Developing a German Expressionist Puzzle Game
MOLOCH: Developing a German Expressionist Puzzle Game
______
A Thesis
Presented to
The Honors Tutorial College
Ohio University
______
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Communication
______
by
Joseph M. Cox
April 2017 Table of Contents
Section 1: Abstract 1
Section 2: Personal Statement 3
Section 3: Culmination of Work and Contribution to the Field 4 Intermedia Translation 4 Directing and Filmmaking 5 New Media Installations 5 Experiential Creations 6 Alternative Games 6 Section 4: Game Overview and Demo Overivew 8
Section 5: Visual Style and Sound 11
Section 6: Narrative Adaptation: Intermedia Translation 20 Expectations 20 Faithfulness 22 Application to Thesis 24 Section 7: Narratives and Emotional States in Games 28 What is a Game? 28 Narratives in Games 31 Zinesters 31 States in Gaming 33 Section 8: Production 36 Design 36 Asset Creation 37 Installation 42 Additions 43 Section 9: Conclusions 47
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 1
Abstract
MOLOCH is a game about internal struggles between passive content consent and critical views in systems where digging deeper can lead to darker truths. A top-down three-dimensional game with simple directional movement puzzles, MOLOCH places us behind a desk as a shift manager in a dystopian company. Throughout the game, the player will be confronted with the binary of efficiency vs. morality. The game encourages us to increasingly hurry our managed workers, but is the company’s goal and corporate approval worth the amoral work we force? Are we ok with the system’s tactics aimed at keeping us complacent?
MOLOCH takes inspiration from Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and from the
German Expressionism art movement at-large. Increasing anxiety over the networked world’s discordant relationships between humanity and the physical world and the rise of social inauthenticity and near endemic individual alienation highlight the intentions of
MOLOCH (Klaas, 2016). Adapting a rich history of prior art is critical to the tonal and thematic success of MOLOCH. David Freeman, designer and writer, states that one of the keys to creating a rich world is through adding history (Freeman, 2003). Adding backstory to MOLOCH through ancillary materials, and injecting the sentiments of
Metropolis facilitates a rich history.
The precise adaptation necessary for analytical success spans visual and audial assets as well; without proper signifiers the tone of the game will be lost due to a lack of thematic cohesion. This aspect will be accomplished through continual examination and inspiration of prior art.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 2
Coded in Unity, MOLOCH will be released for PC, Mac, and Linux and is played with the mouse and arrow keys. Minimal controls allow game testing on touchscreen devices. The prototype, MOLOCH Zero, was created in GameMaker and is available as a downloadable PC game. Target audiences are casual indie game players as well as the art game world.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 3
Personal Statement
Through study of integrated media, it is apparent that a solitary line of thought does not convey successful storytelling; it is created via an intricate, complex, and, at times, profound web of ideas united through observations, thoughts, and research. This integrated approach is a sound method to storytelling. And so, I have embraced and adopted this creative process to produce the new media content of MOLOCH, my interactive game project.
As a beginning, compelling narratives are derived from rounded experiences and a thirst for getting to the bottom of things. They include tangential exploration around the topic with sustained focus on the project. This approach to integrated media involves determining which media are most effective for a project narrative, experience, and/or feeling. Application of this contextual approach has evolved across my academic career through the creation of games, films, albums, new media art, and physical installations.
Time management is paramount to approaching and learning integrated media methodology. The confidence of imagination, the enjoyment of craft, and the understanding of tangible goals increase development time in any production. Yet, this concept of taking time to understand every facet of the space is critically important in my approach to any serious project.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 4
Culmination of Work and Contribution to the Field
MOLOCH represents the culmination of my work over the past four years. From intermedia translation, directing and filmmaking, alternative games exploring mind states outside of flow, new media installations, and self-reflecting experiential creations;
MOLOCH is a professional endeavor that incorporates focus areas in an interconnected context.
Intermedia Translation
In autumn semester of my sophomore year, I engaged in a tutorial with Media
Arts and Studies Professor Eric Williams to finally attain an answer to a question that had been shadowing me for years, namely – what are the hallmarks of successful media adaptations? More specifically, when disregarding monetary success, what are the hallmarks of a successful adaptation from critically acclaimed, certified “good” literature
(comic book, short story, and novel) to feature length film? When examining why a
“good” literary source could fail critically as film, I encountered Garfield. It was challenging to comprehend the production errors of Peter Hewitt’s Garfield: The Movie that resulted in a previously well-loved comic book release turning 15% fresh-on-rotten- tomatoes sour as a film (Rotten Tomatoes, 2004). Exploration of successful literature to film adaptations led to the conclusion that treatment of three key components portends success. These areas include character expectations, audience expectations, and tonal expectations. These elements appear to fill a critical niche that must be met, individually and collectively, and the components work in unison to create a cohesive film positioned
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 5 for success. This same method can be applied to assess other intermedia translations as well.
Directing and Filmmaking
My initial scholastic interest was filmmaking – namely cinematography.
Following completion of coursework focused on the theoretical foundations of filmmaking my interest expanded from cinematography to directing. In time, my interest in directing moved beyond talent directing; aligning with art direction and world building. I realized that an interest as aesthetician overtook the appeal of technical camera work. Albeit the visual quality of a film is equally important to other qualities, the ability to reproduce what the Hollywood film industry sees as polish or marketability is not a priority in my multimedia projects. In the past I strived to avoid using the term “director” because of its connotations as the “idea guy;” a person who has ideas and will not actualize them in any meaningful way. More recently, I have used the descriptor “digital and physical storyteller” to identify the role because it more closely adheres to my interests across media platforms.
New Media Installations
New media installations have become a focus of mine over the past several years as well. Following an interest of museology, I enrolled in the Museum Studies Certificate program. I have made a point across my work in games and films to construct installations that support showings. These enhance creation of a concrete gestalt, creating a smooth transition in the liminal space between the viewing space and the work itself.
