a whole reason as to why they’re so awkward here, but the gist of it is Oblivion NPCs have weird conversations that sound oddly humourous.

I first became aware of the Oblivion NPC meme when my friend sent a live stream of a video simply called ‘Oblivion NPC Dialogue Live Stream’ from Whacked-Out Entertainment. Watching it I was completely confused as to what I was watching. The live stream was a series of short videos, showing a man in an American accent going about his day, talking to a camera man and making what seemed to be simple observations. The screen was mocked up to look like the HUD from Oblivion, including a section for the man/NPC’s name, which was Greg Thompson. I was still so confused. DId this man make these videos as a parody of Oblivion? They looked old. Was that deliberate?

I had to know.

Dipping into the vast realms of other ‘Oblivion NPC Memes’ I found a lot of mean spirited and seemingly exploitative videos where people with mental health conditions were filmed as passed off as an Oblivion NPC. It didn’t really sit right with me. So why did this new one work without feeling exploitative? Who is Greg Thompson?

Looking into it I discovered Greg Thompson is an English teacher from Texas, who in the late 80s and early 90s made his own educational show At Home with English which was broadcast on public access television. In the episodes, Mr Thompson teaches how grammer is used in every day conversation, displayed  through his nosy camera man who won’t stop asking questions. Greg speaks clearly, distinctly and slowly, obviously to help aide his students, but as it turns out, a bit like a bad NPC.

The reason I’m writing about this is because I think it’s a good example of Convergence. This old media that was created to help non native English language speakers, has been repackaged if you will, into a form of (extremely niche) entertainment, that importantly for me, doesn’t feel mean spirited.

It’s not just me though. Greg Thompson’s NPC videos have been steadily uploading from late 2020 and checking the comments shows that fans are actively engaging with it and even creating, or asking questions of, the lore around Greg Thompson. I can see why. Each video seems to show different snapshots into the live of this version of Greg Thompson, who likes carpentry, riding his bike, swimming and sliding on floors since he was 3 years old. 

Through his performance in the videos, Thompson, most likely unintentionally, creates a character who seems to have a wide eyes, innocent and wholesome outlook at the world. Other dramatic events in Greg’s life include him scandalously getting robbed “Why would someone rob me!?” he says, looking around his trashed living room, “I am not rich!”, getting stuck on a roof, standing up to an abusive boss and deliberating what to wear to that night’s party.

Perhaps it’s just the horrific world we currently live in, but I needed these. Greg lived rent free in my head over the next few days while I was still processing everything. Did he ever get his TV back? Did he find a new job? Why does the camera man (Mr Perfect) keep asking him all of these random questions? Why was he digging that massive hole, is he really a Necromancer?

More videos keep getting uploaded, most recently a trip to the supermarket where Greg puts too many things in his basket and struggles to carry them.  The biggest question that kept me up at night was what was Greg Thompson doing now?

The most recent interview is here from 2009. Some people in the comments have recently asked for an update and I am pleased to say that according to those who did the interview in 2009, Mr. Thompson is still happily living in Texas, though may be unaware of his sudden internet fame. Thank God.

The live streams of edited videos broadcast every few days. Here’s one that’s currently live. This is the content we need right now.

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Production/Business Plan

Now it gets real. How the hell would I actually make a videogame? I don’t know how to code. Don’t really know the difference between coding and programming. In an ideal world I imagine I would be approaching a game dev studio with a pitch, they like, they take on...then what?

Well, we don’t live in an ideal world. So, what are the options. After consulting Reddit (via google) I found this thread by a person with the same problem.

The general consensus seems to be ‘Yes you can make a game with no experience, but learn how to use Unity, it will help.’ So, with the idea of throwing funding money I don’t have at a game dev studio out the window, what other options are there.

Team: Definite positions that would be needed would be narrative designer, developer, director, producer, designer, programmer and composer. There may need to be more that I haven’t thought about due to my lack of experience. These could be double of roles during development as well. One game that inspired me and I’ve mentioned before is Lone Survivor which was made almost exclusively by Jasper Byrne, so it is possible.

