Surviving The First Night

Artist Statement - Surviving the First Night

What obsession did you pick and why did you pick it?

I chose to base my game off of my obsession with the Reality TV show Survivor. Recently, I have been really into this show since a new season is airing right now. I’ve been watching it every Wednesday with my friends this season and have been watching on my own since 2019. I find the show as a whole to be quite interesting as it incorporates a lot of different dynamics and variables such as making alliances, trusting people, turning on allies, being with the majority, being against the majority, etc. I thought that this concept would be really cool as a text-based twine game because the player can make important choices just like the players on the TV show. 

 

What thematic argument are you making with the reader-player and what craft elements support you in this? 

My thematic argument revolves around trust, betrayal, and moral dilemmas. Because my story/game is based on Survivor which heavily revolves around strategy and trust, I wanted to incorporate these themes into my game for a real and raw feeling. My game explores how the player balances trust and betrayal in order to succeed and how this can create a moral dilemma. I also wanted to incorporate consequences of decisions and have players deal with their real emotions in a way that mimics how the contestants on the show feel. I supported this thematic argument through the characters, branching decisions, and dialogue. Having a few well developed characters impacts the weight of the player’s decision because the player knows that if they make certain choices, it will inevitably affect the other characters in a big way. Second, incorporating branching decisions also adds to the gravity of the decision making and supports the theme of moral dilemma. The player knows there are different pathways they can go, but they don’t know where each will lead to, making them really think about their decision and evaluate the possible options. Finally, adding dialogue immerses the player into the game which allows for a deeper connection with the game and adds gravity and meaning to the decisions, like trusting or betraying certain characters. 

How have you engaged with our working definition of a game (Greg Costikyan, week five lecture)?

I have engaged with our working definition of a game by using decision-making, choices, having goals and motivation, and having structure and agency. Allowing the player to make different decisions and progress through the game by different pathways is a fundamental part of the “game”. If a player had no say or no choice in a game they were playing, it wouldn’t really feel like a game, it would feel like reading a story or watching a movie. Having this ability to make changes and affect the outcome of the story is integral to the idea of a game. Additionally, providing the player with an end goal or an overall motivation allows them to have a clear pathway in their mind and a desire to progress through the game. If there was no end goal or central motivation, would it really be a game? Or would it just be an experience? Finally, balancing structure and agency in my game was an important aspect of engaging with the idea of and the definition of a game. Having a certain amount of rules and restrictions while also providing the player with agency makes for an interactive but structured game. In my game, I balanced the game by having the structure of being on the island, having to vote someone out, and having to make it to the end of the first day with the agency of allowing the player to choose who they talk to, who they vote out, and what they spend their time doing during that day.

What structure did you choose to work with (cite your inspiration example)?

I used a mix of the “key nodes” and “looping” structure that I read about in Nat Mesnard’s Branching Infinity. I found that the key nodes would work well with my genre and form of game because everyone has to vote someone out, no matter what you decide to do before then. However, I also was inspired to use the looping structure because I wanted to make the game feel like an endless time cycle, like how the real contestant would feel on the show not having eaten for days and now knowing what day or time it is. I decided to mix these two together to form my game structure as it made sense to have some key passages, like voting, but also some looping passages, like returning to the beginning when they get voted out. 

How did you playtest the game + what feedback did you take (cite examples of strategies from our talk with Nat Mesnard).

I played the game myself a few times and picked different pathways each time. I also got some of my friends to play my game at least two times so that they could experience different pathways. Some of the feedback I got from my friends and peers were really helpful to me, especially since I had been looking at the game “close up” for so long. Getting another perspective was so useful! One of the main pieces of feedback that I received was to develop the world and setting further. Some of my peers felt that they did not fully understand the premise of game since they have never watched Survivor before. I did my best to have the characters in the story naturally explain the rules and idea of the game as a whole. I also received feedback on having more interactivity that did not have an effect on the outcome of the game, such as what other characters were wearing, what the shelter was made out of, and what the player-character was wearing. I incorporated this into the game so that there was a good balance between important choices and choices that were just for fun. Overall, playtesting the game and getting peer feedback was crucial for developing my twine game!