My curation interest began as rejection of the idea of framing or putting artifacts on
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 6 pedestals. Making objects and content approachable is hugely related to presentation.
Encouraging an audience to interact or gravitate towards a work usually boils down to how uniquely compelling and interesting it is compared to the artworks physically collocated.
Experiential Creations
Many of the pieces I’ve created are inspired by lifetime experiences. My workflow tends to re-contextualize an event that I have experienced and moves it into a media space that affords engagement of a larger audience. Experiential narratives have become increasingly popular in recent years evidenced by growing numbers of such work and consumers’ burgeoning interested in being challenged (Patti, 2016). Yet, they garner criticism for being unoriginal or unauthentic. My approach to experiential narratives is to obfuscate the story in order to generate audience interest in the experience. This professional project, MOLOCH, derives from the same place; it is a culmination of experiences at the Tokyo Game Show, admixed with current events, filtered through the lens of German Expressionism.
Alternative Games
I have worked on over forty games in the past five years and have attended and participated in a variety of media-related industry events. Through venue interactions, hands on experiences and academic conferences I have immersed myself within a critical niche of the independent gaming industry. Video games have advanced to a point where designers strive for a flow state in their creations. Foundationally, Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi’s flow is colloquially referred to as the “optimal experience;” however,
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 7 it is not the only kind of experience that he discusses through his psychology research
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The other states in his model include worry, arousal, control, and relaxation. I believe that games should move in and out of states, because although a state of flow is popular, it is not exclusively the state in which a game could situate its players. Games that can move between experiential states more accurately represent authentic occurrences. Games are known to challenge player ability to problem solve – they should also be known to challenge a player’s mental state, to evoke emotion.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 8
Game Overview and Demo Overview
The concept behind MOLOCH is to create a game that examines the internal struggles between passive content consent and critical views in systems. The game allows players to dig deeper into these systems, but does not immediately reward or punish them for the extracurricular work they do. MOLOCH is a top-down three-dimensional puzzle game with simple directional movements. MOLOCH places the players behind the desk of a shift manager in a dystopian future, one in which a company is married to the government and controls the schedules of its workers.
The demo of MOLOCH, MOLOCH Zero is a standalone piece of interactive media; it serves as a prequel to the full game itself. It incorporates tone, aesthetics, art, and sound elements of a full-scale game. As a demo, it employs two-dimensional art assets over three-dimensional art. MOLOCH Zero is meant to be a sandbox to test the elements planned for use in the full version of MOLOCH. The demo places the player in a position of applicant for the position to be filled in the full game, acting as a self-styled- transmedia piece.
At the start of the full MOLOCH game, the player is welcomed to a new overseer position at the government corporation. The game immediately begins the process of familiarizing the player with responsibilities and role in this new space. The game incorporates the ideas of suspension of disbelief and flow and begs the question of their importance in media, especially in interactive media.
The game can accommodate a wide range of audiences, spanning casual gamers to hardcore gaming audiences. There is an easy surface level mechanic and play
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 9 accentuated by a deeper narrative-based level of play. If a player primarily wants to play a puzzle game, they can. If they want to delve into the systems at play, they can do that as well. The intention is to satisfy players who demand more of games and want to dig deeper into the systems and world surrounding them. The game delivers duality of play content through a built in, unwritten, easy mode and a more difficult mode for narrative driven players.
The mechanic is simple: you must move phalanxes of workers from one elevator shaft to a different elevator shaft – one that is identified as the place those workers must go. As the player completes levels, they descend deeper into the metal labyrinth, directing traffic through larger spaces. Level completion will be advertised as a promotion. The player controls provide abilities to direct workers. These capabilities are simply: run, walk, and stand still. Use of the unassuming controls opens increasingly complicated puzzles that demand the player to control more workers in more hazardous areas. The player, as the shift manager, must decide between time efficiency and the workers’ health.
(Fig. 4.1 – Early prototype of three-dimensional mechanic)
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 10
As the player reaches the bottom floor, the workers begin to revolt. The player then returns to control of small groups, this time now with more complex tasks to accomplish. While this scenario evolves, the game begins to block humanizing features from the player’s view: removing the ability to see the workers’ names and blurring their faces from view. The game is designed to end the same way with each play through: a worker revolt that culminates in the overthrow of the government corporation, a new leader is installed, and new crowd controller assigned. Then the cycle begins again.
If a player digs deeper into the game system, they can exit out of the traffic controller screen to check emails and other media. They can begin to piece together a strategy to fully overthrow the cyclical nature of the game itself. Completing this alternative goal of the game requires multiple playthroughs to accomplish, creating a more meaningful experience than a seemingly dark puzzle game.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 11
Visual Style and Sound
Over the past two years I have engaged a significant number of projects that were foundational to MOLOCH. Examining past works gives a clearer picture into the visual and audio creation process and decisions. These media projects include: You Must be 18 or Older to Enter, The War on X-mass, Hi Polite Drifter, Innovative Food Company, and
HEAVY Obsolescence.
In the spring of 2016, my brother and I created the game, You Must be 18 or
Older to Enter. In the game, players find themselves in a late twentieth century family computer room, and discover an opportunity to re-enact a digital coming-of-age: innocent exploration of adult content – but don’t get caught! Abstracted images and ASCII symbols emulate porn sites. Audiences experience not titillation, but fear and confusion.
As much a horror game as Resident Evil, You Must be 18 or Older to Enter evokes tangible fears.
The missing contextual information due to the art style choice serves two purposes: it helps immerse the player into assuming the role of an unaware child surfing the web, and it expedites the narrative. This art style blurs the boundaries between sexual images and emphasizes the stigma around sexuality. The subject matter alone is enough to cause unease.
You Must Be 18 or Older to Enter has shown at a considerable number of events including the Tokyo Game Show, IndieCade, and Slamdance DIG (Digital, Interactive, and Games). What separates this game from many other games beyond the subject matter is the installation component. The installation component of the game invites people into
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 12 the liminal space of a nineteen nineties living room, complete with furniture, pictures, and desk accouterments.
