As the moment I opened this game, the initial impression it gave it me was just one word: beauty. Yes, the arts, the color, the design of the character are so delicate that make me think I was watching a movie rather than playing a video game. It brings me not just the mindset to plat a simple game, but to feel the complex and unknown emotions the girl in the game has.
As I began moving with Gris and jumped and moved forward, I was a little bit confused what was the goal of the play, since most games I experienced before had clear purposes and standpoints. However, there was nothing I could do other than moving forward. As I kept walking, the scene was filled with red blood gradually, feeling with a depressed atmosphere, echoing with the overall artistic sadness and depression. It also made me notice that the meaning of Gris’s name that it originates from Spanish, meaning gray, somewhat symbolizing painfulness and sorrow that she went through. A sense of empathy immediately rise from my inner heart; therefore, I substitute myself as Gris to experience the rest of the story.
Then I fell from high in clouds, falling into a large scale of desserts. The color around me was no longer red, green, blue, and yellow; instead, it was only grey and white. Everything was full of depression, anger, and denial. It might be an event that Gris can never forget in her entire life or a heart knot she could never compromise with herself.
But this game is not only about emotions and story, though. As I moved along, there were various settings, space, buildings, and even underwater space. One thing that is quite unique is that Gris has to turn to square to avoid the danger in the upcoming sand storm. Many challenging but engaging skills were gradually unlocking as the game went on. As a gamer, I had to utilize different knowledge in physics to solve a variety of puzzles.
Here is a very artistic and impressive picture from the beginning of the game, which leaves me a great view on the sounding, picturing, designing effects of the game:
As the moment I opened this game, the initial impression it gave it me was just one word: beauty. Yes, the arts, the color, the design of the character are so delicate that make me think I was watching a movie rather than playing a video game. It brings me not just the mindset to plat a simple game, but to feel the complex and unknown emotions the girl in the game has.
As I began moving with Gris and jumped and moved forward, I was a little bit confused what was the goal of the play, since most games I experienced before had clear purposes and standpoints. However, there was nothing I could do other than moving forward. As I kept walking, the scene was filled with red blood gradually, feeling with a depressed atmosphere, echoing with the overall artistic sadness and depression. It also made me notice that the meaning of Gris’s name that it originates from Spanish, meaning gray, somewhat symbolizing painfulness and sorrow that she went through. A sense of empathy immediately rise from my inner heart; therefore, I substitute myself as Gris to experience the rest of the story.
Then I fell from high in clouds, falling into a large scale of desserts. The color around me was no longer red, green, blue, and yellow; instead, it was only grey and white. Everything was full of depression, anger, and denial. It might be an event that Gris can never forget in her entire life or a heart knot she could never compromise with herself.
But this game is not only about emotions and story, though. As I moved along, there were various settings, space, buildings, and even underwater space. One thing that is quite unique is that Gris has to turn to square to avoid the danger in the upcoming sand storm. Many challenging but engaging skills were gradually unlocking as the game went on. As a gamer, I had to utilize different knowledge in physics to solve a variety of puzzles.
Here is a very artistic and impressive picture from the beginning of the game, which leaves me a great view on the sounding, picturing, designing effects of the game:
Producing a podcast is a brand-new experience for me in my entire life. At the beginning stage of preparing for this project, I had no idea how should I start this assignment. Even some simple questions raised in my mind, such as what does podcast should actually look like? what should we talk about in it, etc. Fortunately, I was not alone; I have two wonderful teammates who went through all the challenges together. Though the beginning is hard, we made outlines, appointment with professor, and individual discussions to perfect the project.
The part I enjoyed most was the brainstorming we went through altogether. Among Us is a game that has unique features, containing meanings and brings popularities especially under such a pandemic time. Digging deep with several minds together, we combined “unity” “togetherness” “identity” and even disclose the truth about human nature relating to the literature we discussed in the lecture.
Going into the game, I already had a rough idea that the game depicted the five stages of grief. I’m not sure whether that mindset was for good, but it helped me make sense of it sooner than I would’ve unknowingly.
