You can play my game at http://philome.la/Eyeagz/lets-go-for-a-swim !
My game is about a mermaid who is on her way somewhere in the ocean. As she swims through the sea, she is forced to interact with cat-calling mermen. The goal of the game is to get to the mermaid’s destination, which could be a coral reef, Poseidon’s castle, a sandbar, or the ocean floor, depending on the player’s choice. As far as possibilities and constraints, the player has the option to appease, ignore, or confront the cat-callers, but is not able to win the game if they choose to appease the cat-callers. I wanted the game to be understanding of how talking back is not always an option because sometimes you don’t feel safe doing it or you just don’t have the energy to confront street harassers; however, I wanted to discourage the player from appeasing the cat-callers. The concept for the game was for it to work as an exercise in empathy for people who do not experience cat-calling and as a rehearsal for possible things to do when cat-called.
In our class discussions we talked about forms of harassment other than street harassment. Our discussion about Gamergate, for example, looked at women like Anita Sarkeesian’s experience with harassment over the Internet. While the street harassment in my game never reaches a very threatening point, in the real world it can be much worse.
I think my game was successful in communicating some of the frustrations cat-calling can pose to women and how those situations can affect how they feel about themselves. For example, the main character feels good about herself when she confronts her cat-callers. If I were to continue working on the game, I would like to add more interactions with the cat-callers that explore how those situations affect the character’s feelings about herself. Other interactions with the cat-calling mermen I might add include having the main character give the mermen a fake number, which always kind of makes me feel guilty and embarrassed, or having the mermen follow the main character or act aggressively and looking at the feelings of fear and panic that come with that. I would also like to add more creative ways to stand up to a cat-caller; the player sometimes has the option to make weird faces at the cat-caller when they are asked to smile, but I’m sure I could think of many other ways to subvert a cat-calling situation and make the harassers feel uncomfortable. I think adding more interactions could make the game more useful both as an exercise in empathy and as a rehearsal for what to do when cat-called.