(Fig. 5.1 - Slamdance DIG Installation in Park City, UT 2017)
You Must be 18 or Older to Enter incorporates visual elements that are applied to
MOLOCH. One of the most important diegetic elements is the recreation of a desktop:
You Must be 18 or Older to Enter uses a point-of-view that recreates a full screen web browser. The desktop recreation puts the player physically in the shoes of the character. It allows players to fill a role while not having to create an avatar or spend time customizing. This tactic also affords an expedited narrative; the player knows how they would act in the situation – they are given the opportunity to choose how they play based on personal decision-making, or emulating potential decisions of the person they are playing. This kind of decision making should not be confused with other third person
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 13 omniscient games like Angry Birds, because those games have a clear objective to win with well-stated goals.
(Fig. 5.2 - You Must be 18 or Older to Enter browser screenshot, 2016)
The installation element and the one-to-one screen element of You Must be 18 or
Older to Enter is included in MOLOCH Zero and will be applied to MOLOCH. This installation element will primarily be used in conference and convention settings.
Another game, War on X-Mass was developed over winter break to test user interface designs, character art, and the third-person omniscient point-of-view systems for
MOLOCH Zero. War on X-Mass takes place on the planet X-Mass as it is being invaded by Collites – a race of bug creatures. The game is full of Christmas themed puns and unsightly humanoid-on-bug violence.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 14
The game we created was shaped through two weeks of intense focus and boasts roughly thirty minutes of playtime. Additionally, this game was designed as a non-critical game – a game that would be immediately accessible to typical gaming audiences.
(Fig. 5.3 - The War on X-Mass, 2017)
Our game Hi Polite Drifter was conceptualized during IndieCade 2016. It is a blatant play on Hyper Light Drifter, a game released by Heart Machine in mid-2016, in which you pay homage to or play with the local polite drifter. The drifter wanders on and off screen as you choose interactions and the drifter responds to the gifts you give him.
It’s a simple game that I used as a springboard for work on focusing on music and sound production – employing the same voice actor contracted for MOLOCH Zero and exploring a range of potentially effective scores. This game represented an early outlet for two-dimensional physical art as well.
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Innovative Food Company was created in March 2017 to develop a firm grasp on puzzle design in games. The game follows an employee bird that needs to reach the source of food contamination that has been plaguing the Innovative Food Company.
Players are channeled through increasingly difficult puzzles and are introduced to new mechanics as puzzles ramp up in requisite effort. Prior to this game, puzzle design was something that I had limited experience in – this game was indispensable to cultivating a solid understanding of how tensions through puzzles are escalated. The game involved four weeks for dedicated input to construct.
HEAVY Obsolescence is a film series, performance, and installation I produced and directed across winter and spring semesters of 2017. Three films were created across the production run of HEAVY Obsolescence: HEAVY Obsolescence, HEAVY
Consummation, and The Harringer Media Archives. The Ohio University Forty-Eight
Hour Shootout was the catalyst to craft the flagship film of the series, however; I designed and fleshed-out concepts in the months preceding the event. The film examines a futuristic dystopian world in which late-capitalism clashes with post-capitalism. The film includes all the trappings of a dysfunctional future; credit cards as currency, collecting garbage, people identifying as celebrities and brands. It was shot on VHS with a skeleton crew.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 16
(Fig. 5.4 - HEAVY Obsolescence, 2017)
I directed and co-wrote HEAVY Consummation several weeks after the conclusion of the Shootout – the mockumentary acts as a prequel to HEAVY Obsolescence, examining the precursory events that led to the fictitious future. The Harringer Media
Archives is a piece that points out the self-importance in overproduced media logos, where the more expensive and louder they are, the more important the media is meant to be – similarly to the approach of an artifact display in the museum.
The installation piece was designed to be displayed as a triptych made of three televisions and trash. Each television shows a single act of the titular film. Each triptych installation is accompanied by a performance by an actor clad as Jeff Foxworthy – a character in the film. This collection of pieces is meant to be a test in taking something
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 17 and expanding it to its penultimate end. MOLOCH will incorporate a similar concept between showings and ancillary materials.
(Fig. 5.5 - HEAVY Obsolescence installation at Station 116, 2017)
The individual elements of these works culminate in a significant portion of the design, audio, style, and plan of MOLOCH Zero and MOLOCH. There are other inspirations as well, spanning a wide selection of games, however; these digital games seem to exist in two states; commercial facing and academic facing. The AAA industry typically produces games that do not take into consideration narrative, critical, or serious game design. Indie games include more design variation; with less overhead and more
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 18 freedom to create, indie games represent some of the most cutting-edge designs and the most mundane designs. This leaves players hard pressed to find content that balances narrative and longevity. They are either paying to play a reskinned and finessed version of a game they’ve likely played before, or they are playing games that are (often) free and critical, but ultimately can’t grab audience attention in the same way a polished commercial game does. However, there are a few games that manage to successfully exist in both spheres.
Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please (Pope, 2015) fits in a similar space as MOLOCH. It is a critical game in which the player assumes the role of an immigrations officer examining paperwork in a dystopian world. The player makes decisions on who is allowed to enter the country and who is not – the player gains money for working and is allowed to spend it on rent, food, and other necessities to help their family. The game balances decisions made at work with their own survival outside of work. Papers, Please demonstrates a balance between serious, narrative game design and commercial viability.
MOLOCH will have to straddle this line as well.
Several games like Star Wars: Pit Droid, Chu Chu Rocket, and likely any game on trafficcontrolgames.com, use a similar mechanic to MOLOCH. Some of the key disparities between games on trafficcontrolgames.com and Chu Chu Rocket (Sega, 1999) or Pit Droid (Lucas Learning, 1999) is the level of polish and longevity.
