such a heavenly way: an emotive storygame

March 12th, 2009

I was hanging out with a cute girl the other day, and of course my thoughts turned to the Smiths and similar bands.

The Smiths – There is a Light
The Smiths – This Charming Man
The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
(and you could certainly build an alternate playlist, centered around modern emo)

Just work with me here:

I’m imagining a game about a week in the lives of sensitive boys and brooding girls and saving up for a record and what they believe in. A game without capital-D-drama, but rather about the smaller currents and waves of their lives: small drama. Total non-resolution mechanics, all the time. Sessions are linked to albums, paced out like song tracks, and when something is important to the characters that flags that it just won’t be resolved right now. Perhaps the flow of the game will be about moving an action-vs-inaction inflection point, rather than a choice-vs-choice point. I want lots of breathing room in the game, time to evoke and listen.

I don’t want irony; I do want sincerity, and there certainly must be humor. (The humor can’t be the mocking of an outsider. Rather, it has to come from a place of empathy, and understanding that amidst petty drama, it’s all still random and still funny.) I wouldn’t be interested in aiming for deep emo-hardcore-play; I’d rather focus on generating interesting fiction, the kind you’d read in an indie graphic novel. (Perhaps that’s another day: structure this as filling in an indie comic zine through pay.)

Hey emokids: thoughts?

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