Concept

Trapped in a monotonous life, the player experiences boredom in a place where he can do anything he wants.

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Challenges​

• Convey an emotion through a video game.

• Bore the player while interesting him long enough to induce the right kind of boredom.

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Solutions​

• To succeed in this challenge, I had to leave the systemic side of game design and focus entirely on the emotional one (also known as "feelingology"). That's why I decided to limit the player's actions as much as I could : he could only walk, look around and interact with a few interest points. From there, I could create an experience he would feel as a player, but also as a spectator. Because of the emotion I wanted to represent, it felt very important to me to let the player experiment and try to have fun first before realizing the triviality of his actions. He'd reach a point where everything he did became automatic and non-engaging, he'd basically get to watch himself from the outside. Every aspect of the game is made to make him feel that way. I made many iterations on key points of the game to reach the perfect setting : the global aesthetics and architecture, colors, camera effects, the avatar's walk speed and actions... This project made me realize how important it is to match features among themselves to deliver the right message and/or emotion.

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• As I said earlier, I wanted to let the player wander and try out everything he could before acknowledging the pointlessness of his actions. I believe it is the best way to bore him without making him leave the game instantly. I first decided to create three different locations and experiences : one that would take place in the player's apartment, another in a city and the last one that would represent the Internet.

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• The player can switch from one place to another whenever he wants in order to let him believe in the freedom of his acts. The apartment is basically the central HUB of the game. Poorly lit, the player can explore it but will soon feel oppressed by the dark colors and the small size of the room. The furniture is minimalist to allow some sort of identification. From there, two options are possible : going outside or diving in the Internet. The outside is a monolithic and grey city composed of tall and impersonnal buildings. The floor is divided in tiles that light up when the player steps on them. The center of the map is similar to a maze to stir up curiosity. However, the more the player walks away from this center, the more the city becomes a mere grid of identical buildings. There is no possible interaction with the environment besides the fact that the player can light up his steps. The last experience is a metaphor of the Internet. The environnment is much more colorful and is simply a platform randomly lit by a moving light. When the player falls of the platform, he lands on an identical one, and another one, and another one... The similarity between the platforms shows that one's time spent on the Internet is very often repetitious. Once again, there is no possible interaction and the window to let the player leave is very short, to represent the difficulty of getting out of this web.

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