Trafficcontrolgames.com games’ mechanics are more similar to what MOLOCH is designed to contain, but Chu Chu Rocket and Pit Droid fit into the same kind of puzzle category. MOLOCH will exist as a synthesis between the mechanics and the design of
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 19 these games; combining a standard traffic control game with unique puzzle elements for identification.
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Narrative Adaptation: Intermedia Translation
From the tutorial with Media Arts and Studies Professor Eric Williams, I developed a rubric to assess the hallmarks of successful adaptations; specifically, the hallmarks of a successful adaptation from critically acclaimed, certified “good” literature
(comic book, short story, and novel) to feature length film. These three key areas include character expectations, audience expectations, and tonal expectations. The elements appear to fill a critical niche that needs to be met, individually and collectively, and the components must work in unison to create a cohesive film positioned for success.
Expectations
Character expectations can be viewed from the perspective of character personalities and behaviors. Is the adapted character behaving similarly to the sourced character or are there huge changes? This aspect encompasses how any change in character was viewed physically and emotionally. Key aspects of this component included fidelity of the character for the audience, maintenance of quirks and personal traits, and ultimately, effective retention of the original character vision within the adaptive character. This expectation spanned character representation (actor or animation), delivery of dialogue, and mannerisms.
Audience expectation encompassed a gestalt of the source and anticipation for an adaptation. This is based on preconceived notions by the audience and filmmaking interpretation of what audiences anticipate seeing when viewing the film. This expectation comprises the overall story matrix, timelines and relationships. The expectation is based on a broad foundation rather than individual characteristics and
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 21 relates to how intimately familiar the audience is with the story. More specifically, audience knowledge of the source material, expectations of film content, and acceptable variance from source to film translation. Although reverence to the source is not singularly important in an adaptation, it can pose an important focus in the eyes of the audience.
Tonal expectations represent how closely the adaptations adhere to the original tone of the source material. Tone is the attitude that a particular piece emotes. Tone embodies and evokes the feelings associated with the piece. Components of this feature include genre adherence and the world in which the movie takes place. Genre is the classification of a work of art based on content and theme. Genre adherence displays how closely the film’s genre was adapted from the source genre. Genres range from adventure to comedy, romance, mystery or horror. An example of genre adherence is John le
Carré’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy and the 2011 movie of the same name. The book is about a Cold War era spy in a mystery thriller. The movie matches the genre of the literature. These rules are rough outlines – used to easily categorize a majority of films, of course there are exceptions. This is particularly important in installation games – the noise within the room all becomes part of the player experience.
Rotten Tomatoes provided the least biased review source and was used to determine initial success of films, comparing aggregate audience reviews to critic reviews. Rotten Tomatoes represents a balanced measure of success over a specific reviewer, box office receipts, or awards and accolades. In contradistinction, a single reviewer asserts too much personal opinion making it difficult to synthesize a
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 22 collective/multi-person review. Box office receipts only reflect commercial success of a movie and may not be an indicator of critical success. Box office receipts primarily provide insight as to how many people saw the movie. Bestowing of awards does not necessarily determine the success of an adaptation because there is no blanket qualification for film contest or award ceremony judges.
Faithfulness
Professor, essayist, and screenwriter Guy Gallo categorized adaptations into component groups based on the selective use of elements from a source to a new work in
The Screen Writers Compass. Gallo’s degrees of faithfulness in adaptation include the following three groups: (Gallo, 2012)
§ The Prestige Adaptation
A classic or popular book adapted with a fair degree of fidelity. Out of Africa,
The Color Purple, and Under the Volcano are among prestige adaptations. Harry
Potter and Lord of the Rings represent examples of prestigious and popular
combinations.
§ The Straight Up Adaptation
These are derived from a relatively unknown book, an obscure genre piece, or a
work of nonfiction. The film is more important than the source. Examples include
Social Network, Slumdog Millionaire, and Die Hard.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 23
§ Adaptation as Reimagining
In this case, the writer takes source material as the starting point for what is
essentially an original vision. Prospero’s Books and Apocalypse Now represent
reimagining.
While source faithfulness as the key to adaptive success may be disregarded, the degree of adaptation is crucially important. Understanding the significance in degree of adaptation is imperative to unlocking audience expectations of a piece; media perception by the general public will make or break its success. Applying this analysis to Garfield:
The Movie, a class three – Adaptation as Reimaging – adaptation, there are obvious shortcomings. Substantial volume of backstory and standing as a cultural phenomenon devastated Garfield: The Movie (Hewitt, 2004). Would the film have been a better media experience without the Garfield brand? Perhaps – but one thing is certain, it would not hinge on the expectations built into the franchise. Could the film have achieved greater box office receipts without the Garfield brand? Absolutely not. Playing with adaptation as reimagining is a dangerous game. Commissioning a well-known source exponentially increases the possibility of profit while simultaneously increasing the potential of critical failure.
I recognized through the evaluation of media adaptations that my criticism of media was not due to irritation with the industry rather, I critiqued media because I cared about it. I wanted adapted media to meet the audience, character, and tonal expectation quality necessary for success. Media experiences needed to serve key elements of the source, while providing something fresh and viable to a general, viewing public. Earlier
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 24 exploration of adaptations sparked my interest and underpins the creation of a metric for adaptive success, one that will ultimately be applied to measure my game work.
Application to Thesis
Classifying in Gallo’s categories, MOLOCH fits most cleanly into category three
– Adaptation as Reimagining. However, this game does not directly follow the characters of Metropolis. So, it does not exist solely as a transformation. The game exists between
Gallo’s category one and two “transposition” and his category three “transformation.”
MOLOCH, unlike the films categorized earlier, is not a straight up adaptation. It is an adaptation as reimagination. Regardless of character qualities that are not transferable one-to-one, I believe it is possible to capture character expectations through different means. In the case of MOLOCH, the player becomes the main character surveying the workers that they direct until that power is taken away. This functions much in the same way that Freder, the main character in Metropolis, begins to humanize the workers and realizes how terrible the working conditions are for a majority of the population.