The opening scene makes it quite evident that the girl has lost her voice and her world is breaking apart. Her life’s turned upside down. Minutes into the game, after the premise was set, I had the control. I was playing the game on my computer. Not being a video game person, I had no clue at first about how to make that girl stand up and walk. The arrow keys, apparently, weren’t working. It took toggling between W, A, S, D and the Spacebar key to control that girl. The audio and the visuals of the game were commendable. I could feel myself running away, treading deeper into myself. From grey to crimson to brown to a daylight tone, the different hues brought a different vibe and meaning. It took me two hours to reach that part, probably because of my inexperience, but I am definitely going to resume later. Throughout the game, the girl gets more courage with time signified by the power gained from the shining constellation-like dots and the box that shields her from the storm.
There were parts where you had to make her climb onto a bug to move forward. To me, that portrayed how a person requires support and upliftment from humans to revive from grief. The most thrilling part in the game was falling underground to reach a monochrome landscape where your shadow seemed to follow you. That reflection made it seem like a re-established connection with the inner self. It meant facing your fears by going to that deep level just to rise higher than before. The next scene opens with the girl emerging on the top of a stick structure.
Coming to the genre, Gris is said to be a 2D platform game. I am new to the platformer concept, but by its Wikipedia definition, I think that the game defies the action aspect of a platformer. There is no existence of a villain or fighting or shooting. The game is more like a journey of the sole protagonist through various stages of grief. The game developers chose a unique approach by quantifying grief. I think they chose to make a platformer because it’s a game which is characterised by the levels involved just like the stages in what they intended to depict ( Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief ). They are making attempts to persuade us to never give up. There’ll be times you fall off a building or get pushed backwards from a storm (metaphorically drowning more in grief), but it’s about having the will that guides the way.
I am going to liveblog playing Gris today. (Mostly irrelevant information, but still felt like putting it out there– I’ve spent a huge chunk of my evening trying to download the game on my laptop, and then getting it to work. I’ve had to disable all sorts of firewalls and firevaults and other things I don’t understand the meaning of, so hopefully it’s all worth it.)
Beginning of the game
10:23 PM
When I saw the opening scene of Gris, the first thing that struck me was the animation. It was beautiful. Even when the girl free fell downwards, it was beautiful. I thought to myself, “This game is supposed to be about grief, right? Why does this seem almost peaceful?”
10:24 PM
This feeling didn’t last too long though.
I try to move the character forward, but her walk is sluggish, and her feet are dragging across the floor. Each step seems cumbersome, and every few seconds she plops down onto the ground. I’m already frustrated within a few seconds.
10:33 PM
All of a sudden, much to my relief, the girl gets a blast of energy and soars across the landscape. This gives me a chance to take note of the environment. The place is in ruins. Every thing is destroyed, there are broken sections of buildings around. It looks like the aftermath of a devastating battle, one without any survivors. Still, there is something poetic about this destruction. It’s almost painfully beautiful. As I continue moving forward, I find myself actively probing the extent of this world, and trying to figure out what my character can and cannot do. I discover that the pressing the space bar allows her to jump. At a certain point, the path was blocked by a huge boulder and I could not move forward. Eventually, I discovered that I was actually supposed to go back and climb onto a certain structure to continue this journey. This path probably isn’t going to be as straightforward and linear as I anticipated.
Ruins vs More Definite Structures
10:51 PM
At some point, I am told that the color red is introduced, and the monochrome is replaced with shades of red. As I progress further, the ruins are replaced with more manufactured structures. I make the mistake of thinking that this would make the world easier to navigate. It is quite the opposite. Passing each obstacle becomes a little more difficult than before. There are new deterrents in my way, including sand storms which throw me off course every few seconds. However, as the conditions become harsher, I feel the character becoming stronger too. This is probably a combination of me (the player) becoming more accustomed to the game, as well as the character gaining new skills (like the ability to turn into a huge block of stone to resist storms, and to break things).
11:07 PM
I’ve been playing this game for a while now, and given the fact that I am still in the red zone, I’m not going to finish any time soon. It all seems a little overwhelming, and so I notice myself telescoping while playing. The final goal is likely to unlock all the colors, but before that, I need to make it past each ‘structure’, like a cave, or a collection of platform-like things. Before that, I need to collect each of those shooting stars to create a constellation-bridge-type thing to cross certain sections. Doing this makes the goal seem a little more realistic and achievable.
The cave where I’m stuck
11:32 PM
Currently, I am stuck inside this cavern filled with gears and rotating platforms. For some reason, it reminds me of the inside of a huge clock. I’ve been trying to advance past it for more than 20 minutes, but despite my frustrated groans and annoyed whining, I can’t do it. I don’t have enough shooting stars to build the bridge I need. Now, I think my only option is to start the game all over again.
