Radical Game Design

Radical Games: Let’s! Go! Shopping! Postmortem

In the game Let’s! Go! Shopping! I aim to create the experience of clothes shopping for a nonbinary person. The game begins with an invitation from a friend to come to a pizza party before the player sees that they…

Radical Games: Let’s! Go! Shopping!

For this independent study project, I wanted to make a game that focused on the relationship between clothes and gender. I eventually landed on the basis of what the game now is — a part-shopping simulator part-dress up game called…

Radical Games: Union Town! & Event as Narrative

How is your game story radical? My game is radical because it teaches the player about labor organizing and the power of solidarity. The player has the option to put their head down, not get to know their coworkers, and…

Radical Games: Gentrifica-Town Postmortem

What aspects of your game changed the most over the semester? The role of the player changed the most throughout the game. In fact, I would say that I’m still not really sure what the role of the player would…

Radical Games: Gentrifica-Town & Event As Narrative

How is your game story radical? My game puts the player into the shoes of a recent college graduate, who got a job in the city, who’s looking for an apartment in a gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. As the player…

Radical Games: Make or Break the Box Postmortem

My game is based on the radical culture of the Sarah Lawrence College campus community. It is a whimsical critique on how many students pressure each other to over commit themselves and pursue social justice even at the expense of…

Radical Games: Down and Out & Event as Narrative

My game story is radical in that even though the protagonist of my game has amnesia recovering her memories isn’t her primary goal. Her primary goal is to find a stranger whose ID she found in the swamp. This stranger…

Radical Games: Union Town! Post-Mortem

  What aspects of your game changed the most over the semester? Originally, I had planned my game in a way that wasn’t really radical–it didn’t give the player the opportunity to choose their path. At first, it was just…

Radical Games: House H(a)unter Postmortem

My game is about two ghost hunter twins, Becca and Casper Radley, who attempt to convince a wealthy couple that their mansion is haunted so that the couple will be forced to sell it at a price the hunters can…

Radical Games: City Watch Postmortem

  My game is about a young adult, Lena, who starts off working in the City Watch, but later decides her path in life.  The City Watch is an organization in this city that protects people and prevents crime.  Their…

Radical Games: Wild Tale

Wild Tale is a game that takes place on the movie set of an old west movie. The player controls a traveling cowboy who is looking for a place to settle down. The player will need to make choices that…

Radical Games: A Knight’s Quest

Trying to make this game was a learning experience to be sure. Going in, I had a very tenuous grasp of code from a crash course I’d taken before deciding not to join the robotics club, a semester of general…

Radical Games: Event as Narrative in ‘A Knight’s Quest’

A Knight’s Quest’s story is based around complicating the usual heroic narrative of an RPG. The hero arrives in a strange world and is given a sword and a goal: save the church from the evil king. In order to do…

Radical Games: A Knight’s Quest

My Game, A Knight’s Quest, is not actually about a knight. Instead, it is about a young man, pictured above, who wants to be a knight, and finds himself thrust into a situation which demands him to do so. One…

Radical Games: Event as Narrative in City Watch

Screen shot from the Town scene My game is radical because of the way the story progresses.  The player has a few options to progress forward in the game.  They can either side with the thieves or they can side…

Radical Games: Down and Out Postmortem

My game tentatively titled “Down and Out” is about a human woman named Kaira who lives in post-apocalyptic Florida and has amnesia. She is trying to regain her memories and help the friends she makes along the way. Down and…

Radical Games: Event as Narrative in House H(a)unter

The radical element in my story is in the link between emotional burden and literal danger. All humans have skeletons in their closets, but in the town of Tawny Mill the things that haunt them might at any moment literally…

Radical Games: Event as Narrative in Wild Tale

Immersion is an important element in the enjoyment of the game. My radical game attempts to break the immersion of its world without breaking the connection to the game. Deconstructing a medium comes with the risk of damaging the suspension…

Radical Games: City Watch

  Screenshot from Unity build My game, City Watch, is about a girl named Lena who starts as part of the City Watch.  The City Watch is the faction of the city that houses the knights who protect and watch over…

Radical Games: Neighborhood Simulator

What’s the game about? Gentrification is about a player moving to a transitioning neighborhood. They just graduated from college with some student loans to pay off and they got a job in the city. Now they’re moving to an affordable…