Since this is not a straight up adaptation, I have theorized a new way to approach character adaptation by moderating player roles within the game. In this game the player is able to make conscience decisions based moves – much like Freder in the film. Players will be confronted with choices throughout the game. Each instance leads them to evaluate potential outcomes and determine the value of choices they must make. If players perform well, they are rewarded by moving to the next level. Confoundingly, when players perform poorly, they are rewarded by advancement to the next level – with
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 25 one caveat: they have to sacrifice a group of workers to Moloch, the physical embodiment of efficiency.
Tonal expectations in Metropolis are those of German Expressionism. The game accommodates this art movement to retain tonality. MOLOCH fills the same Freudian
Fantasy space as Metropolis; it will create a voyeuristic spectacle. The game occurs in a liminal state with the player character controlling traffic. The interface displayed to the player will be identical to the interface of the character’s computer. The game space interaction is essentially the player area itself -- the player’s computer becomes the monitor of the character being controlled. The controlled character is continually switching between cameras to view traffic flow of the city – this adds the layer of voyeurism commonly associated with both German Expressionism and Metropolis
(Webber, 2000). The player is never simply seeing; they are always overseeing others.
The key to creating successful tonal similarities between the works entails evaluating and replicating an “otherness” found throughout Metropolis (Metropolis,
1927). As Freder moves deeper into uncanny space that lies beneath the gentry’s canny top-layers, the audience is exposed to the sheer masses of workers. MOLOCH will attempt to recreate that same function by introducing a player to game concepts through upper-level play-throughs. As the game progresses, players are confronted with similar, almost lackluster, horror. The goal is to drive players unaffected by changes in play style into deciding whether they care about the workers or winning the game.
The game takes narrative cues from Metropolis that force the player to adapt to changing roles. In Metropolis, Freder incites a riot – encouraging the workers in the
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 26 machine rooms to rise up against ruling powers. In MOLOCH, the player controls the opposite end of this role; they will try to thwart a government overthrow by protecting key access ports from the rioters. The motive allows a player to decide which side they agree with. This, much like Metropolis, will always end in deception. The player will be overthrown as the government frames its inability to govern fairly – impacting the player as traffic controller. The position of traffic controller was ultimately built into the system itself, accounting for worker riots. The system remains intact even with the player’s inability to stop the riots.
Audience expectations will be met through familiarity. Although Metropolis is not a modern blockbuster, it is still widely viewed. The full movie can be viewed on
YouTube at no cost (Youtube Upload, 2015). Noted earlier was the plan to create
MOLOCH as a reimagination, not a direct adaptation. In this regard, the audience will need to understand that the game contains significant narrative arc similarities, visual similarities, and universe similarities but is not intended to reflect direct adaptation.
Visually, MOLOCH draws from the dysfunction of fantasy architecture. Many
German Expressionist films like F.W. Muranu’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, Paul
Wegener and Carl Boese’s The Golem: How He Came into the World, and Robert
Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari use the dysfunction of fantasy-like architecture to create audience unease. This is reflected through Moloch’s face, sublime man-worked machines, and foreboding buildings. The futuristic urban landscape of Metropolis and the fantastic constructions seem harmless from a distance, but the longer the audience is exposed to them, the more uncomfortable it gets.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 27
The lines between visual pleasure and visual displeasure force the audience to manage the unsightly discrepancies between what seems acceptable from afar but disgusting up-close. MOLOCH will provide this same function through the use of level layering. Consistent with Tonal Expectations, players see increasingly more inner- workings of the urban construction. In time, subtle tonal shifts lead players to experience these evolving changes nearly unnoticed.
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Narratives and Emotional States in Games
Narrative in game design is fundamentally different than other new mediums. The storyteller needs to determine the best method to move a narrative into the game without compromising mechanics. This balance is a conundrum similar in nature to commercial versus serious game. Tracy Fullerton, game designer, educator, and writer, argues that:
“Plays, movies, television, and games are all media that involve storytelling and narratives that begin in uncertainty and that are resolved over the course of time. However, the uncertainty in a film or a play is resolved by the author, while the uncertainty of a game is resolved by the players. Because of this, it is very difficult to integrate traditional storytelling methods into games. In many games, story is actually limited to back-story, sort of an elaborate version of premise. The backstory gives a view and context for the game’s conflict, and it can create motivation for the characters, but its progression from one point to the next is not affected by gameplay. An example of this is the trend of inserting story chapters into the beginning of each game level, creating a linear progression that follows a traditional narrative arc interspersed with gameplay that does not affect how the story plays out.” (Fullerton, 2014) MOLOCH incorporates an additional, almost transmedia backstory through the playable demo. Its function is to give a taste of what’s to come for potential audiences.
What is a Game?
Uniquely, MOLOCH doesn’t have a traditional fail state meaning that players can actually fail their way to victory. This does not suggest that MOLOCH is not a game.
Jane McGonigal argues that a game needs four elements to be defined as a game: a goal, rules, feedback, and voluntary participation (McGonigal, 2010).
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 29
§ Goals
A goal is what the players are playing to achieve. The prospective achievement
of reaching a new goal focuses attention and assists orientation. Being able to
meet goals gives players a sense of purpose through play. The goal within
MOLOCH is to be promoted up the corporate structure, to get to the next level.
§ Rules
Rules limit the abilities of the player in the quest to achieve the win state.
Designers can remove or add elements that prevent players from achieving
success while simultaneously pushing players to explore the space around them.
The rules often kindle creative thinking, thinking outside the box. MOLOCH
promotes thinking outside the box through the ancillary narrative tactics – getting
players to explore the menu system within the game to gleam additional
information about the world in which the game takes place.
§ Feedback
Feedback systems assist player self-assessment. It helps them to understand how
close or far away they are from achieving goals. Feedback often determines the
beginning and the end of play. Fullerton’s Linear Chapters is an example of this.