Funding: Fortunately there are quite a few options available. First port of call will most likely be the UK Games Fund and other funding bodies for emergent interactive and convergent media including Scottish Edge, Converge challenge and there are avenues through Creative Scotland. One organisation I would definitely be interested in approaching is Wellcome. Their funding process has recently changed but they work with the developers of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice to help the game acuurately portray the effects of psychosis. With Survival being about trauma I feel like it would fit into their remit and be worth a shot.

Development timeline is another thing I’m unsure of. Games can take ‘1 day to 10 years depending’ to develop. For a non AAA 2.5D game such as this, I’ve tentatively put the development process at 12 - 18 months.

The game would be available via self publishing on Steam for a $100 fee and the play store. Ideally the game would also see a console release however upon actually looking the path to console self publishing seems far greater than publishing on Steam or Play store and I’d need a dev kit. So for now I’m just going to focus on PC.  

Preliminary estimates of budget development costs are £25k including a 20% contingency. Again, definitely not being a AAA game that wants all the money in the world, considering the proposed length and gameplay I would sell the game for around £15 or £14.99 just to make it interesting.

Okay, I’m going to learn how to use Unity.

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The Price we pay for ‘Free’ internet

Do Not Track is a documentary series published in 2015 that explores how our information is collected and used. Not exactly unfamiliar territory but the uniqueness of this series is its interactivity.

After entering my favourite news website I was surprised to see how many cookies are used on it. A small amount are actually useful. These are the cookies that save our settings, remember what sections we prefer to read and so on. Then there’s the other 97% that are all third party and all aim to create that digital profile to sell to advertisers.

Coincidentally entering my favourite ‘fun’ website I noticed there was only one tracker, and none of them were linked with the ones from the news site, despite the narrator telling me to join the dots. Yay, point for Reddit.

As usual, everything comes down to money. Everyone needs to make money in this world, including websites, and what better way than Satan advertising. I, like everyone, have experienced pop up ads that I’ve hated with a passion. Yet, they weren’t designed to be malicious. The first pop up ad was created as a way for advertisers to make sure their ads wouldn’t show up on some, lets say undesireable web pages. Instead they’ll open seperately, and bug the hell out of you with their loud sound effects or music. Truly awful.

The only other solution would be to start paying to use the internet. Not like an ISP, but actually paying google or facebook to access their services (I’m getting flashbacks to those old Facebooks spam chains that would warn people to change something obscure in their settings to stop facebook suddenly charging them - yes, I fell for it too when I was younger...).

Setting aside how much we would be willing to pay, having to pay websites for access...well...I just don’t think it would work. You only have to look at the myriad of failed streaming services to know that there’s a limit on how many subscription services we are willing to have. Most people (okay just me) would probably only be able to afford one good subscription to google and that would be it. I can google something, but the answer would in theory cost me more money.

There were other options of course but they were exhausted in the courts quite some time ago. So I guess this is the price we pay. It does make me sad. We’re so addicted to our internet usage as a species (I’m no different) that we’re willing to largely ignore the more sinister aspects of it as long as we can look at pictures of cats or upvote a very niche meme on Reddit.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to scroll again and see that lootcrate advert that has the Xenomorph on it and go through the same internal not to sign up.

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Platform, Mechanics and Audience

Let’s talk platforms for Survival. The ones I’m set on are PC and console. Being primarily a console gamer I’m used to seeing titles ported over from PC after a successful launch or launching on PC and consoles simultaneously. These platforms are the ones I have the most experience with. I don’t tend to play mobile games, not out of snobbery, but rather I just prefer to sit down with a controller and stare at a large TV. Pokemon Go was too much exercise for me. So, main platforms for the pitch are PC and console.

I’ve described the mechanics as stealth orientated, but how exactly? A few years ago I played Lone Survivor on PSPlus. A 2d sidescroller horror game, Lone Survivor has you navigating appartment blocks and streets plaqued by human like monsters. Combat is an option, but a limited one. Armed with a gun, you can try and shoot the enemies down, but as with any survival horror you quickly find yourself running short of ammo. A better way to deal with them is not to but rather hide in the shadows and simply let the monsters pass.

