Formatting is a very important part of the experience in this game. The beginning sentence is “You're blind, don't tell them you can see.” and the "you can see" part is crossed out, which shows a sense of rejection, like the character is closing him/herself. This impression continues to strengthen in the beginning of the game, as the player is blind because of an accident. To give the player the impression of loneliness is crucial because it reflects the change which occurred later in the story.
Such skill in formatting is widely used in this game. When the player is deeply shocked, the "Who are they?!" becomes shaking and in red and yellow. Such formatting, along with all the images used, expresses the shock of the character, gives the player a sense of uncertainty and mystery of the story. In the end and twist of the story, the background changes from dark to bright, it also symbols the change of perception from the character. The character has accepted the reality. The sound effects and music also contributed to this emotional touch at the end of the game.
The mechanic of clicking in this game is probably the most subtle yet most important aspect of this game. It’s very easy to get lost in the soothing, calming introduction the game gives you, with sweet sounds and some more alarming ones like ambulance sirens. The visuals in this game grab the player’s attention far more effectively than the link does. Given all these different sensory aspects of the game, it’s not hard to overlook the clicking mechanic. But why does it work so well?
Amidst all of the sensory stimuli, the link to the next passage isn’t obvious right away. The player is incentivized to “sit and stay a while” (to use a turn-of-phrase) at each passage, and absorb everything that each passage has to offer. None of this would be possible if the mechanic of clicking wasn’t so hidden in the background; the impact that the game has on the player would be unfairly cut short. And when I say ‘hidden in the background,’ I don’t mean that the links were hard to find. They were mostly short words or phrases and certainly stuck out well enough once the player wanted to advance to the next passage. But the fact that the player doesn’t notice the passage link immediately upon opening a new page is what makes this game so enjoyable. The mechanic of clicking is really the last thing the player wants to do, making each passage stick out in the player’s mind and making the narrative as a whole a lot more impactful.
When I start the game, I was shocked by the sudden sound, which makes me think that it might tell a horror story. Especially, “don’t tell them you can see” makes me feel like the person is hiding from someone or something. The third passage is a state where the person tries to open his eyes, and the words have a flickering effect. This effect actually mimics the state that someone tries to open his eyes when they wake up and the picture in the background also helps to do the effect. Then the author explains why the person is blind, and it describes that the person feels unfair about why he is the only one that gets hurt and blind. This also clears out the horror feeling that I feel at the start of the game, since the story mentions more about his family, which is the closet group that the person belongs to.
Then the story is back to its main plot, as it describes that “dawn has finally arrived”. It has two meanings: the actual dawn has come, and the person is finally able to see the dawn, which makes his life brighter. He cannot wait to tell his mom and dad about the great news, but unusual behaviors stop him. His mom and dad are like robots, which has confirm buttons that they can click, and everything they do is like mechanical instructions that were assigned to them.
Then the picture on the wall reminds the person that his dad used to say that "I'm making something that will always be there for you." I then realized that the parents are actually fake and they are robots created by his parents, and he is the only one that survived in the car crash. And at the same time, the cruelness of the truth is not only hurting the person in the game, but also the player
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Prompt 3: Describe how the text is formatted.
Formatting is a very important part of the experience in this game. The beginning sentence is “You're blind, don't tell them you can see.” and the "you can see" part is crossed out, which shows a sense of rejection, like the character is closing him/herself. This impression continues to strengthen in the beginning of the game, as the player is blind because of an accident. To give the player the impression of loneliness is crucial because it reflects the change which occurred later in the story.
Such skill in formatting is widely used in this game. When the player is deeply shocked, the "Who are they?!" becomes shaking and in red and yellow. Such formatting, along with all the images used, expresses the shock of the character, gives the player a sense of uncertainty and mystery of the story. In the end and twist of the story, the background changes from dark to bright, it also symbols the change of perception from the character. The character has accepted the reality. The sound effects and music also contributed to this emotional touch at the end of the game.
Prompt 5: Describe the mechanic of clicking.
The mechanic of clicking in this game is probably the most subtle yet most important aspect of this game. It’s very easy to get lost in the soothing, calming introduction the game gives you, with sweet sounds and some more alarming ones like ambulance sirens. The visuals in this game grab the player’s attention far more effectively than the link does. Given all these different sensory aspects of the game, it’s not hard to overlook the clicking mechanic. But why does it work so well?
Amidst all of the sensory stimuli, the link to the next passage isn’t obvious right away. The player is incentivized to “sit and stay a while” (to use a turn-of-phrase) at each passage, and absorb everything that each passage has to offer. None of this would be possible if the mechanic of clicking wasn’t so hidden in the background; the impact that the game has on the player would be unfairly cut short. And when I say ‘hidden in the background,’ I don’t mean that the links were hard to find. They were mostly short words or phrases and certainly stuck out well enough once the player wanted to advance to the next passage. But the fact that the player doesn’t notice the passage link immediately upon opening a new page is what makes this game so enjoyable. The mechanic of clicking is really the last thing the player wants to do, making each passage stick out in the player’s mind and making the narrative as a whole a lot more impactful.
(WC: 257)
Prompt 1: Describe your process of reading.
When I start the game, I was shocked by the sudden sound, which makes me think that it might tell a horror story. Especially, “don’t tell them you can see” makes me feel like the person is hiding from someone or something. The third passage is a state where the person tries to open his eyes, and the words have a flickering effect. This effect actually mimics the state that someone tries to open his eyes when they wake up and the picture in the background also helps to do the effect. Then the author explains why the person is blind, and it describes that the person feels unfair about why he is the only one that gets hurt and blind. This also clears out the horror feeling that I feel at the start of the game, since the story mentions more about his family, which is the closet group that the person belongs to.
Then the story is back to its main plot, as it describes that “dawn has finally arrived”. It has two meanings: the actual dawn has come, and the person is finally able to see the dawn, which makes his life brighter. He cannot wait to tell his mom and dad about the great news, but unusual behaviors stop him. His mom and dad are like robots, which has confirm buttons that they can click, and everything they do is like mechanical instructions that were assigned to them.
Then the picture on the wall reminds the person that his dad used to say that "I'm making something that will always be there for you." I then realized that the parents are actually fake and they are robots created by his parents, and he is the only one that survived in the car crash. And at the same time, the cruelness of the truth is not only hurting the person in the game, but also the player