#the way each one of them has a playing card symbol aaa
Note
Got a question about building maps. There are always roads and streets that change, as well as buildings. How do I easily create maps of different times but easily seen on top of each other without it being confusing or all clogged up. The only way I think even,possible is handdrawing on trace paper so we can see underneath but it's still messy. How about when it's also important where sewer, telephone, electrical lines etc are located on a map? My maps are all muddled up.
Feral: So, for real, as I was reading your ask, I was like “oh, that’s easy: trace!” And then I got to the part where you said you tried trace, but it’s all muddled. And honestly? I’m still like “trace!” I work in the interior design industry, and I go for hand drafting and rendering as much as I possibly can.
I know some of my colleagues are going to have digital resources for you to try out (it’s all about layers!), but I’m going to walk you through how I would do this on trace (within the limits of what I would expect someone who doesn’t do this sort of thing professionally would have) in case that ends up being the best option for you.
Create a legend. Color coordination, thick lines, thin lines, dashed lines, dotted lines, squares, circles, triangles etc, etc. Have a sheet of paper to the side at all times while you’re working on your map to reference and add to as new symbols become needed. Think of the symbols you would normally see on a map - a train track is visually distinct from a street. Which exact symbols you’ll need to use will depend on where your map falls in the realistic to iconic representation spectrum.
Use graph paper for your base layer. Personally, I would use the base layer as the most modern version of the city you want to create, as this will probably be the largest map, and then the maps on trace will work backwards to the oldest version of the city, but do what makes sense in your mind. Orient your graph along the axes that make the most sense to you - most likely this will be cardinal directions with x as North-South and y as East-West. You will tape this down, and then tape the trace down over as needed. Once the graph paper is taped down, do not move it until you’ve finished all the maps! Unless you have a drafting table with a parallel bar or t-square (in which case you probably don’t need this lesson from me), moving the base layer could create differences in orientation of your lines on your tracing paper maps. If you don’t have drafting dots/strips/rolls available, masking tape will do; just give yourself a little more paper than you’ll need to fit the map on, so you can tear the tape off if necessary.
A bold border will be your friend. Outline a border on your graph paper, and every time you lay down a new sheet of trace, trace that border. This will ensure that you are lining up your maps every time.
Use the right drawing implements. If you want to use pencil so that you can erase, (first of all, erasing on trace paper is not a fun time, but second of all) you have to find a pencil that is hard enough to not easily smear (H at the softest) but is soft enough to not tear through the trace and to create a line dark enough to read. 2H is my standard, but most “regular” pencils are HB (“B” means soft and “H” means hard, so an HB is the middle between a hard and a soft), so the yellow pencil or .07 mechanical pencil that you have is 2 steps softer than that and will not be a great option. Colored pencils, which usually require more than an accidental brush of the hand to smudge, also work great if you want to color-code. If you want to use pen, don’t use a gel, which stays wet too long, or anything that feathers and/or bleeds - a technical pen will be best; lower cost Staedler or Sakura Micron work fine. You also must, must, must have a straight edge! Even though you’ll be drawing over a grid, if you want neat lines, you gotta have at least one straight edge. Personally, if I could only have one, I would use my 30/60 triangle, but that might be an unnecessary expense for you, so… pretty much anything that is flat, hard, and straight can be used as a straight edge. A ruler without notch marks right on the edge will work, but personally, if I’m making light enough lines over graph paper, I’m usually fine using a plain piece of paper. I’ve been told even a credit card can be an option, but I would actually stay away from that because of the rounded corners - a sharp right corner will work better for you.
Layers! So, clearly, each era would have it’s own map on trace, but I would also do things like the sewers, electrical lines, etc each on their own separate pieces of trace, possibly as overlays for each era depending on your needs.