Lone Survivor has to you fighting or avoiding enemies in it’s gameplay.

I’ve mentioned combat and it would be an option when two characters are together in the game. Being from the UK I don’t really see guns ever and would like this to be reflected in the project. The emphasis here would be on melee combat. Each survivor would be armed with a blunt instrument of some kind, steel pipes, wooden club, cricket bat (why not?). As stated, attacking any monster head on alone would result in instant death. But with both players together and attacking simultaneously, they can gain the upper hand on one monster and brutally beat it to death. Other game mechanics would take the shape of puzzle solving and platforming.

As an example: Alex and Eva are making their way through an abandoned apartment building, travelling up through floors in order to make their way back down. They reach one room with two doors, one barricaded and one ajar. Above them, just out of reach is a pull chord for an attic entrance. The door that is ajar marks the way forward, but as the players approach something thumps against the barricaded door. The players would have to make a choice here. They could try to go through the open door, revealing a monster on the other side they would have to deal with, all the while the barricaded door becomes weaker as it is pounded on. Speed would be of the essence in a combat approach, as the players would need to deal with the first monster before the second one breaks down the barricaded door, lest they be trapped. It would be possible to fight both and advance. However, another solution is available. If Alex gives Eva a boost up to the pull chord she could open the hatch to the attic and lower a ladder which they could use to climb up before the barricaded door is broken down. They players could also pull the ladder back up and close the hatch, preventing them from being followed. If they acted too slow then the monster can follow them up, in which case their best chance is to lose it on the upper floors before dropping back down further along. The monsters will aggro onto a player if they are spotted but breaking line of sight and staying hidden from them for a certain amount of time will cause them to lose their aggression and turn back to their usual routine.

Players would need to interact with the enviroment and solve puzzles to advance in the story.

The audience for the game would be primarily fans of horror games and puzzle games. I mentioned Lone Survivor and Little Nightmares in the past as inspirations and the game would cater to these markets, though with more of Lone Survivor’s psychological horror and less of the macabre whimsy of Little Nightmares - I love Little Nightmares I just don’t see Survival as having whimsical elements. Another audience I would be keen to engage with the game would be those who have gone through, or are struggling with trauma. The theme of the game is together we can get through anything and having victims of trauma or abuse playing the game together would hopefully bring a whole new dimension to experience of the story as they literally help each other through the game. As mentioned previosuly though, the game can be played as a single player experience with an AI partner if preferred.

Not like this though. Sorry Sheva, but your AI was awful.

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Using music to set the tone

In Final Fantasy 8 there is an optional scene the player can witness in Trabia Garden. For context, a government under the control of a sorceress has launched missiles on Trabia Garden and Balamb Garden, educational institutions that train teenagers and children to be mercenaries and magic users (as you do). Balamb Garden escaped the massacre by literally flying away, while Trabia wasn’t so lucky. Once you have control of the mobile Balamb Garden you can travel to Trabia (the home of your party member Selphie) to see if anyone made it out.

Upon arrival you find the Garden destroyed with various survivors milling around, confused and trying to rebuild. During this time the player can find a makeshift graveyard, and upon returning to it later, will find Selphie kneeling in front of one of the graves. Watching, you see that she’s in fact, talking to her friends who never made it out. Asking if they saw her on stage (there was a musical number earlier for reasons I’m not going to get into ...it’s Final Fantasy) and saying that she’d keep playing for them as loud as she could until they can hear her, wherever they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rAIofq7nBg&feature=emb_title

I tried to get it to embed but I still can’t competantly Tumblr. The scene I mention starts at 7 odd minutes in. And this commentator has a heart of stone.

The first time I saw this scene, it broke me. Not gonna lie. Final Fantasy 8 can be quite emotional at times. And yet, there is no voice acting. The game features dialogue yes, but it’s delivered via text bubbles above the characters. The dialogue is fine, it goes for the feels, but where the scene (and game) really works is in the music. Series composer Nobuo Uematsu manages to convey the emotion of every scene, the tone and feelings through his themes and music, and it works brilliantly. The game doesn’t need voice acting when the music is this good, putting the player in the emotional mindset of every scene.

