Play Make Write Think

Making a new game was definitely a new process for everyone in our group. We were confused and had no idea at the very first. Approaching deadline, we started to dig deeper in the topic and focus more on the phase “social issue”. It was the breakthrough of our work and we started to brainstorm from there. Since we all watched different dramas from all over the world, we raised the idea that why not we adapted the idea from the Japanese TV drama “Unnatural” to design a game talking about school violence, knowing that school violence is becoming more and more common these years and the power of the internet cannot be ignored. With the consent of all group members, we started to write our original adapted plots. I mainly focused on writing the original adapted plots by rewatching the episode again so that the other team members could revise it into a game format. To make it more engaging, we made it different choices, so that players could be absorbed into the story in the game while playing it and reading some fun choices. The plots are revealed as a conversation format with some dark background musics. The final product took us a big amount of time and we gradually went very into this assignment; we divided each part of our introduction of presentation to our game properly before game. The product looks very good to all of us and we were satisfied about its reflection on the society.

My experience making a Twine game was challenging yet interesting. Since I was doing it on my own and taking all the roles, I had the freedom to steer the story to the direction I want without compromising with anyone else. Learning how to use Twine and making sense of the mechanics was a problem at first. After knowing how Twine work, I immediately thinking of Tangaroa Deep, a game we played this semester, since it involves picking out options to progress through the game. I wanted to create a game that follows a chronological order but at the same time has multiple unpredictable outcomes depending on how a player plays the game. Tieing that idea with a social issue, I made a video vlog type of game in which I show a day in the life of a college student in the pandemic. This kind of daily vlogs were really popular on youtube in the past and I think they are even more relevant now when life satisfaction is low.

Overall, I think the presentation turned out well and I made some progress in writing the plot. The overall tone of the game is depressive and monotonous, which are emotions and thoughts of my character. Going forward, I will make a tragedy happen, possibly suicide of a fellow classmate due to mental health issues and some unfortunate events. This will cause the main character to be grateful for what he/she is having compared to others in these trying times – a roof to stay under, strong internet connection, an education he deserves, etc.

Making a Twine game was also a unique experience. It forces me to think in multiple scenarios and dimensions rather than linearly like how I usually write an essay or story. I find it similar to coding as well, except without an objective. I create the objective for myself. Completing this project is another way I have produced content through written text this semester, as with other methods like writing a podcast episode script, reflecting on my experiences, or liveblogging games. But as stated above, when making a Twine game I have to think of different scenarios and how to connect the branches instead of thinking linearly like in other works. I have learned to think gamefully and write critically through these experiences, and I will carry them to other assignments and classes in the future.