The only way
to win is
not to play!

RAT RACE PROCESSFOLIO

“a way of life in modern society, in which people compete with each other for power and money”

“an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit (...) The term is commonly associated with an exhausting, repetitive lifestyle that leaves no time for relaxation or enjoyment.”

“A looping, tiring game that no one can win.”

How can I find inner peace within
a digital medium?

The world feels too busy.

Photoshop, Blender

Manipulations in Photoshop to show what over- and under-stimulation felt like to me.

I soon realized that ‘the world feels too busy’ because
there is an overwhelming amount of stimuli.
First, I explored external stimuli and made plans for a ‘stimuli slider’ in which one could adjust their own environment’s stimuli.
I started with recreating my own ‘office’/the showable and work-part of my bedroom in Blender.
After constructing this, I start to manipulate several aspects within this ‘space’. The GIFs you see below are the first experiments in my search for what overstimulation and under-stimulation looks like.

Recreating my own ‘office’ in Blender

My room in 3D

Overstimulation manipulation

Understimulation manipulation

Distortion manipulation

Color manipulation

How can I find inner peace within
a digital medium?

My head feels too busy.

Blender

Internal stimuli can be divided into four categories: ideas, tasks, emotions, physical stimuli

Around December, I realized that I had mainly been focusing on external stimuli. At that point, I was reading several books. One was Mark Tigchelaar and Oscar de Bos’ Focus On/Off. He underlined that often we blame external stimuli as our main ‘distractors’, while usually it’s internal stimuli that go running with our attention. At least, that was the case for me. Above you can see a small demonstration of thoughts ‘popping up’ in your head.
Another book I read was Ruby Wax’ Frazzled. This author explores the brain and the (positive) influence mindfulness can have on your brain and concentration. Many mindfulness or meditation practices have breathing exercises. This is because it connects the mind and the body. You learn to concentrate on the presence, on your body essentially.
Why am I writing all of this? Because this part of my research influences the first stadia of my game (see the storyboard, The Game). In these stadia, I wanted to combine both internal and external stimuli. This game would first overwhelm the player, then under-stimulate the player and then guide them to a ‘healthy state of stimuli’. Similarly, it would first distract the player, then leave the player wanting to be distracted and help them focus on themselves and the present.

What would the Rat Race look like if it was a game?

I wanted to explore this concept in a game.

Aseprite, Blender, Phaser.js, Photoshop

The storyboard for the first version of the game

The first rat race game, made on the platform Puzzlescript

I was inspired by the game Playne. In this mindfulness game, the player meets a companion in the shape of a fox and this animal helps the player find new ways to approach healthy living. Another game that greatly inspired me was The Stanley Parable in which the aspect of ‘winning’ is questioned. It also confuses the heck out of the player.
All things I wanted to include in my game.

Run animation made in Aseprite

Whilst looking for visual inspiration, I stumbled upon this undoubtedly very overstimulating rat cage. This set the tone for the game. I made a color scheme and started on my first designs for the rat and subsequently the cheese it would chase. I tore away from the race court and cars I had in mind and started working more towards a ‘cage-y’ vibe.
The aspect of ‘climbing up’ in a cage or set canvas also felt very rat-race-like.
Teachers and classmates told me about the Black Mirror episode Nosedive. In Nosedive, something very interesting happens sound-wise. A sound that was once rewarding, was shaped into a song that played in the background of while the main character had her biggest downfall. A positive sound became negative. I decided to play with this as well, when I was designing my own ‘soundtrack’ for the game.

My main inspiration for the game

The process of making the 'busy' level cheese

I watched the movie Koyaanisqati. The title is a word from the Hopi language and means, among other things, ‘crazy life’, ‘a state of life that calls for another way of living’. The busy colors and distressing soundtrack greatly inspired my collages and their bright colors and soundtrack
Just like Koyaanisqati, calls the rat race and my game for ‘another way of living’ or gaming. When you are stuck in an actual rat race or in my game, usually all you see is the end goal, even though it is (often) unachievable. I consider quitting this lifestyle — and consequently the game — 'really winning', because in a sense you ‘escaped’ this exhausting and repetitive life.
Players know what to expect in games because of game tropes. My goal for this game is making the player suffer and experience one hell of a game/rat race. Thus, I decided to take many of these game tropes out and do the exact opposite.
Throughout my year, I did research on stimuli and how it (negatively) affects us. I use only two states of stimulation: over- and understimulation. These states are often experienced negatively.

All this is explained in detail in the video below,
where I go through the game and its design.

From Bunny Jump to Rat Race

Background designs

Game cover designs

Processfolio inspirations

How stimuli, Game Design and the Concept Rat Race shaped my game

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