262 Robin Hunicke Taking Photographs, and Woodworking, and She
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262 Robin Hunicke and meaning. Suddenly the seed sprouted— branches reaching to touch almost everything I was interested in!” At the university, as Hunicke explained to Kevin Kelly for G4 (Sep. 25, 2011, online), her work “was essentially in narrative and storytelling and the ways in which humans share information.” Her thesis for her bachelor’s degree was a computer program designed to tell a story that changed as it was read. While work- ing on her thesis, she began to spend time at the university’s AI laboratory and to read books related to that subject, including Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding: An Inquiry into Hu- man Knowledge Structures (1977) by Roger C. Schank and Robert P. Abelson, and she was “hooked,” as she told Hong-Porretta. She added that her “heroes” tend to be artists or design- ers, mentioning in particular game designers Will Wright and Keita Takahashi, musicians Jeb Bishop and Aphex Twin, comic-book creator Chris Ware, and sculptor Lee Bontecou, whose work she says “transformed my sight, hearing, and playing. I admire their ability to commu- nicate through design—which I aspire to do as well.” WireImage Hunicke told Kevin Kelly that when she enrolled in a graduate program at Northwest- ern University in Chicago, she “thought about taking photographs, and woodworking, and she whether machines could express thoughts and dreamed of being an artist. At the same time, she feelings.” At an AI conference during those had an aptitude for math and science and an af- years, she met Will Wright, who told her that finity for activities that required logic and tech- with her skills and interests, she should consider nical skill, such as her brother’s video games. working in game design. “That really was what Hunicke “was branded as ‘gifted’ and given a lot I wanted to do, I just didn’t know it,” she said of opportunities,” Liz Lawley wrote for the blog to Kelly, recalling, “Back then, there weren’t any Mamamusings (July 29, 2005). “But the opportu- schools for gaming, there weren’t programs.” nities were in a creative and expressive context, not in the context of procedural learning. Never GAMING CAREER DEBUT tied to programming or math or problem-solv- At Maxis, the company Wright had cofounded ing.” For that reason, Lawley wrote, Hunicke’s with Jeff Braun and sold to the Redwood City, “overall enthusiasm for school waned” during California–based EA in 1997, Wright had de- her junior high and high school years. signed The Sims, a game in which players create A bright spot during that period came during and direct the lives of virtual people. The play- the summer when she was sixteen. Her parents ers decide on their characters’ appearances and sent her to Cambridge University in England character traits, choose their careers and homes, to participate in an art-related program. While and make them interact and form relationships there, she saw work by the English poet and art- with others; the characters’ daily needs are the ist William Blake (1757–1827), who had created responsibility of the players, who must see to it illustrations to accompany his own poems. Hu- that, for example, the Sims have regular meals nicke took photos of the illustrations and then and use the bathroom. The characters speak a used a computer to alter the images. “This plant- language called Simlish. ed a tiny seed,” she told Souris Hong-Porretta in Sims 2 debuted in 2004. The following year an interview for the Hustler of Culture blog (Oct. Hunicke, who told Hong-Porretta that she has 31, 2004, online), “the idea that I could use ma- “had a few jobs here and there” as a “waitress, chines to communicate or create new things— shopgirl, teacher, freelance web monkey, writer, combine efforts, as Blake had done.” photographer,” joined Maxis and helped design Hunicke enrolled at the University of Chi- additional versions of The Sims. She designed cago, where she took a course titled Computer objects that appeared in Sims 2: Open for Busi- Programming as a Liberal Art. The class, she ness, which went on sale in March 2006. While recalled to Hong-Porretta, covered “program- Sims characters had jobs in the earlier versions ming, architecture, poetry, philosophy . all the of the game, they were never seen at work; this ways that our daily lives are rich with structure changed in Open for Business, which allows Robin Hunicke 263 players to have their characters sell merchandise Thatgamecompany (TGC), who suggested that or offer services by setting up beauty salons or Hunicke join their game-developing business. restaurants, for example. Players are also