The NYU Game Center Showcase 2024
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⟢Thesis
⟢Capstone
⟢Studio II
⟢Major Studio
⟢Mosaic
QUANTUM TIES
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For MFA Thesis
QUANTUM TIES is a sci-fi larp about people trying to build trust and relationships under an authoritarian system that encourages them to accuse, report, and betray each other.
Interview:
✧In one or two sentences, what is your game about?
A sci-fi larp about people trying to build trust and relationships under an authoritarian system that encourages them to accuse, report, and betray each other, signified through the ritualized exchange and cutting of trust ribbons.
✧What was the inspiration of the game? What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
This game grew out of my research into obedience, cult manipulation tactics, and representations of authoritarian regimes in various forms of media. One particular example that a lot of people are familiar with is the novel 1984. In the story, the objectively smart thing for the main character to do is to keep his head down and not talk to anyone about his misgivings about the regime. But instead, he starts a relationship with another person, reveals his secret thoughts, and in the end they betray each other. In such an environment, being honest and building trust with others, something vital to building relationships, becomes a risk. I wanted to explore that.
✧Were there difficult moments when developing the game? What led to those difficult moments? What did you learn from it?
For the first semester, I prototyped a single-player digital game, where you played as an employee of the government who was making these choices about people who may or may not have broken the rules. But it was missing the human connection and social interaction that I was trying to explore, so halfway through thesis, I started over and made a completely different game with half the time. It was definitely an exercise in scoping, but I learned to evaluate my capacity and how much I can get done in a certain amount of time, and then made the game that I could make well in the time I had left.
find this game on itch.io
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/samiraherber