The Hypnotic
Now Vectagon is over and done with, I've had plenty of time to reflect on it in a new light. I understand now that my biggest mistake was failing to connect the gameplay to the idea of hypnotising the player.
I've taken some time to look at how media hypnotises us, and what we can do to create hypnotising games.
Music can be, and often is, hypnotic. I couldn't say exactly what makes a song hypnotic, but it certainly seems to require a gradual increase in intensity, a subtle, non-distracting rhythm, and in my experience, a drone. This would cover chillout, much experimental or ambient music fairly well, but trance or house music is also notable for creating a hypnotic effect.
My favourite example would be this song by John Frusciante.
Film is often hypnotic. As with the We focus our attention at a single fixed point, and are often entirely absorbed. Some films manage this better than others.
This example manages it by fusing audio and visual, and cutting with such speed that are attention is easily absorbed.
This one (which directly inspired Vectagon) manages it with a first person rollercoaster ride. Being carried along an exciting path can be incredibly hypnotic, as theme park rides show us. It also provides a great example of intensity pacing.
We are often hypnotised by live music by the drowning volume and the multicolored lighting, and how we move our bodies to the beat.
Animation often manages to shine a purer light on how film might be hypnotic, through use of perfection, geometry and symmetry. Looping GIFs are notable for often being hypnotic. A common theme in this animations is to hide the "seam" so that the viewer has no idea where the start or end of the animation is, or even how many times they have seen the loop. A remark I've made about these sorts of animations is that they often present movement that we have a hard time rationalising, often by playing two animations moving in opposite directions, unusual perspective tricks, or use of distraction and pattern recognition. This is similar to how the Shepard Tone operates, and could be viewed under the label of Strange Loops. Other examples of such loops include barber's poles, or Escher's Waterfall drawing.
An example can be seen here.
Another here - Notice how the star like shape in the center creates an entirely new pattern?
This one is a great example of working two animations in different directions.
Lastly.
Hallucinogens create hypnotic experiences by providing new perspectives, or distorting reality into patterns we can interpret which may not exist, or by altering the patterns we are accustomed to. I guess you’d call it ilinx.
What we see in common here is:
Sensory overload - whatever senses are absorbed entirely, drowning out the others and dominating our attention.
Symmetry and rhythm - which we might call "predictability" or "order". We also often see patterns which appear illogical, encouraging us to see the rational construction.
Lack of control - we entrust our agency to a greater force.
Games are hypnotic by nature. They draw us in, forcing us to focus on a single fixed point, and do not release us for minutes or hours. But they are not hypnotic in the ways we have presented above, save for often creating a sensory overload. Games thrive on being unpredictable, and the player is often an agent of order in a world of chaos, or the opposite. We certainly do not give up our agency - rather the opposite.
Games are not often designed to be hypnotic, although games that aspire to put the player in "flow" often are. These games tend not to have stopping points, and tend to evolve slowly and smoothly. Flow, or Flower, are excellent examples. Some game loops are hypnotic, even when broken up; especially when they form a dance between the player and system. Examples might include Super Hexagon or Halo.
Rhythm is difficult to create in a game, unless enforced, as in Guitar Hero. Games which create the feeling of a dance as described above often have an innate rhythm. This might be said by a bullet hell game master, or in many games that are perfected through practice, rather than by planning, or improvisation. In such games, players often feel that they are the character on screen, and perform actions as perfectly as one might in a non-interactive piece of media. Certainly, when we break rhythm, we are pulled out of flow, and the hypnotic state.
Just like how rhythm in a hypnotic game comes from player action, rather than a linear, predefined rhythm, hypnotic visuals are also less important in hypnotising players. In fact, hypnotic visuals can often distract the player, making it more difficult for them to become hypnotised. Vectagon is a case in point here. Mario Kart 8 is a wonderful example of rollercoaster ride style visuals, which are incredibly hypnotising to viewers, but a player of the game is barely even aware that they might be upside-down, or cruising directly up a waterfall. Their focus is on the road.
Creating hypnotic games is something that I'd like to see more developers aspire towards. The innate link to flow suggests to me that there is something incredible to be gained, and the existence of other media that we deem mesmerising, trippy, or hypnotic suggests that an audience already exists for such art. If we can create games where the player is the mediator or their own hypnotic experience, we might find we stumble on a new type of interactive experience entirely.
I'll be looking to expand my research here. I'd like to look into the scientific side of hypnosis, and create links between what we see there an how it's used in media. I'll also be wanting to examine games that are effective at being hypnotic (see Soundself), and games that try, but fail, in order to see where they've gone wrong.
Several sport science papers have been written about flow states and hypnosis, especially in regards to using hypnosis to trigger flow. Notably, these studies have indicated the similarities between the states, especially in regards to entering them.
Athletes benefit from blocking out everything not connected to the activity at hand, such as the crowd, competitors, or other pressures. This can be viewed as an example of the Loss of Self Consciousness as defined by Csikszentmihalyi. While wonderful from a performance viewpoint, this could explain why players barely seem aware of their surroundings while playing Vectagon, and why the twisting tunnel often irritates more than it amazes.
