Original Games set out to create a game that reflects on this with a caricature of the human condition.  In the dark days of the Covid19 global pandemic we hope that the retro style of Pandemic Duck inflicts wonderful nostalgia of your youth, staring at the warm glow of your CRT television.

The object is to make it across the game board and collect supplies while avoiding viruses.  Each move you make decreases your supplies, and if you are hit by a virus your supplies decrease as well.  When you successfully make it to the Pond you progress one day, as each day passes you also lose supplies.  The object of the game is to survive as many days as possible.  Once you have run out of supplies the game is over.

The main idea was to take a premade game and reskin it to make it topical.  I found a tutorial series on Unity Learn that was based around a rogue life survival game.  Although the gameplay was perfect, I felt I could take the art and design even further.  Over a weekend of development I completely reskinned the game with new character animations and backgrounds. This was when I had the realization that I could save time reusing or purchasing code to customize.  I will write more on this concept during my write up for the prototype Tap-Tap-Duck.  I have to stress that using or purchasing code does not mean I did not understand the code.  I rigorously went through the code line by line deciphering it so that I can better understand how the game worked.  To reskin a game you need in depth knowledge of how the game is put together.  In my attempt at reskinning the game that would be Pandemic Duck, I altered the code substantially, and completely broke it.  This might seem like a failure but what I’ve learned about procedural level generation is invaluable.

This initial rapid ideation and development of a game opened another important aspect of my thesis.  It marked the point where my game development became more of a social or political voice rather than an exercise in developing game mechanics or working with a new art style.  Although I feel I began to do this during my development of Crypto Duck I never consciously realized the amount of influence a properly directed game can have.  I cannot completely take credit for this development of my work.  My mentor during the learning module saw these themes emerging in my work and recommended the book Persuasive Games by Ian Bogost.

I began researching the work of Ian Bogost through his website, and soon after, I purchased his book.  His first influence was a CRT filter I applied to Pandemic Duck.  I was inspired by his game “A Television Simulator”[1].  This project was put together by five capstone students at Georgia Tech in 2009 and focused on recreating the look of a retro CRT monitor. Sure enough Unity had a plugin for this effect and I had to add it to the project for one reason: it triggered the nostalgia of the CRT TV where I played my first video game.  My hope that this sense of nostalgia will captivate other players when I release this game.

As I researched further into the work of Ian Bogost I found his writing on rhetoric really interesting. He argues that procedural rhetoric is just as or more viable than written for spoken rhetoric.  What is procedural rhetoric?  Well it is rhetoric.

”The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” Dictionary.com [2]

Procedural rhetoric is achieved through procedural methods, for instance computer code. A strong example that he gives is:

“The McDonald’s video game mounts a procedural rhetoric about the necessity of corruption in the global fast food business, and the overwhelming temptation of greed, which leads to more corruption.  In order to succeed in the long term the player must use growth hormones..recycle animal parts and cover up health risks”  -Bogost pg31 [3]

The McDonald’s video game takes the player through a series of tasks.  The tasks as a whole become a procedure and this procedural rhetoric aims to prove to the player that the global fast food business is very corrupted.  This type of procedural rhetoric somewhat relates to my game Pandemic Duck, in a more satirical way.  The player navigates the board avoiding the virus or, in other words, social distancing.  There is no way to destroy the virus, only avoid and survive.  Collecting supplies is risky but the only way to ensure you will make it to late game.  There is no ending, just surviving as long as you can.  This procedural representation of survival is a topical take on the world events during this global pandemic.

After making the game, I learned that Pandemic Duck is not the only game representing the world crisis.  According to the LA Times (Oct 20,2020) there are plenty of other games that outline what it is like to live in 2020.  One example is the game “Can You Save the World?”

 “Psychologist Prof Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, said he had been out for a walk during lockdown and thought social distancing ‘felt like a computer game’ as he was ‘having to avoid joggers and cyclists etc.'” bbc.com (May 12,2020) [4]

Wiseman is the co-designer of “Can You Save the World?”  The game was designed to teach children safety tips to follow during the pandemic.  Mind you, adults enjoy this game as much as the little ones.  It is a successful project with about 10,000 plays within its first two days of being published and according to TrendHunter.com:

“Increasing engagement and capitalizing off of buzz, games focused around pop culture phenomena like politics or Internet memes are taking off.” [5]

I hope that in some way the game play and imagery of my game help the players through this dark age of 2020.

“Don’t let the first few levels fool you!  Just like the real pandemic, the virus numbers rise and social distancing becomes more of a challenge!  Not to mention supplies becoming scarce.  See you at the pond =o”

“So old school, so awesome!”

“This would be a great multiplayer game!  If online, you’ll have to social distance from the other player but if playing LAN (because same house), there is no social distance required =p  On a serious note, I think teamwork would make the later levels passable.  Throw your friend in as bait for the viruses as you run for the pond ;)”

“Other than just canned foods and toilet paper, maybe the ducko can pick up masks and sanitizer too!  Those can act as a buffer shield should the ducky come in contact with the virus ya? :O”

Citations:

[1] A Television Simulator. (n.d.). Bogost.Com. http://bogost.com/games/a_television_simulator/

[2] Definition of rhetoric | Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Www.Dictionary.Com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/rhetoric

[3] Bogost, I. (2010). Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (The MIT Press). The MIT Press.

[4] BBC News. (2020, May 12). Coronavirus: Lockdown walk inspired social distancing game. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52616222

[5] TREND HUNTER Inc. (n.d.). Topical Gaming – Games targeted toward adults take on topical, of-the-moment themes. https://www.trendhunter.com/protrends/topical-gaming