Beadwork - Big Kahuna

Recently, I’ve been considering digital culture in my works, specifically, the proliferation of micro-religions. I have always found online tarot readings interesting as, in my opinion, it is untruthful. These women go online and spout optimistic nonsense about how “this specific reading is meant for you,” and “your crush is thinking of you RIGHT NOW.” This, then, leads to their monetary gain from the young masses. I always wonder if they believe in what they are saying or knowingly making things up. On the other hand, I am a spiritual person, I believe in the value of coincidences. Tarot can be viewed in the sense that all things can -- the message comes together to weave the story of your life. There’s some credence to that, and I employed that in the end credits of my game. 

I started with the concept of a lying tarot reader, then remembered the story of my mother’s trip to Woodstock ‘99. My story is largely based in truth: she made a make-shift tarot stand and got quite popular, selling readings for 20$. Let’s be fair to my mother, she swears she was actually reading people’s fortunes, and I aught to believe her. One day, as she recounts, a woman walked up to my her tent, claiming she saw her in a dream. She even knew my mom’s name. My mother simply could not do it. Her throat felt tight, and she blanked. The woman later revealed herself to be a witch with a protection spell on her.

Drawing inspiration from these two sources, I wanted to write a story about feminism and sisterhood. The idea that women are often overlooked, or considered naive, ties in well with a deceptive female character who can challenge said biases. The festival of Woodstock was notoriously stricken with sexual violence. I supported my theme with strong character building and posing a plot in which the player will the same conundrum a woman may (on a lesser scale): that of intangible marginalization. I am arguing for the liberation of woman and downfall of “men’s clubs”. 

With Greg Costikyan’s definition of game in mind, I created player struggle through shorthand puzzles and moral conundrums. There was an overarching goal of reuniting with Delu, but a secondary goal that the player had to determined for themself: if it was worth letting the festival catch fire or not, and how that tied into female marginalization. I created, as Costikyan defines, pathways that the player can to reach their goal. 

Initially, I had set out creating a map-based structure, but spent more time on programming than writing, so decided to pivot to a combination of keynodes and map-based. I was inspired largely by With Those we Love Alive, and was shocked people found it boring in class. I love the feeling of getting lost in games and the puzzle aspect of an open world adventure. Now, I have key nodes at the start and end of my story, but a short sudo map-based section in the middle. I am in love with the unorthodox structure my story turned out to be. 

After playtesting, I was told it was boring, or perhaps a bit long. Players were ignoring sections of writing. I decided to frontload information and make the latter half of the game more quick-paced and action based.  Nat Mesnard emphasized taking what you deem necessary, as a writer, from your playtests. I enacted this by deciding not to take some feedback on potential avenues the game could go, mostly for technical reasons.