Ben Gonshaw: Digital Media Theorist & Game Design Consultant
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LITTLE BOY DREAMER

21st November 2005

The pile of game designs yet to be made stacks up and the time and money to make them with steadily diminishes. A new generation dawns and there is almost the power to create the visions of ten years ago in an acceptable form. Not only that, but the consumers are almost ready for narrative-based content. What upsets me is the lack of will to push forward in a direction that uses the medium to tackle:

Racism Consumerism The causes of terrorism Investigations into varied ideological standpoints How international politics works and why it matters The positive difference an individual can make to society Preserving the horrors of the past through retelling them Each one of these is an important issue that young, apathetic bon vivants of our modern day Hellenistic culture are painfully unaware of.

The technology in games can make the exploration of these issues an interesting way of passing time. The experience need not be dry, just like watching a sensitive movie by a top director, the credits may roll to an immobile audience trapped in an awed silence, but that it because of the power of the movie’s medium. Interactive entertainment increases this power dramatically by allowing you to live through the events in person.   For example, a topic such as child abuse can be tackled using a series of mini-games tied together through a central hub. The outcome of each game influences the content and possible outcomes of the future games played, lending a persistence to the proceedings.

Little Girl Dreamer Katy Ingram is a girl of 8. She lives with her mom and dad in a tenement block. She goes to school, plays with her friends and always comes home promptly after school. Katy has a very vivid imagination, and makes her life into a series of games that relate to reality.   She becomes a witch and enchants her room to tidy itself, she is a mouse hiding from a giant cat that is chasing her, she is a bird flying free to school, she is a rag doll, being shaken by a boy.   Through her imagination we see the life that Katy lives is not a happy one, but as the cycle of days and tasks repeats we get glimpses as to what she can do to change the situation, and we can mould her thinking. As she grows she becomes a dog besting the cat, a voodoo doll injuring the boy and a prickly pear, defending her from being picked.   However, as things start to improve, the situation changes, the king moves to a nearby castle that she visits every few days, an evil overlord and his young knight moves in with the Queen.   The player participates in the games which subtly alter with each game-world day to reflect the outside situation. As the games change and progress, the results of the player’s efforts linger on in the other mini-games. If Katy is injured in one game, the bird will limp along in another and so on.   Just when the rhythm of the game seems fixed, her situation and prospects for improvement hopeless, a new character appears, he is a court jester and the player takes control of him whenever he is there and loses control over Katy. The court jester begins to cheer Katy up, and alter her perspective on the games. No longer must it be cat and mouse, or cat and dog, but it can be cat and pelican, that have no association. Through the Jester’s counsel you can equip Katy with new tools to avoid attacks, or imbue her with defensive manoeuvres. The ultimate aim is to ‘cure’ Katy and to equip her with the ability to be a serene sorceress acknowledging events, and through understanding, being unconcerned about them.

This is just one off-the-cuff conceit in an ever-expanding library of simple ideas on how to address topics presented by the new power of the digital medium. It's not necesarily about making something original, it's more about making something that can help other people either in their understanding of the greater world outside, or in the twin smaller worlds under their own roofs and inside their own minds.

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