Feedback can also be provided in real-time. This type of feedback provides
motivation to continue play. MOLOCH uses failing-upwards as a form of
feedback; punishing the characters within the game, but not punishing the player
directly.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 30
§ Voluntary
Voluntary participation is key to the suspension of disbelief within a game.
Players must willingly accept the other systems at play; the goal, the rules, and the
feedback system. McGonigal argues that the voluntary aspect also ensures for safe
play, where people know what the limits on the play should be (McGonigal,
2010). This rule brings into question sportsmanship in a professional sports
setting.
Winning is usually not considered a feature all games must have. There are a significant number of games in which winning, by the rules of the game, are impossible.
External assumptions of winning may be set – a person challenging another person – but a designed win is impossible. A pop culture example of this kind of game is Tetris, in
Tetris the player always loses. MOLOCH does not have a traditional win state. Although the game can be completed, it does not reward players for their efforts. It rejects the idea of satisfying players for failing what was supposed to be their in-game objective. This design decision is used to build replayability.
Mary Flanagan, artist, game designer, and founder and director of Tiltfactor
Laboratory, cites the game Darfur is Dying (Ruiz, 2006) as an example of a game that a player can never win. In Darfur is Dying, players embody a Darfurian refugee as they struggle to make it day-by-day. Although the game plays similarly to typical action games, the goals are different: survive for a single week. Flanagan plainly states,
“surviving for one week does not resolve the conflict in the game or world around us.”
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 31
She stipulates that it could, however, raise awareness for a real global situation
(Flanagan, 2013).
Narratives in Games
Narrativism is a type of roleplaying that encourages a player to freely make choices and actions based on human issues (Edwards, 2003). True narrativist games can be hard to come by because the thought process implies that there can be no stopping player choice – players should not be coerced into making any single decision that the designer prefers. The illusion of choice and preparing multiple paths for player interaction are not true to narrativism. MOLOCH isn’t a true narrativist game, however; it does use pieces of narrativist philosophy. Human issues are the focus of play. Problems that the player continually faces aim towards producing a situation that requires the player to make a choice on human issues. Narrativist games focus on human issues and the ability to make critical decisions.
Zinesters
Anna Anthropy, game designer and game critic, asks her audience what a game is and answers with:
“Mostly, Video games are about men shooting men in the face. Sometimes they are about women shooting men in the face. Sometimes the men who are shot in the face are orcs, zombies, or monsters… that’s design criticism as well. Most games are copies of existing successful games… why are games so similar in terms of both content and design?” (Anthropy, 2012) Games have become culturally uniform, encouraging similar creations while actively rejecting ideas that seem risky or unproven. This pitfall in large budget game creation is likely a holdover from videogame infancy and the rational conclusion of the attributes of
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 32 games from the period.
Anthropy suggests games should be treated as zines – typically small self- published magazines -- she believes that games should exist as a space for personal creations instead of homogenous single-voiced behemoths. In the paste, players often thought of games as large video games with huge budgets – now they think of games as large video games with huge budgets and independent videogames with publishers. The problem I have noticed over time is that not only are the AAA games nearly identical in design and content, as Anna Anthropy states, but now independent games have become disappointingly similarly standardized. In the past, games would be separated into two major groups: AAA (Triple A, large budget with publisher) and Indie Games
(Independent Games, games with small budgets and no publisher).
As the game space has grown, new questions arise: What if you are an indie game with a publisher? What if you are a famous developer that leaves the AAA industry to make an indie game? What is an indie game? From a forced standardization, a new genre of game evolved, known as III or triple-I or triple Indie (Jaffit, 2015).
Anthropy contends game creation is now diffused to just about anyone who wants to make a game. Previously dominated spaces have been unveiled to a new and expanding group of creators. This unveiling has materialized in a significant number of media industries since the inception of internet spaces for creativity. YouTube,
SoundCloud, and GameJolt all act as pseudo-publishers and iMovie, Ableton Live, and
RPG Maker all serve as creative platforms. This sentiment connects the next logical question about defining a game: why do games matter?
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 33
Games matter because they offer experiences. Games need to have players, games need to have rules, but games are the interaction between a player or players and the rule or rules. Anthropy states that games are good at letting players explore dynamic relationships and systems – exactly what we intended to do with MOLOCH: let the player explore their relationship to the system and meta-systems they are introduced to in the game experience (Anthropy, 2012). Flanagan resolves that many games are performative in the way that they in the way that they provide different outlooks to influence society – games act as forms of disruption by including spectacle elements (Flanagan, 2013).
States in Gaming
Jenova Chen studied flow in games for his Master’s thesis in game design at the
University of Southern California. His game Flow is highly regarded and is arguably the origin of the current state of games trying to evoke a similar emotional state in its players.
MOLOCH takes Csikszentmihalyi’s flow; joy, creativity, and the process of total involvement with life, and acts to insert other extremes of the challenge-level-versus- skill-level chart through periods of boredom, tediousness, anxiety, and more.
I often view the concept of flow as a relative to perpetually consuming sugar, a person might have an insatiable appetite for it but it’s only helpful in moderation. Games that aim for Csikszentmihalyi’s flow move players into a state of groove – or effectively playing a game for hours and it only feeling like a few minutes. A state of flow is achieved at a high challenge level matched with a high level of skill. I’m more interested in the other corners; anxiety, relaxation, and apathy. Anxiety is achieved at high challenge level and low skill level. The feeling of relaxation is achieved at high skill level
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 34 and low challenge level. Lastly, apathy is achieved at low challenge level and low skill level. There are other emotional states that exist at the crossroads of these extremes, but the focus of the mental status of player experiencing this game is to provide more than the now typical singular flow state (Chen, 2006).