I am going to liveblog playing Gris today. (Mostly irrelevant information, but still felt like putting it out there– I’ve spent a huge chunk of my evening trying to download the game on my laptop, and then getting it to work. I’ve had to disable all sorts of firewalls and firevaults and other things I don’t understand the meaning of, so hopefully it’s all worth it.)
Beginning of the game
10:23 PM
When I saw the opening scene of Gris, the first thing that struck me was the animation. It was beautiful. Even when the girl free fell downwards, it was beautiful. I thought to myself, “This game is supposed to be about grief, right? Why does this seem almost peaceful?”
10:24 PM
This feeling didn’t last too long though.
I try to move the character forward, but her walk is sluggish, and her feet are dragging across the floor. Each step seems cumbersome, and every few seconds she plops down onto the ground. I’m already frustrated within a few seconds.
10:33 PM
All of a sudden, much to my relief, the girl gets a blast of energy and soars across the landscape. This gives me a chance to take note of the environment. The place is in ruins. Every thing is destroyed, there are broken sections of buildings around. It looks like the aftermath of a devastating battle, one without any survivors. Still, there is something poetic about this destruction. It’s almost painfully beautiful. As I continue moving forward, I find myself actively probing the extent of this world, and trying to figure out what my character can and cannot do. I discover that the pressing the space bar allows her to jump. At a certain point, the path was blocked by a huge boulder and I could not move forward. Eventually, I discovered that I was actually supposed to go back and climb onto a certain structure to continue this journey. This path probably isn’t going to be as straightforward and linear as I anticipated.
Ruins vs More Definite Structures
10:51 PM
At some point, I am told that the color red is introduced, and the monochrome is replaced with shades of red. As I progress further, the ruins are replaced with more manufactured structures. I make the mistake of thinking that this would make the world easier to navigate. It is quite the opposite. Passing each obstacle becomes a little more difficult than before. There are new deterrents in my way, including sand storms which throw me off course every few seconds. However, as the conditions become harsher, I feel the character becoming stronger too. This is probably a combination of me (the player) becoming more accustomed to the game, as well as the character gaining new skills (like the ability to turn into a huge block of stone to resist storms, and to break things).
11:07 PM
I’ve been playing this game for a while now, and given the fact that I am still in the red zone, I’m not going to finish any time soon. It all seems a little overwhelming, and so I notice myself telescoping while playing. The final goal is likely to unlock all the colors, but before that, I need to make it past each ‘structure’, like a cave, or a collection of platform-like things. Before that, I need to collect each of those shooting stars to create a constellation-bridge-type thing to cross certain sections. Doing this makes the goal seem a little more realistic and achievable.
The cave where I’m stuck
11:32 PM
Currently, I am stuck inside this cavern filled with gears and rotating platforms. For some reason, it reminds me of the inside of a huge clock. I’ve been trying to advance past it for more than 20 minutes, but despite my frustrated groans and annoyed whining, I can’t do it. I don’t have enough shooting stars to build the bridge I need. Now, I think my only option is to start the game all over again.
In doing our podcast,Survival in Minecraft and in Quarantine, the first step in our process that we each took was just to get our ideas about what direction we wanted the podcast to take on a Google Doc. This stage involved a lot of ideas that we didn’t end up using, such as Minecraft Youtubers and Minecraft server games. Next, we organized the doc to create a general structure, also adding some scripted lines; however, we also made sure to leave ample space in the script for unscripted conversation so the podcast would sound natural and have more depth. Writing the script was something we all split evenly. Finally, when it came to recording, we actually recorded twice – once was a rough draft, and the second time was the real thing. This was very effective, as in the first recording we got all of the ‘bad stuff’ out of our system and really hit our groove early the second time. Afterwards, I did the editing for the video using Audacity and iMovie and the Bibliography, while Andrew and Ranjan did the podcast image and podcast paragraph.
Our ultimate goal in the episode was to tackle what made Minecraft so enjoyable, whether in survival or creative, because at their core, these two game styles involve a lot of menial labor, and also what made Minecraft so popular during the pandemic. Our strategies for doing this were having each group member write a paragraph that leveraged evidence from our readings to make a claim about what made the game fun. For example, I suggested survival was fun because of the probing/trial-and-failure element that helped define your version of success. Our unscripted conversations responded to each person’s paragraph and went deeper into what made the game fun.
