TOOBIGtofail Game Development Proposal
OK, so, this will be my first post on the new development blog for TooBIG ToFail! Wooo!
The PREMISE:
OK, you know how there are certain people that get SO famous, nothing they do will push them out of the public eye and into obscurity? Well, that formed the foundations for my game! Fun right? If that sounds interesting let me expand on it a bit below. Otherwise please feel free to keep scrolling.
The player takes the place of a famous social media personality and has millions of followers on their platform of choice. Unfortunately, before the game starts, your character has started receiving death threats and stalkers and all manner of bad events that have lead to the decision that it is time to reel it back a bit.
I'm thinking of focusing in on YouTube as the platform on which the main character (MC) gained their following so as to narrow the types of events to be dealt with. This also results in the main character needing to still maintain a revenue. If this were not the case, there'd be no game as the story would end with 'I quit' every time.
USER INTERFACE:
The User Interface (UI) for the game is still under development. Our plan is to use a simulated phone screen similar to the main UI for the game Simulacra, pictured below:
For now, such an involved Homescreen would be beyond our needs but there may be expansions to the game that will be discussed below that could fill such a UI.
The game will feature Apps that represent who the main character feels they are both socially and digitally. The concept relates back to an article by Rettburg, in which she discusses the idea of self-expression becoming self-representation (13).
Viewers would see the MC as a content creator (self-representation) while the MC sees them self as this and just someone voicing their opinion (self-expression). This is important for game-play reasons below.
As such, 3 main apps will be important for the player.
- A personal expression app (similar to Tumblr or Facebook)
- The faux-YouTube app where the game decisions/consequences will be explained/explored
- A banking app talking about the MC's current financial status
- The social app forms a web-comic, using the Tumblr UI as a base for placing the panels and using the comment features of these "posts" as a way to gauge the public reactions to the videos you upload while also showing their effect on MC based on the amount/type or time between posts/comments. (Goodbry 186)
- The YouTube app will be based on the standard YouTube upload page
- The banking app will be a financial tracker app based on DollarBird and will represent the MCs "quantitative self-representation" (Rettburg 9). With the expenses being a tracker of how much financial pressure the character is under or how many views the MC is getting
GAMEPLAY:
Ultimately, the goal of the game will be to lose enough followers that the MC has less trouble with followers/fans who go too far but not so many that they lose too much of their income. By watching the blogs in the Facebook/Tumblr app as described above, the player will be able to see how the MC feels about their levels of self-expression and also judge the public's reaction to it. Rettburg explained this well:
Based on the posts by the MC or the comments provided by their fan base, the player will be able to choose whether they need to upload something that the MC would want to post (indicated by the MC posting about feeling unable to express themselves) or how the fan base received the video (good comments, bad comments, subscribers or unsubscribers).Social media is about communication with others, but we shouldbe equally aware of how we use social media to reflect upon ourselves.(12)
As implied above, based on the videos the player chooses to have the MC upload, different events will occur which may affect the MCs Happiness or Livelihood. Happiness being their feeling of self-expression/representation and Livelihood being their quantitative self-expression (how are they doing financially, are they safe, etc.).
MECHANICS:
The actual uploading of videos and their success or failure will be the more difficult portion to design and this will be where the bulk of the development time will be spent.
To measure the success of a video, one must first consider the spreadability or virality of the video content. Then whether the MCs fan base likes or dislikes specific video types. Finally, I also want to include a component of how the MC feels about the video, as obviously, should the creator not want to create the video, it will more likely be a bad video.
The video options will be based on real-life topics. Specifically, the MC was a vlogger with travel videos, unboxings and discussion vlogs. The fan base is interested in all of these things. With that in mind, please take a moment to watch this video by GameTheory:
As discussed here, becoming popular on YouTube depends on multiple factors and I would like to include many of them. The game will assume the MC is already popular so in this case, uploading videos that do not follow the usual pattern will effect the MCs popularity. Ideally, they will result in not too many people disliking the video or not too many new viewers deciding to subscribe based on he new content. The player is hoping for "peer to peer" spreadability (Chess 20)
However, choose actions that are too big and your channel may loose ALL of its support from its fan base, be demonetized (resulting in game over) or encourage a fan to become a stalker or harass the MC (potentially leading to various other game overs). That said, the content may also serve to increase the videos popularity by going viral as was the case discussed here:
In this case, the MC may get a surge of new viewers and subscribers, which would make them more financially stable but possibly less happy.
This may not always be the case but the element of chance would make these types of options gambles for the player and make the game more interesting.
FUTURE GOALS:
So here's where help would be appreciated. I'm not sure how to measure the effects some actions would have on the popularity of decisions or even what kinds of decisions I would include in the game. I'll be basing a lot of the ideas for actual actions on things that highly famous YouTubers have done that have either broken their channels or had very little effect on (sometimes even boosting) their popularity.
For example, Pewdiepie and his Nazi scandal would be an event that highly effected popularity and would loose subscribers for the MC while events like Logan Paul's finding a dead body would still make a scandal but as it made it to the front page of YouTube at the time, actually boosted his popularity.
Any advise on how best to implement events like this, or what kind of events/choices you would like to see, would be appreciated.
WANT TO HELP:
If you want to work with me on this concept please contact me at jtaml082@uottawa.ca
If you want to help but don't know enough about game or UI design, please consider donating on PATREON by going to https://www.patreon.com/VeiledMaestro
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Chess, Shira. “Open-Sourcing Horror.” Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man. SpringerLink, doi:10.1057/9781137491138.0007.
Goodbrey, Daniel Merlin. “Digital Comics – New Tools and Tropes.” Studies in Comics, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 185–197., doi:10.1386/stic.4.1.185_1.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Paradox Press, 2000.
Patrick, Matthew. "GameTheory: Beyond Fidget Spinners - How to Create the Next YouTube Trend." YouTube, 15 June 2017, youtu.be/GTus0_IRQWg.
Patrick, Matthew. "GameTheory: How PewdiePie Conquered YouTube."
YouTube, 20 July 2013, youtu.be/EgMqhEMhVV8.
Patrick, Matthew. "GameTheory: It's Time to Stop the Logan Loophole MatPat Reaction."
YouTube, 25 Jan. 2018, youtu.be/hgBtJSdix0s.
Rettberg, Jill W. Seeing Ourselves through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and ... Shape Ourselves. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/9781137476661_1.pdf.
Really cool game idea dude! Really hope this pans out
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