Labels! Label your layers! It’s that simple. What the time period is and whether it’s depicting the streets or the sewers or what have you. Use the same format every time (e.g. “1950s - Sewers” or “1560s - Streets”). Put your label outside the bold border you’re drawing on each sheet, and put it in the same place on each sheet - I would do it in the lower right-hand corner; to me, it’s the most obvious place to look while thumbing through pages for a native English speaker/reader.
Scale vs. Proportion. Most maps that you’ll get at AAA or wherever, will be “to scale.” If you want your maps to be to scale, that means you have to measure as you draw, and you have to know exactly the size of each street, building, etc that you will be including on your map. This will take a lot of research and a lot of time being very deliberate. Your other option is to focus on approximate proportion. The largest buildings are the largest on the map, and the narrowest streets are the thinnest on the map, without having to worry about exact size. Which you choose to do will be dependent on how realistic (scale) vs. iconic (proportion) the representation on your map will be.
Remember not to create more work for yourself than you need. Always keep in mind why you are creating these maps. What purpose will they serve? This is going to be directly reflected in how detailed you need to make your maps. Most worldbuilding applications I can think of do not need every street of a city for its entire existence mapped out in as realistic a representation as possible, and whenever we get asks that are about this level of detail on this large a scale, I get concerned that the worldbuilder is never going to be satisfied enough with their world-building to write their story or run their tabletop RPG or whatever it is you’re worldbuilding for - unless of course, this is worldbuilding for the sake of worldbuilding, which… go for it!
Wootzel: Feral has a fantastic breakdown on hand-drafting, but I would like to suggest some digital alternatives in case that ends up being more the route you’d like to go. If you haven’t used a digital art or design program before, they can feel overwhelming or impossible, and some of them have very high price tags. Never fear! There are options that are free and pretty simple, and it’s just a matter of finding one that works for you.
If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend trying a program called Firealpaca. It’s free, has a nice set of tools but is still simple enough to pick up mostly by playing with it, and it has enough of a userbase for there to be easy-to-find tutorials around the internet. I actually don’t use it often as my favorite art program is a paid program, but I have had a lot of fun with it when I messed with it in the past.
So, why is digital a good option for your project? The simple answer: Layers. Just like Feral’s breakdown on making different layers using tracing paper, digital layers will allow you to separate the different elements of your map and easily show/hide them as needed, edit one aspect at a time, and generally move/remove/manipulate them in relation to each other. You can put your electrical lines on a different layer from the sewer lines and turn them on and off at will, color them differently, and generally differentiate them from each other. You can use layer groups/folders to make your maps of different times stay separate from each other. And you can use little visual tricks to make them stand out--for example, using crisp lines on a modern map and using a brush with some jitter on your older map.
Firealpaca also has some nice snap modes built in--basically like having a straightedge on the computer. Want to only draw on a grid for a while? Turn on the grid snapping, and suddenly the only directions you can draw are horizontal or vertical. There are similar, easily accessible modes for parallel lines, vanishing point, radial, etc. Almost all the digital art programs I have used also have a built in function to quickly make a straight line--hold shift while using a standard brush tool and click where you want the line to start and end.
One final note--if you end up putting in a lot of time and effort into digital drawing programs, even if you aren’t freehanding much, having a basic tablet can make things so much easier and quicker. Drawing tablets have gotten very cheap in recent years, and for a purpose like this, you would do just fine with one of the tiny, basic ones.
38 notes
·
View notes
Text
said it on twitter but
today be last day (for me) to be able to work on gamejammm (I mean I could for other days but only for a few hours and nothing would get done)
time for random thoughts that somehow went completely off topic and instead talk about mario party and console designs
last night was weird, friends were like “we’re gonna kidnap you to go to a gaming lock in” and I was like “aaa no I can’t, gamejam” and they were all sad for two weeks and then I was like “fiiiine I’m not tired (and I can steal a friend’s laptop to do pixel art on) let’s go” and so we go and apparently there wasn’t a lock in whatsoever
so instead we went to eat and then my house and then we played card games and also Mario Party 4 which was fun. It was that Koopa stage, no one got mad surprisingly, I somehow won via minigame star thanks to winning the last minigame (otherwise the hard AI Daisy would’ve won, Waluigi number best). There was also like 10 battle minigames which was ridiculous and no chance times (I tried really hard to get a chance time and landed between it and Boo on the last turn).
