The Design of “HERE” - Gameplay though “Being Present”

--It is highly recommend that you play the game before reading this spoiler-heavy design postmortem--

I struck a bit of luck for the theme for this game jam: PRESENT, which was ripe to try out something interesting with the idea of being present, mindfulness or self-care. The first thing that jumped to my mind was something like David O’Reilly’s Mountain, a meditation “not-really-a-game-but-really-is-if-you-think-about-it” that is more meant to be watched and not played. But making a replica of the same concept felt a little bit like cheating and also not that interesting or practical, especially with my limited art skill. So I asked myself: what game mechanics could be tied into the idea of “being present” while playing a video game? This is what HERE is founded on.

Without much time to think, I programed the game, structuring the levels around the architecture of the four letters in the title, repurposing vector files of each letter that I had created for my in-development art game. I stuck with the familiar platformer genre as this was easy to make in GameMakerStudio 2 and a ultra-minimalist art style since I can’t draw for shit. The rhythm game 140 was heavy on my mind. (highly recommend!)

One answer immediately came to me on how to integrate “being present” as a game mechanic: stay still and don’t do anything. But how far can that go? And once the player discovers the “shtick” that all they need to do is not input anything, what’s left? The answer I thought of was to suggest to the player that they “needed” to do something, encouraging them to be active and accomplish something, or avoid danger, or complete some difficult task, like circumvent a bullet hell, for instance. This is the basis of both the “H” level and final “E” level.

How else can the idea of staying in the present be a game mechanic? Perhaps: Don’t worry about the past, and don’t worry about the future? My way of implementing these ideas was to present the player with danger and create the illusion that they were trapped (the future is hopeless/impossible) but show that all they need to do is keep going forward to succeed/progress. This is the basis of the first “E” level. And for “don’t worry about the past”, I put the player in a similar disorienting situation where danger “seems” to be all around them, but in reality is not (aka PTSD simulator). This is what the “R” level was based on. (A bug in the game jam version is made this section a dud as an audio file of firing lazers never plays!)

The implementation of these ideas in my opinion was shoddy at best. I wasn’t able to perfect the push and pull of player manipulation as well as I would have liked in time to submit the game, as it seems that most players either end up confused or don’t connect with how the game mechanics ties to its theme. However I believe once the deadline has passed that allows me to update the game I’ll be able to add in the necessary hints that should give players the necessary tools they need to complete and understand this with more visual cues, audio cues, and fixed bugs.

I had fun making this what I like think of as an anti-platformer – A platformer where the solutions to the challenges are the opposite of what they would be in a traditional platformer. I learned a lot making this game and glad that I was able to make something that ties into my own philosophy of game design. Games have a huge potential for artistic expression, and I love how the Extra Credits team pushes the conversation in this direction and expanding our ideas of what games can accomplish. I hope many more successful game jams are in their future!