(Fig. 7.1 - Csikszentmihalyi’s Emotional States, from
http://www.scottrodriguez.com/love/accepting-uncomfortable)
MOLOCH is not meant to reject flow – MOLOCH represents a proof of concept that other states of mental engagement can be as successful as, and are as important as flow. The game employs the player’s mental states to advance the narrative. The player is the character they are performing as, and much like reality, they are faced with variable challenges and fluctuating difficulty in levels. Unlike most games, the fail state is built into the progressive design and mechanics. The intention is to evolve player feelings as the game advances and their relationship with the puzzles, characters, and narratives change. Although flow can be used as an outlet for creative urges shaping directionality
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 35 and decision making in games, I believe that similar creative solutions can be achieved through alternative states.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 36
Production
The production of MOLOCH Zero derived in multiple phases: design, asset creation, installation, and additions. The core team consisted of my brother, James Earl Cox III and
I; we co-designed, co-wrote, and co-produced the game. Additionally, James coded the game. Peter Vilardi, an Ohio University graduate, narrated the game and assisted as the set musician for the game. Julie Buchannan, a freelance audio engineering in Los
Angeles, delivered additional sounds. Singularly, I directed and created the soundscape, created the art assets and visual style, directed talent, designed graphic materials, and designed the installation for the demo.
Design
The design phase of MOLOCH took place across a couple years, namely through examining crowd control and flow at the Tokyo Game Show and trying to attach that to a familiar game play style. However, for MOLOCH Zero we needed to find a way to demonstrate the design and tonality without overly investing time in superfluous asset creation. One of the major keys to demo creation was stripping down the full game idea and succinctly summarizing major components into an easily playable demonstration.
This strategic summarization ended with the creation of a four-level, roughly fifteen- minute game demo.
The designed levels introduce a player to major facets of the world of MOLOCH; intuition, problem solving, efficiency, and obedience. These pillars form the basis of the demo – each tenant is an individual level highlighting that design idea. The intuition level familiarizes players with the mechanics of the game, encouraging them to understand
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 37 how the game’s basic functions work within the parameters of the experience. The problem solving level introduces horizontal and vertical worker columns – foreshadowing puzzles in the following levels. The efficiency level confronts a player with the first bona fide puzzle, in which players must move two columns of horizontal workers and two columns of vertical workers – operating to avoid inclement collisions. It is impossible to complete this level without losing some workers via crashes. The final section, obedience, encourages players to march groups of workers through a fire trap, and then mandates players to do so repeatedly until a completion screen indicates that the job application program is over.
The game is presented as a communal desktop used for employee training and applicant assessment. This transmedia component encourages players to read through the files displayed on the desktop, these include a trashcan icon, an opened email detailing a tunnel collapse within the city, and an icon for the application assessment.
(Fig. 8.1 - MOLOCH Zero Desktop, 2017)
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 38
Asset Creation
The in-game user interface exists in two major parts, the desktop interface and the
MOLOCH Zero interface. The desktop was prepared to emulate a standard desktop, allowing players to move a mouse around to navigate the space. The MOLOCH Zero interface was designed with German Expressionism keenly in mind. Without the added feedback, the user interface was designed to seem as if it was planned by the people being told to make the simulation itself. Keeping the lines asymmetrical with sharp edges brings two elements to the table: it makes the simulation seem more like a game; and it makes it notably more dramatic, drawing players’ eyes to the center of the play space.
This final design was settled on after assessment of a considerable number of versions – determining the most sensible features in the space of a game within a game ended up being a much larger task to complete than I imagined at the outset.
(Fig. 8.1 & 8.2, Isolated User Interface and Imbedded User Interface)
Two-dimensional character design was initially based on the three-dimensional characters I designed for the full length MOLOCH. Distilling highly detailed models into low-resolution pixel art became a much larger process than I anticipated. I stripped the model down to its essential component parts, leaving the body a solid dark grey, with a
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 39 light grey collar. The animation necessary for completion of the demo was less than I anticipated at first: standing, walking, running, and falling for vertical and horizontal movement. Figuring out an appropriate frames-per-second rate and total frames necessary became the next hurdle. Each movement cycle animation was designed to contain twelve individual images that run between twelve and twenty-four frames-per-second while maintaining natural movement.
(Fig. 8.3 & 8.4 - Three-Dimensional Model, Two-Dimensional Walk Cycle)
The sound design of MOLOCH Zero was segmented into three phases: diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, voice over, and music. The first audio that was created for the game was the voice over work. I sourced Vilardi, experienced with professional voice work and presentation, to read for our bodiless assessor. His voice enhanced the game by projecting a level of seriousness. While it’s fun to work with accents or other character quirks, the part needed to be played as seriously and as informatively as possible to allow the utilitarian nature of the game to come through. In the game the voiceover audio is triggered as players complete levels, however; if players are unable to perform the tasks
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 40 the narrator will complete the survey for them – fitting with the theme that efficiency and obedience are key to working as a human traffic controller.
(Fig. 8.5 - MOLOCH Zero Script)
The game contains a significant number of diegetic sounds used to give players feedback on their actions. My inspiration behind the soundscape was an attempt to forge
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 41 sounds that gave the feedback many players would subconsciously be prepared for upon completing actions, but to make traditionally positive sounds – like reach a goal or milestone – hollow and empty. Even the walking sound was designed to impart an eerie quality through layers of processing, reverb, and echo – ultimately sounding like countless workers marching in an industrial labyrinth.
The music was inspired by late seventies and early eighties educational videos, using overdone guitar riffs that scream “this is educational” and “we are going to try to make this mundane material seem fun” to the audience. I was careful to avoid creating campy music in order to avoid channeling a worn-out, jacked-up so-happy-its-creepy tonality. The happy medium was to style something that was as genuine as possible. As music assets moved beyond a singular guitar piece during the orientation, it also was necessary to create a corporate jingle for the MOLOCH logo. For this sound, I worked to emulate a chord similar to the Windows 95 startup sound.
Sound typically ends up in a grey-zone for game design and creation – creators don't want to think about it until the last minute. However, sound design when done correctly should be built alongside the design document of the game. If it isn’t drawn out in the design document, it should at least be mentioned. Having a completed game with a full soundscape and score jacked into it doesn’t do either advocacy area justice.