I’m still trying to think of what Mario Party game would make friends hate each other the most, I know MP6 is probably the one I want to buy next someday because that looks really fun but man I want my friends to experience true Mario Party pain and the meaning of chance time
and then it was 3AM and I got nothing done but I ate a lot of junk food and got a hole in my leggings so overall a productive night socially I suppose
I am still very tired but cats insisted I awake so now to eat breakfast, procrastinate, and then maybe clean up a few tilesets before submitting my game tomorrow
afterwards I be itching to draw againnn
I’ve been debating whether or not it’s time to try to make a Switch design again, right now I’ve been playing with GB, N64, and Switch designs in my head while at work. It’s so hard to figure out what kind of consistent pattern to keep with my designs, like
Switch be a handheld/console hybrid so how do I portray that. Gameboys can pass as boys, most of my handhelds can with the exception of that DS Lite design I made, that’s pretty heavily feminine. My first thought was crossdressing console between handheld and docked mode, but not sold on that idea yet.
My main design thing so far was that Nintendo consoles got sweet hats/headgear and handhelds had eyewear. Coming up with eyewear for a GB/GBC is weird though. It works for the DS family because two screens, but then I gave the GBA family all glasses so conflictionss, so I’ve been debating if the Switch just switches between glasses and not-glasses depending on the situation. Also thought of like “stay at home nerd” to “outgoing socialite” on the fly but then I remembered that one hamster girl anime exists and pretty much does that already.
at the very least I managed to think up a hairstyle for the Switch, it was mostly “okay go short because Japanese new beginnings and the last three generation designs have long hair, also put joycon silhouettes for hair on the side of the face, figure out how to do the weird curves the top of the Switch has into the hair, bam, done.
I will say on the topic of Switch designs that I’ve seen a surprising number of them, first one I loved was that dog that was all over twitter that apparently became furbait, I still love you original goofy looking dog. Also someone made this derpy looking one and someone drew it so cute that switched back and force between derp and not-derp and it made me really appreciate that design. Also Fuma has a pretty rad design too, outfit be neat and the picture I always think of is the one with a Genesis and something about Sonic Mania and Knuckles, good arts.
ALSO SPEAKING OF CLOTHES HOW DO YOU INCORPORATE THE LOGO, it is surprisingly hard to think of a way to make a yin-yang-esque symbol into fashion without being gaudy and too in-your-face.
all these things and more I will worry about after tomorrow
for now it is time for sandwich foods and videos before I gamejam so hard
... also how did I go so offtopic on a post meant to be talking about gamejam thoughts, if I wasn’t so tired/hungry I’d talk about Yarn and Nyla and how they are the best children and how I wonder how I can fit their relationship into this game smoothly since so far the demo has barely any of the planned scenes with them in it, and also how to properly portray their setting of dreams and fears of stuff.
0 notes
Text
Xbox versus PS4: Ars perusers respond to liveblog franticness Gracious no doubt, iOS 7 turned out this week too.
Although it appears like a very long time back now, Monday was a major, huge day. Five noteworthy organizations chosen to hold vital question and answer sessions around the same time (four in LA before E3 started and Apple at WWDC in San Francisco). Ars facilitated five liveblogs so that our perusers could remain forward progressively. It was enjoyable to revisit the remarks and perceive how perusers responded as each organization made its declarations. How about we begin with the primary news we heard on Monday: the subtle elements of Microsoft's fresh out of the box new Xbox One.
