Max Dowling

Perspective as a Postmodern Game

Created By: DigiPen

Laura Borgen - Artist Pohung Chen - Producer, Programmer Logan Fieth - Level Designer Ariel Gitomer - Artist Jason Meisel - Design Lead, Gameplay Programmer Edward Peters - Artist M.J. Quigley - Music Composer Sean Reilly - Tools Programmer

Perspective is an experimental first person perception puzzle game. It was created by, Laura Borgen, Pohung Chen, Logan Fieth, Ariel Gitomer, Jason Meisel, Edward Peters, MJ Quigley and Sean Reilly also known as DigiPen. Perspective was put together by some of the most competent, hardworking, and passionate game creation students.

Released: 12:00AM 12.12.12

The game starts off by mimicking an old-school Mario style level with 3 lives represented by 3 miniature characters in the top right corner and a score counter. This is all in order to teach the player the basic controls (W, A, S, D and Space to jump). These controls appear on the screen as the level starts speaking directly to the audience which breaks the fourth wall, and invites the audience in to the game and to take a more prominent role in gameplay. When the portal is reached the level ends and level 2 appears, in the same fashion as the first, but halfway through the perspective changes along with the entire style; the lives vanish as does the score and the image becomes more crisp to show that this game has progressed to the next level up from a typical Mario style game. With this change the many diagonal lines appeared to move to form one straight line, this is the basis of the entirety of the game, changing the 3D perspective so that the newly created 2D level can be completed. This is postmodern as it the essentially becomes multiple games within each other to get through every 2D part and to move the perspective before returning to the 2D perspective. Furthermore, being able to change the perspective raises the issue of who you are in the game. Is this a puzzle game as it states or is it a First-Person Shooter style game? The postmodern view would be that the game is both and that it has formed an entirely new sub-genre of game rather than squeezing it into one of these categories that do not fully explain and do the game justice for what it is. The game concept was initially thought up and design had started and in order to gain support for the distant launch of the game the creators founded a Facebook page detailing what the page was about and who they were. This is postmodern as it provides a backstory to the game and its origins to anybody who visited the page. Step by step updates were made about the progression in development of Perspective including screen shots which acted as a teaser trailer does for a film, this meant that people got a small sneak peek at the
Word Count: 881

Max Dowling

game. Upon release the page had 2500+ followers and all matters of gamers recorded playthrough footage with their own commentary and opinions on the game letting viewers know where to download it etc. This word of mouth advertisement is not only proven to be the most effective but is also absolutely free. This is postmodern advertising as it spreads from person to person wirelessly like a disease until everybody knows about it. Upon completion of the first level The Cube the player and character are transported out of the game and appear in what we assume to be the first Chapter: The Arcade. Many other levels are contained within The Arcade and must be completed in order to open a door to the next room in The Arcade. When all the levels in The Arcade are completed the player and character are once again transported out and can be seen standing on a game console labelled The Arcade and more machines illuminate around it within a dark area named The Arena. This is postmodern as the game toys with the concept of multilayer gameplay, dipping its layers in mathematical loops and philosophical recurrences, confusing the audience and also drawing them in to this thick and complex storyline placed on a game which at the start mimicked Mario. Towards the end the player and character both return to The Arcade but time has passed and all the machines appear broken and all the names such as Compression Artefact have now become jumbled and messed up as if there was a virus in the system. This juxtaposition causes the audience to feel empathetic with the character as they feel like theyre there with him being the perspective (Camera Angle) in order for him to get to the end so they can both win. The relationship build-up between player and character is astounding for a puzzle game. Even more postmodern still, upon quitting the game it takes a print screen of your desktop and overlays an image of the character and it comes crashing down. The fourth wall is then broken even more as the player themselves as the perspective appears to have to reach the portal at the end, surrounded by nothing but the names of the creators. As the portal draws nearer and nearer the screen fades to white for the final time.

Word Count: 881

Max Dowling

Word Count: 881