Approaching sound design from the start facilitates tonality and expedites typical pacing issues through, literally, bringing a beat into the game.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 42
(Fig. 8.6 – MOLOCH Zero installation sponsored by Pepsi)
Installation
As a proof of concept, I designed and installed a large exhibit for MOLOCH Zero at the Ohio University Student Research and Creative Activity Expo. The process involved moving large objects and designing and printing appropriate signage. This process initiated with a stepwise procedure to organize an installation without access to the installation space itself. It began by sourcing local artifacts and objects deemed to fit thematically with the media being showcased. In this instance, I needed older pieces of electronic equipment befitting a utilitarian office space. I procured several attention grabbing artifacts at local thrift and antique stores, including a large art deco golden life- size wall hanging of a man, burgundy colored blankets, and an old speaker system. I sourced several abandoned pieces of equipment from the Radio Television Building’s
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 43 dumpsters, and used a monitor from a previous project.
With the main pieces of the installation planned, I needed to interpose the objects categorically. To this end, several smaller posters and one large identifiable poster were designed and printed. The poster elements coordinated with on screen text to drive home the mindless repetition of corporate slogans and the undercurrent of authoritarian demands.
The guts of the project consisted of a Toshiba laptop hidden behind the installation and the players controlled the game through a wireless keyboard and mouse. I opted for the wireless keyboard and mouse so that people approaching the space would be more comfortable interacting with certain parts of the installation over the more
“permanent” components.
Additions
Following the Ohio University Student Research and Creative Activity Expo, we decided to make changes based on player feedback – namely, more character variation, variable fire particles, and adding more content. The character variation started as five initial models, the heads were showcased when players selected worker units or hovered over fallen units. Following the expo, I developed forty unique faces – and we began to design a system that would swap facial components to facilitate significantly more variable character design system, this in addition to a name generator system we added helped to personalize the workers within the simulation. The humanization of the worker groups added additional impact to the decisions demanded of the players.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 44
(Fig. 8.7 – Individual Workers’ Faces)
A problem I noticed was how it functioned on un-optimized and older computers, however; one thing continued to be a problem: the fire particle system. The fire would generate too many particles and it would overwhelm how smoothly the game would run.
This bug was noticed the morning of the expo so the game parameters were quickly adjusted and re-exported to insure the build would run smoothly. A decision that had to be made was how much of the fire could be removed while still making sure players would understand that they were looking at fire. We eventually settled on two builds to accommodate system abilities.
We consulted multiple game designers, and media creators after the initial build was created for intimate feedback. The piece that stuck with me the most was a suggestion for adding a fill-out survey somewhere in the assessment. After discussion, we decided to put the survey in the middle of the game between the Problem Solving level and the Efficiency level. The survey demands seemingly innocuous answers to confusingly worded questions. These questions quickly change from testing attention and retention to probing questions about dedication. The goal of the in-game survey was to take players out of preparing for the puzzle solving mindset and to remind them that they are applying for a seemingly mundane job, complete with annoying survey. This
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 45 juxtaposition enables a harsher transition to the Efficiency level – in which they learn they cannot protect the workers from harm.
(Fig. 8.8 - Survey Voiceover Script)
A final element added to the game was aimed at bolstering the transmedia portion of the game; it is a ball and cup game that sits on the desktop. The objective of adding
Lucky Cup to the desktop was twofold: we wanted players to understand how different the survey is from a simple game, and we wanted players to be exposed to the undercurrent of fatalism that moves through MOLOCH Zero. The contrast between the
ASCII art cup game and the survey section of the game highlights how the pieces were seemingly created by different developers – it adds a layer of displeasure displaying the
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 46 discrepancies between the prescribed game and the assessment tool. Fatalism is an unwritten element throughout the game; the email document hints at it, the job assessment program displays it, but we wanted something that would introduce people to gamified fatalism. A ball and cup game seemed like the perfect solution, the game is based on nothing more than sheer luck; players are either going to win or they are going to lose – a sentiment that the survey rejects.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 47
Conclusions
MOLOCH represents an amalgamation of unique interest areas as a unified media construct. This thesis project addresses my diverse interests in media and storytelling through application of theories from classroom didactics and concepts of specialized tutorials from the past four years; to meaningfully incorporating observations and reflections; to functionally and practically produce media as a creative outlet.
MOLOCH’s design and MOLOCH Zero’s creation embody all of my undergraduate educational desires.
In the end, MOLOCH Zero won first place at the Ohio University Student
Research and Creative Activity Expo 2017. That same day I was finally happy with the build, but I knew more still needed to be done. The curse and blessing of working in creative fields is ability to tweak and adjust every last detail until satisfied that a project successfully fulfills one’s vision. I continued to work on the demo beyond the award- winning showing at the expo. My brother and I discerned that the game needed those last few touches to succeed.
Designing a game a year ago – that was made as an outlet for commenting satirically on crowd control at the Tokyo Game Show – through the lens of German
Expressionism seemed like a stretch at the time, but the closer the concept was to completion the more globally relevant and the more genuine the message of the game became. Although the commercial viability of this game is unknown in its early life, the reactions to the game were what I hoped for from the start. Players genuinely understood their role in the game and they consciously and unconsciously understood what
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 48 differentiated MOLOCH from other games. They were emotionally aware of the connotations of their digital actions.
The player and game community reactions gathered after demoing this prototype were invaluable to the process of creating something much larger. Producer interest in the concept continues to grow and we will embrace the appropriate opportunity to secure a proper publisher and the resources necessary to release the final version of MOLOCH.
This is the longest media endeavor we have engaged – dedicating time to designing, creating, and delivering a unique game experience. The depth of this project stands testament to foundational and precursory work efforts in our continual drive to provide novel experiences for media consumers.
MOLOCH: DEVELOPING A GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PUZZLE GAME 49
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