Demonstrate your hand
Microsoft kicked the free day with its introduction. At the point when the discharge information and valuing were declared, Nate Anderson gave us the crude subtle elements in Xbox One expenses $499—and is accessible this November. It shocked us that Microsoft declared the valuing points of interest at this occasion—the declaration could have been made nearer to the Christmas season without raising any eyebrows. Microsoft additionally chosen to execute off its "Microsoft Points" framework and supplant it with a genuine cash framework.
Now, Ars staff and the analysts alike realized this was Sony's diversion to win or lose, however none of us had the smallest piece of information how things being what they are. "It's currently for all intents and purposes sure that the PS4 will likewise come in at $499 (the reputed cost for the PS4)," rtechie composed. "The amusements [Microsoft] reported were entirely great yet somewhat meager on what number of would be dispatch titles. Expecting that a large portion of them are, Xbox One is probably going to have a decent dispatch. Accepting retailers aren't frightened away. In the event that you were GameStop, would you convey the Xbox One knowing you'll just make $5 off the deal and that it executes utilized amusements?"
rtechie proceeded. "MS Points were a security highlight to ensure your charge card. By making the main thing you could purchase with your Visa on XBL "focuses" this should keep a hacked account from being utilized for different purposes and generally worked. The issue was that clients discovered making an interpretation of costs to focuses befuddling, and a similar thing could be proficient just by having a genuine dollar account that you can't remove cash from (that is the manner by which it chips away at PSN and Steam)."
PlaceHolder likewise made some early forecasts, "I think most likely Sony will coordinate that valuing inside 20 percent... no point beginning a value war before item is even accessible for procurement. I think $500 is excessively however for a repeated PC... I think the cost will wind up at $300 by the accompanying Xmas." As we probably am aware now, rtechie wasn't right and PlaceHolder was truly close as for the PS4 dispatch estimating. Be that as it may, who knows what number of value carves the Xbox will experience before the following Christmas season?
"Sony could 'do us a strong' here in the event that they come in at $399," Biggiesized expressed prophetically.
The majority of our perusers appeared to be despondent with the Xbox's $499 cost. "So happy I'm building my gaming PC." Transmitte composed. "It'll cost about twice to such an extent, yet will be one serious part better. What's more, no Kinect." But "most" does exclude everybody. A few, including realwarder, felt that the valuing sounded sensible. "Gone ahead... least expensive 360 with Kinect and 250GB drive is a $350 package. Standard estimating is around $400. What's more, that is for old innovation. For $500 you're getting in any event double the spec of everything, also bleeding edge. Any individual who thought it would have been less expensive than $400 is silly. Also, another reassure has a little premium, so $499 was normal. They'll offer container loads at this cost and in a year perhaps it'll offer for $400." Guess we'll discover soon enough whether a $499 sticker price is sufficient to offer can loads.
What's more, the PlayStation 4 makes a striking move
Around nine hours after the fact on another side of LA, Sony told its group of onlookers that the PlayStation 4 would just cost $399 and would not have any online registration limitations. (Kyle Orland kept us up to speed with PlayStation 4 will be accessible for $399 this Christmas season.) As the Xbox One's just noteworthy contending console this year, the declaration set off loads of commendation from the gathering of people at the occasion. Be that as it may, Ars perusers were somewhat more wary. More than one individual (well, OK, two individuals) was watching for the unavoidable conclusion.
"I'm watching for the unavoidable conclusion." tigas composed. "I'm certain Activision will figure out how to screw us over even with a PS4." Ironicending explained. "Cherished the declaration. Call me suspicious, call me prepared, call me neurotic, however I'm looking out for the inevitable conclusion. This is very great to be valid. What amount of will AAA titles cost to keep up this model? On the other hand with all that outside the box support and PS+ esteem I don't know I give it a second thought. Transistor!"
