Prior to this assignment, we were given a lecture about abstract art and how these tie into the real world. How to differentiate between two or more types of abstract thinking. By breaking down some of my own conclusions on my take of an abstract game such as Memory Of a Broken Dimension (MOBD) I hope to understand what this game is trying to tell me.
MOBD is a game developed by Ezra Hanson-White (XRA) set to release in 2017. You start the game with a command prompt shell that allows the player to enter code into what appears to be a database infrastructure of memories from someone or something. Playing through the first minute or so you begin to notice what you had written beforehand starts to be forgotten or broken, this could be a symbolic gesture of time or desolation of memories. You start mindlessly typing and imputing various commands into the shell console, if smart enough you will eventually enter one of the memories. The first memory that I came across starts you inside of a cube like room where if you walk into one of the sides you appear on the other side like Pacman. The screen is all distorted and jumbled with lines and filters that make up 70% of the screen. Dense parts of the screen make out what looks like a stone or rock bridge man made structure leading upward into a hole or entrance into another part of the memory. This may mean that this is the entrance or gateway into what is to come or perhaps the comfort bubble people describe as their 'getting to know someone' stage. The structure has no collision and you simply walk through it. Once you get to know the game you understand that they want you to see things from their perspective, as you do this, only then can you emerge from the outer layer of understanding and truly grasp what the developer is trying to tell you. To see things, you must walk over a line that sprouts up out of the ground with a cube indicating perhaps a camera or lense. You stand there looking around until a white haze lights up the bridge structure. The bridge becomes walkable and you can step fourth into the next stage of the memories. As for the next part of the story I was left utterly confused and ended up walking into nothing for ten minutes before I gave up. Overall the game has depth uncompromised and open to many interpretations. This was my view on what the world was trying to tell me as the player. Games like these don’t often intrigue me but for some reason I can see my life or at least a part of my life with that starting CMD screen where people may try to get to know me, and after a brief period of trying I may let them see who I really am. But then again this is just a game isn’t it. |
World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
October 2017
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