respon- There, Hunicke began work on Journey. She told sible for characters’ skills, which will determine Conklin, “I saw [Journey] and knew it was the the success of failure of the enterprises; posi- next game for me—it’s a game where you go over tive interactions with customers are crucial, and a mountain.” businesses run more smoothly when characters With the online Journey, Hunicke and her fire lazy employees. The player can measure cus- associates at the dozen-member TGC sought to tomer satisfaction, and the success of a business, create a playing experience different from that by the number of stars the business receives. In found in other games. An oft-discussed aspect Open for Business, characters can operate their of Hunicke’s approach to game design is that she businesses while keeping other jobs. begins with an emotion she wants to evoke, then After working on Open for Business, Hunicke creates a game with that emotion in mind. Jour- “was very hungry to do design,” as she told Aar- ney de-emphasizes structure in order to facilitate on R. Conklin for the website Get in Media. “I a feeling of collaboration between players, who wanted to do original design, not just work on may not know each other. The game is set in a objects for a system that had already been de- desert, with one character seeking others. Hu- signed.” Accordingly, she was made the lead de- nicke explained to Keith Stuart for the London signer for MySims, which debuted in 2008. The Guardian (Dec. 6, 2011, online), “The narrative setting of that game is not suburbia but rather a of Journey is about what you do in it.” She added, fantasy world that has gone awry. The premise “If you want to follow someone you may, if you is that that world’s builders have left, followed want to lead, you can lead. These things create by most of its other citizens; the character the the narrative of your own journey. That’s what we player creates is a builder who must restore a wanted—we wanted to leave it up to the player, place to which others will return. Discussing the individual.” the process of designing MySims, Hunicke told In addition to her work for TGC, Hunicke Conklin, “I’ll be totally honest—I was not ready participates in the annual Game Developers for that job. I thought I was, and I wasn’t. And Conference, where she has helped organize it was probably the lowest point of my career. such events as the Game Design Workshop . The structure wasn’t in place at EA to take a and the Experimental Gameplay sessions, and grad student with good ideas and turn her into a speaks at game festivals all over the world. She strong, confident leader. The one thing I’m really also helped establish the education committee proud of is that the core mechanic of building of the ten-thousand-plus-member International things and giving them away stayed through the Game Developers Association; the committee’s entire game. I still think that’s great.” curriculum guide has been used around the The year 2008 also saw the release of Boom world to teach game development. Blox, a game Hunicke designed for EA, based on an idea by filmmaker Steven Spielberg. “I re- PERSONAL LIFE ally wanted to create a video game that I could Hunicke writes a blog, Gewgaw, on the North- play with my kids,” the filmmaker said, as quoted western University website. Her posts have ad- by Aaron Thomas for GameSpot (May 7, 2008, dressed topics beyond games. In her entry for online). The game contains more than three June 9, 2010, for example, she wrote, “Because hundred puzzles that involve very high towers of of my work on games for children and families, blocks; through various methods, players try to I became very interested in climbing childhood extract blocks without having the towers come obesity rates.” She went on to say that she was crashing down. As the game progresses, players “thrilled” to take part in First Lady Michelle move through many levels, earning scores that Obama’s campaign, Let’s Move, which according bring gold, silver, or bronze medals. to its website is “dedicated to solving the chal- lenge of childhood obesity within a generation.” A TURNING POINT Specifically, Hunicke reviewed apps for the cam- After working on MySims, Boom Blox, and Boom paign’s program Apps for Healthy Kids, which Blox Bash Party, Hunicke took a vacation in the awarded prizes to those who created “innovative, Himalayan nation of Bhutan, where she climbed fun and engaging software tools and games that a sixteen-thousand-foot mountain. It “was pretty encourage children . to make more nutritious insane,” she told Conklin. “I trained hard, but food choices and be more physically active.” In I wasn’t ready. When I got over the mountain another post (Apr.