Still, more than a couple analysts grasped the news with less criticism. "Go Sony," composed joshua knight. "This level of differentiation in approach between two vast contenders doesn't appear to happen time after time nowadays. I am extremely intrigued to watch how everything plays out yet Sony has dig for the present." caywen included:
As somebody who was truly relying upon the Xbox One to succeed and was truly charmed by the Kinect conceivable outcomes, I need to state: Microsoft just got their aggregate asses given to it. They invested an abundant excess energy attempting to clarify away 24 hour checks, diversion exchange ins, and so forth. Sony invested almost no energy in that with a basic message.
Also, it's $100 less.
Somebody at Microsoft needs genuine terminating. There's some man (possibly Ballmer himself) who resembled, "we have to value it premium and wrap confinements around everything." That individual got his direction, and now look.
I'm currently immovably in the PS4 camp. I super needed Xbox One to be incredible. The main path for Microsoft to get me back is this: Hold a question and answer session in two or three days, concede they misconstrued the market, and surrender to aggressive weights. Drop the cost to $399 and dispose of *all* the DRM restrictions.iOS looks changed at this point
While the gamers where having it out over the enormous consoles, Apple held its WWDC keynote in San Francisco. The organization declared an invigorate to the Mac Pro line and an update of iOS 7's plan. Casey Johnston kept us up to speed on the last in Apple reports compliment, sleeker iOS 7, portraying the primary versatile working framework planned by Apple SVP of Industrial Design Jony Ive and Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.
The response from the analysts was firmly blended: a noteworthy number appeared to love a few sections of it and loathe a few sections of it. Others, as muckz, didn't consider the tasteful of the OS by any means. "At last, with the new control focus, I can discard jailbreaking. Can't stand going into Settings each time I need to modify splendor or turn Wi-Fi on/off." Mike Strobel was unequivocally in the "despise" camp however. "I have yet one clarification for the frightful tones and stops in each one of those angles: Jony Ive is partially blind. We just never knew it since all his stuff was dark, white, and silver."
Others preferred the new look yet were worried that it won't not be down to earth. PervertRyan clarified:
As a WP8 client, I like the much cleaner look and particularly the typography. In any case, I'm not yet beyond any doubt how I feel about the new symbols.
What's more, the straightforwardness and viewpoint moving looks truly cool, however I need to ponder about the handling power required. That is to say, better believe it portable GPUs are bounty quick to render such impacts (despite the fact that I need to ponder about the iPhone 4, mine as of now feels moderate on iOS 5), yet I'm more worried about how this will keep the GPU busier than it should be. Perhaps I'm wrong, however when iOS 6 renders the home screen the GPU can simply go to rest until something happens, yet now it needs to continually re-render the homescreen on the grounds that the point of view will move somewhat from unpretentious developments you make while you hold the gadget regardless of the possibility that you don't do anything. Furthermore, it sounds like it generally keeps the sensors dynamic as well, yet that may be the situation ordinarily as well.
What's more, with straightforwardness, you essentially need to render more, reserve less, and need to apply that obscure pixel shader.
I'm certain it's not a colossal punishment, but rather Microsoft expelled Aero glass from Windows 8 and one reason I accept was that a level look is less exhausting on the battery.
Others saw echoes of other working framework outlines in iOS 7. lux113 thought of, "Some are stating Android... All I thought when I saw the symbols was metro—strong hues, extremely thin numbers, and letters. Apple has been inclining towards the thin numbers in certain applications yet now it has all the earmarks of being no matter how you look at it. The strong hues however are a plainly clear move far from everything their symbols dependably were known for... furthermore, there was another organization which made such a move as of late, to the point that I'm mindful of—Windows—directly down to the Windows logo." Oleph concurred on a few focuses. "I despise the fundamental looking symbols, particularly Safari. It's so unmistakably taking outline insights from both Android and WP. But then, in the typical Apple way, they've refined things and made it something more. I think being used all these plan components will work to improve things. In static screenshots, you don't get the entire picture."