This is an approach I would in theory take with Survival. There would be dialogue between the characters obviously, but it wouldn’t be recorded, merely text. Ambient and diagitic noises will be prominent; The sounds of the desolate world and the sounds of the monsters within it. The music would work together with these other elementsto highten the emotion within each scene. Plus, having no spoken dialogue keeps the production simpler. In a way that’s what I want to tie into the characters. They want to return to innocence, a simpler time. They feel they have been robbed of that.

I do have one scene in mind where our two Alex and Eva have just managed to escape from a boss monster. Alex froze up and couldn’t fight it (his own demon/monster), in which Eva stepped up and defended him. In the aftermath they take shelter from the rain and Eva asks Alex why he didn’t fight that monster. Alex tells her he was too afraid. He asks her if she ever gets scared of the creatures. Eva says there are some she is too scared to fight (her own demon) but that one didn’t scare her. She tells Alex she’ll protect him if it comes back. Alex says he’ll try to do the same for her. Later he will get that chance and rise to the occasion.

Having recorded dialogue ontop of the music for scenes like this would be too much in my mind. The use of music and text might not be AAA these days, but I think it would help bring the themes and emotional story to the forefront. It would look something like these, though obviously dark and post apocalyptic.

And before anyone says it, yes I know this isn’t even the best Final Fantasy game but it’s the only one I’ve ever actually completed. Don’t @ me.

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Enemies of Survival

I’ve mentioned that there’s monsters roaming the lands in Survival, but I haven’t mentioned what they are yet. While the concept is still a survival horror idea, I don’t want them just to be zombies. They were once people, but people that have been corrupted by the events of the apocalypse. I’m leaning more towards demonic/supernatural affliction rather than apocalyptic mutants like the Fallout series.

Going with the themes each enemy type would represent a negative human emotion associated with trauma. Supernatural affliction works better in this respect, hopefully because it makes the game more creepy and psychological in its horror. The basic enemy types so far are below with mood/inspiration pictures to give a sense of what the might look like.

1. Anxiety: This would be hypervigilant enemy that would constantly be on the lookout for a percieved attack. It would be hard to get the drop on in a fight and hard to sneak past as well. If the players are spotted it will attack.

Gollum’s hypervigilance of the One Ring in this scene is similar to the hypervigilance the creature would display.

2. Anger/Rage: An enemy that is permanently in a state of rage. Unable to control it if no victims are near it will attack objects, which can provide an opportunity for escape. Less vigilant thatn enemy #1.

Still not technically zombies, the rage virus infected is a good basis for the rage monsters.

3.Depression/despair: I’m still in two minds about this. I had initially listed them as two seperate enemies, but the emotions are similar so perhaps combining them is the better idea. One idea was for them to be similar to the rage monsters, but instead of anger they feel crushing sorrow as they continue their existence. They would weep as they walk, sometimes breaking down and crying, offering a player a chance to pass by.

The enemy wouldn’t act like a witch from L4D, but the concept is familiar.

4. Self Doubt:This enemy would be smaller than the others, and very skittish. Different from Anxiety, this enemy will never attack alone. It would be able to alert other nearby monsters to the player and join in the attack in a group effort, but if the main group falls it will flee.

The jockey is a decent example of how the creature could look and move,

5. Self Harm: An enemy that will deliberately headbutt nearby objects to try and damage itself when not aggro’d onto a player. It will still prioritise attacking a player if one is spotted.

An example of the creature’s behaviour from Salad Fingers.

Those are the main enemy types right now. More may follow in the future. In the meantime, in the spirit of really cool monsters, heres a Xenomorph.

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Okay, so what’s the plot?

I’ve already gone over the general idea for the story for Survival in broad strokes, but what is actually going to happen in it?

With the whole game world essentially being a metaphor it gives me more leway to play around. It is post apocalyptic, but no one remembers how it happened. The world is oppressive, dark, inhospitable. The sun never shines and no one can even remember the last time it did.

