for a magazine article on video game design i'm writing about, i've been rethinking principles ever since i started making games proper. titles like *He Fucked the Girl Out of Me* changed how i see video games forever.
and i think if i ever had to write a Manifesto, it would be about making "sick games". there aren't that many games about people who are ill or sick. instead, we get games that hide the pain and trauma for happy times.
i once saw a defender of the Wholesome Game movements calling critics and detractors "sick people" and it really stuck with me since. because yeah, i am a sick person ever since i learned i was a minority in a racist country and contracted covid.
i enjoy games with friction because it reminded me of how uncertain life was. to use a crude analogy, a healthy person can suddenly be ill the same way i get ambushed in *Nioh 1*. overcoming this stress is rewarding to me.
@kastelpls 'wholesome games' as a thing has never sat well with me since it feels more like it was just about putting a happy coat of paint on everything, like a mcdonalds of videogames. purely overly produced junk food.
(particularly, i would be hard-pressed to consider games with a heavy focus on 'sociopathically manipulating people to like you' to be wholesome, either, but apparently that's just fine if it's All Smiles at the end of the day.)
games can grapple with a whole lot of emotions, and i feel like we see this strongly in independent movements.
Kastel
mauve