In any case, bbonish came in as a voice of reason. "Replicated, roused by... what difference does it make? It isn't so much that it looks more like Android/Windows, dislike Apple needs to overlook configuration patterns. I think the primary concern is it watches well thoroughly considered and reliable. That is dependably the hardest thing about tech gadgets and where Apple in the course of recent years appeared to meander a bit. At first look it would seem that they truly improved the representation not only for making new plan components, however to make things less demanding to utilize."
0 notes
Text
Presentation Script
Originally written and performed on 30/01/17
The Path
Two weeks ago, this class took debate on a persistent argument that has polarised game-related discussion since the inception of its industry. Are video games an artform?
Be it esteemed film critics decrying its simple incomparability to more matured and understood forms of media, to industry veterans coming to its defence in celebration of its continual growth through the half-century of its existence.
The reason this question has stood for so long, is because it’s one that refuses to be answered unequivocally. Sure, an array of titles released over the past few years have turned the heads of sceptics, but none have given that one push towards the irrefutable evidence that the industry yearns for.
The primary question is this; is The Path a game that gives that evidence?
My answer, is....
On the topic of polarising discussion, I read up on the reviews and critiques on The Path prior to downloading it. The 2009 psychological-horror title produced by artists-turned-game developers, Tale of Tales, seems to differ interest in some journalists
One such journalist gave the game a perfect ten, praising its defiance of conventional game design and its courageous efforts to release a game that goes beyond its mechanical traditions during a time where AAA gaming rules all.
Whereas another wrote a hatred-fuelled scathing of the game; amongst the other colourful word choice, described it as the worst game he ever played.
Even in the developer’s lengthy post mortem on The Path, they admitted that the project was subject to “mean-spirited criticism or over-the-top adoration and not much in between”. I’m going to have to defy that presumption, and say I swing solidly in the middle of it all.
Trying to figure out the story is a graft in itself, but here’s what I think's going on.
The game begins in a red apartment hall with six sisters all of whom are at different ages with different personality traits. The player selects one to go on the adventure of delivering errands to their grandmother’s house. Once the game begins, the player is given two tasks.
Go to grandmother's house and stay on the path.
But games are never as simple as that, as the player defies the instructions and ventures out to the forest where they encounter new, enigmatic characters and perhaps even find a wolf.
Of course, this holds much in common with the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. It’s easy to first think ‘Oh great, a darker and more mature take on the fairy tale that echoes the original vision of the Brothers Grimm, sounds good’, But in terms of overall themes, the developers took a different path.
The game’s central theme is “Waldeinsamkeit”, a German word for the emotion of being lost in the woods. It’s a horror game that doesn’t rely on jump scares to give the player little bursts of adrenaline, but rather invokes a constant feeling of unrest and discomfort. You, much like the character, experience vertigo when attempting to navigate the forest. The lack of a real map and the mechanic of the path disappearing behind you when you’re in the forest too long amplifies this emotion. When you venture off into the woods, you’re stuck there.
It’s only when you’re in the woods that any semblance of conventional game takes place. It becomes a sort of collect-a-thon with context-sensitive artefacts that only specific characters can interact with. The reward being an insight into the character's inner-monologue where their individual personality traits are identified.
During gameplay, we realise that disorientation is a game mechanic in more subtle ways than others. The pause menu for example. Notice how there is no uniform to the options, why is ‘continue’ at the bottom instead of the top? Why is ‘quit’ third from the bottom instead of the bottom?
This is taken further in the sprint mechanic of the game. The Path is a very, very slow game, yet this is the only game I have ever seen to discourage sprinting.
As you see here, the longer you sprint, the more aerial your perspective becomes until you can no longer see in front of you. The quickening heartbeat also creates tension before that character runs out of breath and goes back to walking. Perhaps this is a 4th-wall breaking parody of how common the “sprinting” mechanic is, and how the player is always in a rush for their instant gratification rather than taking their time to admire the scenery.
