Gameplay Journal Entry #8

One of the greatest things about video games is their power to build an interactive and unique experience through the combination of art and game mechanics. As video game developers continue to push the boundaries of what is achievable with video games, it’s becoming more feasible to make games that serve a very specific purpose. One way game makers are doing this is by creating games that have some sort of message about society, the current political climate, or that raise awareness about an issue that is important to the developers. A great example of this is a game called Beyond Eyes, where the player helps guide a blind girl named Rae through her the world as she experiences it. One creative mechanic used that helps simulate the experience of a blind person is only the immediate area surrounding Rae being rendered. This creates the effect of a blind person only being able to perceive their immediate surroundings.

One thing that makes Beyond Eyes so powerful is that it gives players the perspective of a blind person and a unique look at how they perceive the world, without trying too hard to make the player feel bad for blind people, while still displaying the challenges they face in their day-to-day life. The developers were most likely able to achieve this balance by employing the “VAP Method” of game design, from A Game Design Methodology to Incorporate Social Activist Themes by Mary Flanagan and Helen Nissenbaum. The VAP Method is summarized as; “The VAP approach, sketched out in preliminary form and applied to a case study in [14], comprises three ‘constitutive’ and iterative activities: Discovery, Translation, and Verification. 1)Discovery: the activity in which designers ‘discover’ and identify values relevant to their project. 2)Translation: the activity in which designers ‘translate value considerations into architecture and features into game iterations; and 3)Verification: the activity in which designers verify that the values outcomes they sought have been realized in the game.” (Flanagan, Nissenbaum, 183). It’s clear that the creators of Beyond Eyes spent a good deal of time on the Discovery phase, since they are so spot on with the message conveyed through the game. Beyond Eyes can be found here: http://www.gamesforchange.org/game/beyond-eyes/

Works cited:

Flanagan, Mary, and Helen Nissenbaum. “A Game Design Methodology to Incorporate Social Activist Themes.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — CHI ’07, 2007, doi:10.1145/1240624.1240654.