Negative Stuff

Turning Someone Else's Game into Art

It... is so hard to work with a game that you think is totally lame and stupid. On top of that, I have to somehow turn this game into art by expressing myself in it (unless I act like all of the players are crazy idiots, this is not possible), pushing the boundaries of what games can do (this is really hard when you're starting with a whole game premise, even if it is poorly thought out), or creating an interactive work of art (basically creating an art piece that works like a game).

These things would be hard to do in the first place - my professor even admitted that herself - but fitting a game into one of these is even harder, and to such a thing with a game that literally makes you hold your head in your hands and it, baffled at the sheer stupidity of humanity? Yeah... this is going to be tough, to say the very least. (takes a deep breath in and sighs it out) I wish I could at least change some things to make the game a little more... well, easier for me to work with. But that would be changing the core of the game, and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do that....

... Hrmmm... this game would really take a lot of editing work to even make it bearable to play....

(Complaint ends, and the rest is just me thinking through the assignment.)

Okay, okay, let's think this through.

My opinions on "Area 51": Why waste your time messing around with conspiracies if they don't even affect you?

Things I like about the game: Escape rooms are interesting. ... Yep, that's apparently it....

Doing the board as a landscape wouldn't work very well.... A science building or whatever'd be too lame.

Let's see... you can find items or hints in rooms.

All right, let's play around with the code then. What is the code? Let's just say that the dm chooses the code, and as dm, I decide that the code is the ship... Zeref and Natsu. It'll turn into a get-to-know-you game.

The hints: It's a ship. I like boys. I'm a sucker for childhood friends. I like sibling love. I've watched Fairy Tail.

Is that too obvious? I mean, is there any... okay, technically, it could be Larcade with Zeref or Natsu, I guess.... Um... Gray and Lyon could fit that, too, technically, since they really are like brothers, even if they aren't blood-related. It's not too easy.

Okay...

Wait, why the frig would this be the code? ... I'm the alien. Got it. Great. Now... how to make this fit into... Oh, wait. (chuckles) I'm technically expressing something....

Okay, let's see if I can turn the code into a persuasive thing. (The alien's trying to brainwash the scientists? To have the same ship as it???)

Wait, but then, why would learning this code help them escape? The alien thinks they're on their side of the ship war? Eh, sure.

Okay, so, change the wording a bit for persuasive purposes. Code: Zeref x Natsu is the best ship in Fairy Tail. Hints (a.k.a. supplemental opinions of the alien): You can't watch an anime without having an OTP. Boys are best. Childhood friends=lovers. Sibling love is romantic. Fairy Tail is a good anime. The last season of Fairy Tail was the best season. No, no, that makes it too obvious--

Okay, but that is player self-expression, not designer self-expression.... Should I just set the code myself after all, as the designer rather than the dm?

All right, what I've got is good enough for now, at least.