Gameplay Journal Entry #8: Mitchell Dreifuerst

To convey a message of importance to players, sometimes words alone are not enough. Designers can spout any number of words in any number of ways, which in turn can have a great numerous amounts of responses, but it then also creates the possibility of the lesson flying squaring above the intended audience if improperly implemented. In order to convey values beyond that of the verbal word, designers must also be able to execute “a well-crafted approach to embedding particular principles that in design will have the capacity to alter the practices of conscientious designers, and in turn, help them to realize their goal of creating games which support an array of values”¹. To that end, in this paper, I am presenting a project created by a team that proved the very concept of speaking without words to teach a more fitting lesson of mortality; a social issue of the heart told though its tale and though not just the ears, but from the eyes and soul of the player.

GRIS, a platform adventure game released by Nomada Studio², depicts a young girl called Gris lost in an imaginary world of her own making, going through various steps of processing grief to accept the loss of someone close to her (presumptively her mother). The player mechanics are simple enough, as you walk, jump, and use special abilities gained though each zone, such as a down smash and singing, while collecting little shining stars to progress. The charm, however, is not in its controls, but rather in its environment and narrative. Each zone is a representation of one of the five stages of grief, and each time Gris proceeds to a new Zone by standing in the palm of the memory of her lost one, colors are restored to the world, which in turn represents Gris moving on to a new stage (White represents Denial, Red represents Anger, Green represents Bargaining, Blue represents Depression, and all the colors together represents Acceptance). Even Gris, who is described as a hopeful girl, overcomes a huge self-created monster of her own Despair, shown in black, and when she shares a final loving embrace with her loved one, she moves across a star-staircase into a large white cloud, representing her embrace of Hope. The central message of this game is one not denying or being consumed by sorrow, but rather by overcoming Gris’s own self-imposed conflicts generated by the world to teach the values of love, and not a single word was needed to showcase this.

Sources:

- ¹Nissenbaum, Helen and Flanagan, Mary, A Game Design Methodology to Incorporate Social Activist Themes, 2007, Pg. 182

- ²Video Game Link: https://nomada.studio/