The Real Problem

wip • game design • ux/ui • blender • unreal engine

This game was created as a part of my master's thesis and it concerns itself with the phenomenon of conscious perception. It allows players to embody different creatures, resulting in a change in the perception of in-game environment. The concept is based mainly on the works of neuroscientists Anil Seth and Mark Solms and the game is still in development. The first prototype is available on itch.io.

How can I talk about complex ideas?

When I learned about hyperobjects during one of our school assignments, I realized that most current world problems classify as such. Even us designers seem to struggle to communicate them in a way that would retain their complexity and at the same time be accessible to ordinary people. Complex, artistic projects and data visualizations are often too hard to understand and regular information design practices focusing on simple numerical data are often too shallow to cover such broad topics.

I wondered whether video games were something we designers could use to better talk about these complex ideas and I decided to explore that with my master's thesis. The concept of consciousness always interested me and it seemed like the perfect candidate for my experiment, as we currently have no way of proving whether something or someone is conscious and how that consciousness might look like, but at the same time we have enough scientific research to wonder about those questions in an educated way.

Building a strong foundation

In the beginning, I didn't have a plan for what exactly I want to cover from the field of the science of consciousness. I started with the book “The Hidden Spring” by neuroscientist Mark Solms and continued with some other books looking at the problem from a more philosophical view. I soon realized that the neuroscientific way is the way I want to go and I picked up a book from Anil Seth called “Being You”, which proposes to focus on the “real problem of consciousness” instead of the famous “hard problem”, by trying to first understand the part of consciousness that we can actually observe: perception.

My goal was to create an experience that would let the player understand some of the theory on consciousness and think about it's implications. I have attended a semester-long game design course before and that was my only experience with creating games, but I had a lot of experience playing them and analyzing their mechanics. Nevertheless, I had to also learn more about game design and how to approach it, so I picked up books by Jesse Schell and Tracy Fullerton and wrote the lecturer from the game design course if I could consult my progress with him. He was kind enough to agree and I also ended up lucky enough to have Ondřej Trhoň, a writer and theorist focused on video games and culture, to be my thesis opponent.

Figuring out what to say and how to say it

As the first step towards actually creating a game, I had to distill down everything I learned from reading books and watching lectures into a simple thought, that would drive the whole concept. This step proved to be really difficult, because I struggled to focus on one point or idea. I was so deep in the research that it was hard for me to look at the bigger picture and decide what makes the topic of conscious perception so important. In the end I settled on this statement: “Consciousness gives the meaningless world meaning and every consciousness is different, so it gives the world a different meaning.”

Now it was time to deliver this message with a video game concept. This wasn't easy either, as I had to consider and balance all the different aspects that give games meaning: mechanics, goals, rewards, story, visuals, UX… When I finally started to really work on the details of a concept I thought was good, I found out that it ended up being more about figuring out the best constellation of senses, then about finding meaning through the perception.

In order to prevent this from happening to the next concept idea, I came up with a set of rules for the game design, which I included in my creative brief. The main purpose of consciousness is orientation in space, so this has to be a part of my game. It has to be in first-person perspective and the player should experience the feeling of being confused and slowly finding meaning in what he sees. In the end, decided that it is going to be an exploration-puzzle game and that the main mechanic will encompass what I have called “the switching of perspectives”.

Learning game design and getting better at prioritizing

Now it was time to start working out the details and creating the first prototype. I built on the mechanics that I have settled on before and provided the player with the ability to walk, jump, interact with objects and switch between creatures in player's vicinity. This switch results in a change of perspective: the player is in the same environment, but now they perceive it differently. Since I am a visual designer, I have decided to start with the visual representation only. This was one of the compromises I had to do in order to create a prototype that I can use to test the game's main concept. I learned more about what we know of the way animals see the world and drew inspiration from that.

This change of perceptions is the main mechanic of the game, which consists of exploring a foreign environment and solving puzzles to uncover more information about it. The puzzles will be solved by combining different perceptions, hinting that there is no “correct” all-explaining perception “to rule them all”.

I also created a premise, although this is another place where compromises were made, mainly because I am no storyteller. I thought about the importance of exploring an unknown world and how I wanted to avoid presumptions about whether something is conscious or not, as that should only happen after playing the game, not during. This led me to the not so original idea of exploring a foreign planet, but I liked how that also brings into question the ethics not only in regards to whether other “things” have consciousness (and therefore, for example, the ability to feel pain), but also whether and how can we interfere with their bodies and environments.

I needed to create the visuals, specifically the environment. In order to free myself from the shackles of Earth-like biome ideas, I wrote down a set of parameters and used a simple algorithm to help me generate options. I used those as inspiration for the ten biomes that will appear in the game. For the assets, I decided to go with simple, often geometrical objects. This was due to time and skill constraints, but it also goes with the theme of the game, as it leaves more space for imagination – and is also probably more representative of how animals view the world, since many of them don't have such acute eyesight as humans.

The last part I needed to focus on was the interface. On one hand, it needed to be functional for the prototype, since I wanted people to be able to try the game for themselves. The main feature included in it is the HUD, which indicates the possibility of interaction or a switch and also shows the character which the player can embody. The interface will have more importance in creating meaning for the finished game, because it will also include a “field notes” tab, where the player can note down observations and conclusions about the world they are exploring. This will be the only tangible documentation of their progress, as there is be no “correct” story to uncover.

The takeaways and the future of The Real Problem

This is a very complex project, which is exactly the type of challenge I enjoy. I was able to apply a lot of what I know about graphic design to the game design aspect and the whole process only reinforced the idea that good UX makes or breaks the whole project. And this doesn't apply only to the UX we know from other digital products, but also the game mechanics, which are the building blocks of the players user journey.

Apart from learning a whole lot about game design, I also got a taste of what it means to plan and execute such a complex project. I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to judge the importance of each task and to tackle problems that have emerged during the process, such as the realization that the concept I have worked on for a month doesn't really convey my message. I learned to let go of my ego and start over, but I also learned how to better analyze my work in progress and catch similar issues earlier.

The exhibition demo is a prototype mainly showcasing the perspective switch mechanic, but it also includes a small puzzle and a functional heads-up display. I had good feedback on the exploration side of the game, with some fellow students spending as much as 20 minutes exploring the environment of The Real Problem during the diploma theses exhibition. The next prototype will be focusing more on the puzzles and how they can be solved by combining different perspectives. I now also know where my weaknesses are (sound design and storytelling) and I am looking for someone to collaborate with to ensure the best quality of those important aspects of the game.

This work was presented at the exhibition of diploma theses in DUÚL, Ústí nad Labem between 23 May–13 June 2024. Fot the thesis, I got a grade of 1 (excellent) out of 4. Due to the nature of the exhibition, it is in Czech, but all future updates will be in English. The demo was developed in Unreal Engine with the kind help of Erik Erben, who has done all of the programming. You can find the demo (for Win and Mac) and all the future updates on itch.io or by clicking the button below.