It wouldn’t surprise me, as there are other 4th-wall breaks scattered around the game, including here where the character looks at you whenever you have the camera on her.
So, what’s the point of it all? To collect all the items and make it your grandmother's house for a happy ending? Not quite. As I said once you’re on the path you’re kind of stuck there. It’s only when you encounter “The Wolf” that an endgame comes along.
Now these aren’t wolves in the tradition of the fairy tale, but rather an individual figment that epitomises the characteristics of each of the sisters, who by the way are all named after a shade of red, be it who they are, or what they fear.
Ginger for example is described by developers as “The tomboy” of the siblings. We learn through her inner-monologue that she feels disconnected and frustrated by her sisters because of it. Thus, the wolf she encounters is a young woman, an allegory of her feminine side.
Ruby, described as “The Goth” is at her most excruciating stage of adolescence where she hasn’t exactly found herself and is fascinated with death and decay. Her wolf is an older man who pressures her into smoking. By this, he is a metaphor for Ruby’s grim obsession and rebellious side.
Robin is the youngest who’s wolf is the only one that is an actual wolf, or at least werewolf. As she is young and naive and loves animals she is not afraid of the wolf and sees it as a “big cuddly thing” rather than a dangerous animal so she takes a ride on it.
The only thing that the six wolves have in common is that after the encounter, the screen goes black and the screen flashes with quickly edited frightening imagery paired with distorted, screeching sounds until it goes black again.
When it comes to, your character is lying down on the path. She groggily stands up and very slowly makes her way the gran's house. Sluggish, and wounded. And that’s pretty much where it ends.
What happened?
My only interpretation is this; in the earliest stories of little red riding hood, the wolf asked the girl if she would take the “path of needles or the path of pins” This path the fable referred to is symbolic of a rite of passage, an event that changes somebody to begin their next stage of adulthood.
As such, I believe that The Path’s ending represents growing up. Every one of the sisters endures a traumatic experience and from that point on, their perspective and life have changed. This interpretation is validated when you get inside the grandmother’s house, and it becomes a sort of psychedelic, other-worldly rail shooter game. What was once safe and secure is now foreign to them.
Perhaps Robin was attacked or hurt by the wolf in some way while she played with it, confounding her trusting expectations of animals, and now she realises that the world isn’t as innocent as she thinks and there is real danger out there. Maybe Ruby has realised her desire for rebellion and acceptance has led her to being part of the bad crowd, which has left her prone to peer-pressure and toxic relationships.
The interpretations go on and on, and if there’s one thing that the developers agree on these connotations, is this haunting revelation. That the player could have prevented this from happening, by just going to the grandmother’s house and leaving it at that. Bringing into question our own responsibility as a player in the worlds we toy with.
Here’s the issue with that.
The first time I played the game, I stayed steadfast to the games wishes. Walking on the path at a snail’s pace over a gruelling six-minute timespan. I got to the house, sat beside the grandmother, and the game faded to black to signify a happy ending.
And then, this appeared.
The game gives you a literal report card, failing you for following its instructions and prompting you to try again.
I feel as though this betrays the developer’s intent on pinning all the responsibility and guilt on you for the fate of these girls. At no point when I walked the path was I tempted by some sort of forbidden fruit or curiosity to go the forest. At the risk of sounding cynical, I didn’t venture off the path as a rebellious act of player agency, as some way to get back at the designers for giving me such a definable objective. I did it to get my money’s worth. To see what the game had in store.
The Path is not really a game, nor is it without its faults, and I believe it to be far from exemplary when it comes to game as an artform. However, it is an experience and a work of art in a subjective manner that’s full of potential in its dealings with risky, taboo subjects., and without designers like these taking risks and liberties at every turn, we’d still be stuck in the age of pong and space invaders. The Path is not yet a showpiece to show games as an artform. It is however, a rigid stepping stone.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