I was initially reluctant to explore the idea as a two player game mainly due to story reasons. I wanted to set it up that the first character, let’s call him Alex, was alone in this world. Just surviving without aim. This would mean the beginning section/tutorial would have just been from a single player experience.

Rethinking the project as a two player experience I think I’ve managed to find a way to make it work. Or, have my story cake and eat it too.

The story would begin with Alex and a partner, maybe called Kevin (I swear I’ll decide proper names soon). Hiding in an abandoned barn they would have to make supply runs - one of these would form the opening section. Two players could play at this moment but a solo option would also be available with an AI partner. This opening would give a good introduction to the mechanics of the world, as Alex and Kevin need to avoid monsters and manipulate the environment in order to advance. As stated, together they could handle some of the minor enemies if they show up one at a time, but navigating the environment will cause them to split up, i.e. Kevin and Alex try to climb onto a ruined building, but the rops breaks, eaving Alex below, unable to fight the enemies but able to hide.

After managing to secure the meagre supplies the pair manage to make it back to the barn where Kevin starts to show strange symptoms. Infected by enemies off screen he turns into a monster and tries to attack Alex, forcing him to flee and abandon the farmhouse. Introductory section and Alex is now alone.

Cue a slight passage of time via a cutscene and Alex, wondering alone, meets the first person he’s seen in ages; Eva (tbc). She’s also been surviving alone and is heading to a safe zone she has heard about. Alex would initially be reluctant, unwilling to trust people again after what happened with Kevin. Before they can part however, they hear the sound of approaching enemies. Forced to work together in this moment or die, they choose to work together to get to safety.

Eva manages to convince Alex that they stand a better chance of making it to the safe zone together though Alex doubts that such a place even exists. Eva tells him they have to have hope, because surely this hellscape can’t be all their is. And if not, at least they’re trying to do something instead of simply just existing.

That’s the setup and up to the inciting incident. There is more but this is already quite long so I’ll save that for another post. Obviously it’s all still subtext for surviving trauma so hopefully the themes are reflecting that. Mainly the inability to trust and let others in. Alex trusted Kevin and he became just another monster. Why would Eva be any different?

More to come as we go along, including enemies, music and a look at Hellbade: Senua’s sacrifice and how it deals with the condition of psychosis.

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Violently Average

Looking at the class blog this week I was intriqued by the post called How Normal am I? I remembered seeing those kind of tests years ago back in the myspace age, so nostalgia and curiosity made me investigate.

Instead of calculating my normalness from a small section of pre-determined outcomes like so many in the past, this ‘test’ is more of an interactive educational experience, highlighting how Algorithms are slowly influencing more of our digital lives with the rise of face detetion algorithms.

From analysing my face for attractiveness (7.5/10 no biggie), guessing my gender and BMI (somehow .4 over normalcy), algorithms like these can form a digital profile of you including your mood and a life expectancy. Going beyond weird ads on facebook, information sold from these algorithms can influence what kind of insurance you can get, and whether or not you’re pretty enough to get on the front page of TikTok (I knew there had to be something stopping me).

In essence, it’s not just ads anymore, it’s your life. The pressure to conform to be more normal, and accepted by society, or in this case an algotrithm, lest you be an abnormality. It’s kind of scary. Like the developer of the project Tijmen Schep says; you can delete your cookies, but you can’t delete your face. 

How Normal are You?

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What do you mean it’s already been done? What the hell is Little Nightmares anyway?

The first idea I had for my solo project in interactive media was to pitch an indie survival horror game somewhere in the vein of Outlast, Slender and even Alien Isolation. Avoiding combat was going to be key, and one thing I liked about those games was the stealth element. Hiding under a desk from a Xenomorph or under a bed from a big roided up monster appealed to me. But to make it really scary what if the main character was a child, and you had to use stealth to avoid these horrible monsters and what if the whole thing was a metaphor for abuse?

Turns out I was a couple of years too late.

