APD W1 Play&Self

Theme: Play Self

Method:

The player needs to detect the maze corridor through an undirect first-person view but while she explores and finishes the whole map, a clarified figure of herself will be displayed as this is an important step that she has stepped into and got to know herself in depth. 

Watch Self Maze here.

In this video, I unveiled six steps of play self while I was responding to the theme:

1. Sometimes, I feel I am not everywhere.
2. Sometimes, I do not want to be noticed.
3. Sometimes I am a garden spider, hard netting, and waiting for my dinner.
4. Sometimes, as a beautiful prisoner(female peacock butterfly), I could die alone. Or be married, give birth, and die. (3 and 4 are inspired by The Records About Insects, written by Fabre)
5. Self Maze draft.
6. Self Maze in working progress.

Context:

From the first class, Ugen has talked about a lot of insight into how play has been discussed broadly and deeply among anthropologists, philosophers and academicians. After this session about play and self, I thought this 'self' has two meanings: one is about the play itself, and another is about ourselves who are engaged in any play form.

The concept of play self makes me change my attitude on play. In the book Ambiguity of Play, the author Brian Sutton-Smith talks about the rhetorics of self 'the important issue is that play be explained in terms of that relationship between self and play, not in terms of extrinsic issues about progress, power, and status.' I reckon that play itself is always starting from playing with ourselves. Especially, we detect ourselves through novel versions of ourselves, and it is fun to observe us out of the box. Likewise, wearing in a speculative custom, pretending I was invisible in a crowded place, imagining we were just butterflies in the garden during summer vacation. These plays unleash our spirit through imagination or exterior force from disguises. 

Thus my response to the theme is to design a maze that is adapted from my main character's face, who is from my studio 2 project. this self maze should represent the in-depth knowledge of herself, then projected to the player- ourselves. I use 3D shapes to draw the line-like maze block in software and make it has a portrait outline. The gameplay of the first level would be the only path to other mazes, which is also connected to the explanations that Brian Vandenberg gives to human behavior, 'the essence of being a human being, is that we optimistically project our possibilities into the future.'

The game inspired this idea: Labyrinth City, the player- a detective, should catch the thief before he escapes successfully. Meanwhile, I was traveling to Rome many years ago, which has a Heritage Park assembled by many abandoned ancient buildings and gardens, walking in which gave me a live gaming view.

Reflection:

Play with designing an unconventional shape maze and applying play-related theories is an insightful experience. I would like to read more books along with the session, especially about ludology.

References:

The Ambiguity of Play Author: Brian Sutton-Smith Type: Book ISBN: 0674005813 LCCN: 97021713 Publisher: Harvard University Press Place of Publication: Cambridge, Mass.; London Publication Date: 1997