Death Factor (2012)
In the summer of 2012 I cleaned a bus factory. It was a double shift. The first shift would be from 10am to 2pm. I'd go home for a few hours. Then the night shift was 5pm to 11pm. During those in-between hours I would play Final Fantasy VII on a Playstation connected to a CRT on the floor in the living room of the apartment. There wasn't really wasn't anything more than this in that living room for a long time, heh, but this sparseness was good for creativity. (This was around the same time that I made the Skittletitties album.) We didn't have internet. We didn't have cable. Just this Playstation if you were bored. I noticed that the battles in Final Fantasy VII are very formulaic. You watch gauges get to about half and refill the gauges. Yet for some reason it is still fun. Having your focus pulled between several things builds a tension. This observation was the kernel of the idea of Death Factor.
Later, in the fall of 2012, college classes started up again. I had received $600 in student aid to spend on books and stuff. I used that money to buy a flat screen TV and an XBOX 360 with Final Fantasy XIII. My schedule was full during the school year. (I have the actual schedule somewhere, I'll update if I find it) but I'd be up at 6am for work study, I'd have a few classes, a small 30 minute break for lunch, a few more classes, then I tutored an elderly classmate on HTML, and went to clean the bus factory in the evening. During this grind, I noticed my life was in a pattern loop. I made a little model of how each attribute is related to each other. My hunger is always decreasing. My energy is always decreasing, and decreases more if I work harder. But when I work harder I get more money. And I can spend more money on more expensive food.
Somewhere during this time I read an article about the elements of gameplay being a tension between Control and Chance with Reality and Surrealism. (If I can find that article I'll post it.) It must have been during the summer when I was doing artwork for other people's games. (a sokoban game if I recall)
One Saturday evening, we were out eating sushi. It was expensive! Before our food arrived we went to the next door smoke shop and smoked cigarettes. We talked about being cool. We talked about buying stuff. Everything clicked together for me in that moment after paying for the sushi. The quadrants of the screen being for each element of gameplay. The game being a model for real life. The balance of multitasking and keeping bars full while being pulled by urgency to different areas of focus. I rushed home and developed Death Factor. It was ready to go when the sun came up.
We took turns playing it and seeing who could get the high score. What is satisfying about Death Factor is that it works. Previous game ideas I had developed weren't necessarily very fun, which is what a game ought to be. Death Factor works. It gets you into the zone. The FLOW STATE. Time flies when you're having fun. A nice step forward in my understanding about what makes a proper game.
To download Death Factor visit the Death Factor gumroad page (embedded below):
The original Death Factor is now available for free (pay what you want) Download above on gumroad.
