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.
there are too many games about healthy people who lead happy lives and this is, i think, the main issue of movements like cottagecore and wholesome games.
end of the day: no one cares about some leftist tripe about capitalism and colonialism. however, it is this avoidance of friction that means the engagement has to be vapid. ZUN (*Touhou*) joked about how gacha gameplay fazed him because all you do is roll to win. there's no skill involved.
this sucks and it isn't my life anyway.
@kastelpls This is something we tried to think about with Cozy Grove. What if the stories were about real people who had lives adult lives?
I kept thinking "Wait! Cozy doesn't have to be saccharine." It can be a space to be authentic and process things that are not always pleasant.
Kastel
Daniel Cook