In terms of learning outcomes, I felt the most improved in teamwork, writing as a process, and interacting with text: the first two learning objectives discuss the ability to make use of complex ideas in texts and to use them to make arguments, which I think we all did. Teamwork was one thing that was worked on but, quite frankly, I’m very happy to have worked with Ranjan and Andrew – they were communicative, hard-working, and efficient. Finally, I think my ability to write as a process improved, as in creating a concise argument from our messy brainstorming document, I was working the muscle responsible for research, revision, and reflection (about what was working and what wasn’t).
I noticed a few things in doing the podcast. Firstly, the process for doing podcasts and essays is quite similar in that the ‘rough draft’ is where you figure out what you want to say – this holds true for both essays and podcasts (where the rough draft is, I think, the first recording). One thing I want to improve is my ability to integrate more texts in a more fluid manner. Finally, I suggest that groups record twice – the second time will be so much better.
First impression basis- I like this game more than gone home, although, there was kind of a slow start, the pace of game is much better than that of gone home. The girl in the game loses her voice, the game feels gloomy which led me to believe that this game is about stress or fear, or maybe just overcoming a rough time in your life. I think has a more of an artistic feel to it. It feels more like a painting than a game for some reason. The setting of this game has a post-apocalyptic feel to it.
I was initially stuck at one part with a big rock, couldn’t figure out what to do, while goofing around I finally figured out I had to go to the opposite direction and basically jump and around and could then climb on that structure, and actually start the game.
For me this did not feel like a typical platform type of game, because I imagined platform games would be like clearing “floors”/levels, while on the other hand the Gris’ clearing level would be to add colors, and even if we had to like climb structures we ultimately ended up on the same “floor”. Moreover, I used telescoping, which I think is to break down goals, which could be to obtain those white-colored “orbs”, and get new abilities like turning into that box so that you don’t be pushed back when the wind starts to blow.
I wasn’t able to transition to another color, as I still am stuck at one part and cannot seem to clear it. Hope to clear it soon!
Since I used my iphone to download Gris, I incorporated some screenshots while I was playing.
The game begins with a fantastic animation of the main character falling from the sky. Different from other 2D side scrolling games, the introduction to the setting is extremely beautiful. It made me feel like I came into a fantasy world of drawings.
As the main character fell from the sky, she seems to be very heartbroken. Her eyes are looking towards the ground and even the surrounding displays the absence of color.
Screenshots from my phone
When I continues, I learnt that the character can go forwards or backwards by controlling the left-side of the screen and jump by controlling the right-side of the screen. As the plot progresses, I probed more options. For instance, I can collect the shining diamonds and it will follow me for the entire journey.
Screenshots from my phone
Then, the story develops into the next stage, Red. In this challenge, I would face red sandstorms and the character will fall backwards during the periodic sandstorms. To fight the sandstorms, I was introduced to a new movement, forming a heavy square and I later discovered that the heavy square can break things rather than simply used in battling the sandstorm. Even though I was stuck by the end of Red for three hours, I still got a sense of probing and telescoping in Gris. For me, Gris is definitely not a traditional 2D side scrolling games, it is more like a masterpiece of animation. It teaches me how to discover new functions. Moreover, the game does has any enemies, yet the biggest enemies are the environment and yourself. For me, this is more challenging than the traditional 2D side scrolling games like Super Mario. The five stages of grief is also displayed in this game. The shocking introduction and the resisting sandstorms displayed the first two stage of grief, Shock and denial. I think the most important point that the creator is trying to covey is the reality Gris feels to the players, and it teaches players step-by-steps to overcome grief.
I started this assignment by trying to find interesting things around my room. I looked at some participation trophies, but that wouldn’t work. I then looked at a Rubix cube, some pencils, and school supplies. Nothing really stood out to me until I saw my block puzzle. One of those puzzles where you have to make a block out of seemingly randomly shaped wooden figures. I did not know what I would make yet, but I decided to make some sort of figure with the blocks. After placing the blocks in different positions, all I thought of were using a few blocks as horns, or maybe legs for an animal. Admittedly, I am bad at drawing animals, so I tried to stray off that path. After a few more tries, I figured out how to make the number 1. Using the other blocks, I could only make the number 16, so I decided to work with that. I immediately thought of sweet 16 when I thought of things to make, so I made a birthday cake using the numbers as candles.
