APD Week 11: Play and Stillness

Theme: Play and Stillness

Response:

'Watching Clouds' Game

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/582713371/ 

Context:

My response this week is inspired by contemplative gaming, and my own experience taking time to be absorbed in the world outside of myself. 

Jenova Chen states one of the defining features of contemplative gaming is a style of play that promotes a different state of mind or emotional spectrum to a game that’s motivated by adrenaline. The game I’ve made this week is a smaller snapshot of this kind of idea. It’s aim is to capture a moment of respite, and have the player feel peaceful as they create shapes with the crowds or just watch them change and go by.

The player can create as simple or complicated a picture with clouds that they want, but they cannot stop the clouds from moving as they do. I wanted this element to allow the player to reflect on how the experience is transient, and allow them to be more caught up in the moment instead of perfecting what they are doing. 

Method:

To create a cloud the player presses the up arrow key.

They can click on the cloud to remove it, and press the spacebar to start over.

I started creating this game in Scratch because it’s simple to use and hosted online. I am not experienced with coding, so I prioritised creating something which worked, rather than a sophisticated program. 

I made the assets after I made the program, and chose to emulate a pixel art style so all the elements would look unified. The colour pallette was also inspired by games like A Short Hike (2019) and My Summer Vacation (2000), as they both centre around engaging with the nature, embracing everyday life and taking a relaxing journey. 

Reflection:

I think this project would be more effective emotionally as a feature inside a larger game’s narrative. If it existed in a larger project, the moment of stillness could be appreciated more as a moment to process some larger emotional event. Sound would also be a great addition to a project like this, and would really round out the little world. 

Although overall I am quite happy with each of the little elements I incorporated, and if I were to expand the project it would be fun to develop the world elements further. This would create a world which feels more alive without the players input, motivating them to just observe it more and see what could happen to its inhabitants.