So, back to drawing board. Sometimes hitting a brick wall like this isn’t the worst thing that can happen. And while I didn’t necessarily have to ditch the original idea, it was too similar to Little Nightmares for my liking. Like 80%-90% similar. I know I want to work with similar themes of abuse and trauma that I had for the original idea, which has led me to this newest iteration, tentatively called Survival.

What’s that about? Well, I’m glad no one asked. Atmospherically similar to the game Limbo, Survival would be a single player game following two characters in a post apocalyptic world trying to make their way to a safe zone. Along the way they’ll have to navigate not just the hellish landscape but the hellish creatures that inhabit it. Alone, the monsters must be avoided, skirted around; direct confrontation will result in death. But together both characters can manipulate the environment, find safe passage and even take on a few as long as they’re not overwhelmed.

Little Limbo boy

Brothers is a less scary single player game where you control two...Brothers.

Boss monsters would also feature in the game, but each one would be unique to each character, their own personal monster/demon. While both characters together can defend against the bosses, only the character the boss is tied to can actually vanquish them. Why? Because the game is about surviving trauma and how we deal with our own personal demons or monsters. We can help each other to get there and together we are stronger, but only we personally have the power to vanquish our personal demons.

This has turned into quite the rambling text dump but further entries will expand on elements of the story, gameplay and enemies. Also although I’ve concieved it as a single player game where you control two characters i.e. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, I do need to put some consideration into possibly making it a two player experience. Single player came out of the idea of introducing the story with one character to set the world up and meeting the second character who knows the way to a safe zone in an inciting incident. But I can’t deny having the game be two player would really help get those themes across, mainly that together we can help each other through anything. Even hell.

[scmower-blog]

How the Dreamcast (RIP) got me into Resident Evil

During the course induction I described myself as a fan of the Resident Evil games. This is true, but it wasn’t always. As a 90s child I was obsessed with Dinosaurs, monsters and even the Xenomorph after borrowing my uncles VHS copy of Aliens. Zombies would seem like a natural progression. Yet when my friend showed me a PS1 magazine with a feature on the upcoming Resident Evil 2 complete with gameplay screenshots I looked on and said ‘Big woop, zombies.’

I had never watched any zombie films at this point. My main exposure had been Bart resurrecting the Dead in The Simpsons, which I had enjoyed, but they seemed more goofy than scary.  Ironically, one of my favourite PS1 games that I still have after all these years is Dino Crisis. I loved that game, and a sticker on the box proudly proclaimed the game to be ‘From the creators of the Resident Evil Series’. I still didn’t make the connection. Still wasn’t interested.

It wasn’t until I was 12 that I was at a different friend’s house who was showing me his new Dreamcast. Lured by the fact that he also had Dino Crisis on this system, I was rather disappointed when he said he wanted to play Resident Evil 2 instead. Fine, I thought, I’ll see what it’s about.

Skipping over the recap cutscene, which I actually wanted to watch, we sat back and watched as Leon S Kennedy started his first night day as a member of the Raccoon City Police Department. The opening FMV changed everything. Here zombies were scary, like really scary for my 12 year old brain. We both watched in awe as the RPD car skidded around the corner, remarking to each other how it looked like a real film.

Soon enough it was time to play, and by god we were awful. Poor Leon never even made it to the RPD that night with us in control, devoured instead by a crawling zombie in a bus.

I realised I loved this. Why hadn’t I played it before? It was like Dino Crisis, but with zombies! I quickly snapped up all the Resident Evil games I could on the playstation. When I couldn’t get the game, I read the novelisations. And the movie had just come out. The series quickly became my biggest obsession, a gateway drug into the harder susbstances like Romero. Zombies were the enemy I never knew I loved, the survival plan I never knew I needed.

From 4 onwards I’ve made sure to get them at launch. I try to be above the need to be first as an adult, but those games still get me so much that I paid full price on Amazon for the RE3 remake last year just to play it at launch. And yes, I’ll be getting RE8 in May, ps5 or no ps5. This interactive media has a hold of me.

And yet, if it hadn’t been for my friend’s Dreamcast back in 2001, it may never have happened. Goodbye little doomed console, rest in peace.