Case Study 2: Elude
Elude is a metaphorical game created by Doris Rusch and the MIT Gambit Game Lab to increase understanding of depression. From the creators:
“Elude’s metaphorical model for depression serves to bring awareness to the realities of depression by creating empathy with those who live with depression every day.” (MIT Gambit, 2010)
The game’s intended audience and use are described as: “…to be used in a clinical context as part of a psycho-education package to enhance friends’ and relatives’ understanding of people suffering from depression about what their loved ones are going through.” (MIT Gambit, 2010)
The Singapore-based MIT Gambit Game Lab develops experimental, educational and research-based games. Doris Rusch is a game designer whose work focuses on the creation of games “that model the “human experience”, create empathy and can be used for mental health activism.” (playforchange.com).
Elude represents its metaphorical model for depression across three vertical levels – each a metaphor for a different mental state. The core gameplay takes place in the middle level, or the ‘normal’ mental state. Above this is the ‘happiness’ state, and below, ‘depression’. The game requires the player to find ‘passion objects’ which allow them to navigate a simple jumping puzzle to progress to the ‘happiness’ level.
Mechanics
A large part of Elude’s metaphorical model is represented through its mechanics. The game’s core gameplay consists of a simple vertical jumping puzzle. However, the player is typically unable to make some of the higher jumps. The player must use the game’s ‘resonate’ mechanic to activate ‘passion objects’, which increase the movement speed and jump height of the character, allowing them to complete the jumping puzzle and progress to the ‘happiness’ level.
This mechanic is analogous to the need for intermittent contact with the world around us in order to sustain our passion and allow us to succeed in reaching happiness. The ‘passion objects’, represented as colourful birds, serve as a metaphor for this contact with the world, and finding things which ‘resonate’ with us.
When the player reaches the ‘happiness’ level, the mechanics of the game change. The character can now jump between falling leaves and flowers, which will bounce them progressively higher into the air. There is no goal for the player to reach in this level, and instead it ends at a certain point when the falling leaves and flowers disappear, and the player is forced to fall back down into the ‘normal’ level. This level serves as a metaphor for happiness by providing a floaty, uplifting and pleasant gameplay mechanic.
Intermittently while in the ‘normal’ level, the player can be dragged down into the ‘depression’ level. This level serves as a metaphor for the feeling of being trapped and closed off from the world. The ‘depression’ level varies in size and exact appearance, but it is always an enclosed space. While in the “depression” level, the player cannot jump, and can only walk slowly. The exception to this is the particular version of the level which contains a single ‘passion object’, which represents the fact that even in the midst of depression, there can be opportunities to reach out and connect with the world around us.
Generally, the player must simply progress through a few versions of the ‘depression’ level until they are allowed to return to the ‘normal’ level. After the player has experienced three cycles of returning to the ‘normal’ level from ‘happiness’ or ‘depression’, they are transported to the final ‘depression’ level. At first, this level leads only to a steep cliff. However, after walking far enough down the slope, a white light shows the player a way back out to the surface. Either walking over the edge of the cliff, or following the light ends the game.
At the end of the game, the player is presented with a graphic which shows their journey through the three vertical levels across the course of the game. The purpose of this is to solidify the metaphor of the game as a whole representing the ups and downs of life, and the fluid nature of emotions and mental states.
The aim of this game is to present a metaphorical model of depression by contrasting it with other mental states. The game’s mechanics support this through the very noticeable difference in mechanics between levels, particularly the ‘happiness’ and ‘depression’ levels. These differences mainly consist of the nature of player movement, particularly jump height which represents a scale between near-weightlessness and heavy, grounded immobility.
Gameplay Experience
This contrast in player movement between each level creates a shifting gameplay experience. Which changes over the course of play as the player moves between the three separate levels.
In the ‘happiness’ level, the movement of the player consists of bouncy, fast, mostly vertical movements. The ‘normal’ level’s movement consists of slower, more deliberate movement across both the horizontal and vertical. In the ‘depression’ level, player movement is limited to the horizontal only, and is much slower. In this way, the ‘normal’ level can also be considered the averaged normal of player movement in the game. This reinforces the depression metaphor by representing these levels as the highs, average, and lows of real-world mental states in a way which the player will feel rather than having to analyse.
On a more specific basis, the game experience also changes within the ‘normal’ level, as the player activates ‘passion objects’. On activating these objects, the player gains increased movement speed and jump height, changing the feel of movement significantly. This reinforces another of the game’s ideas: that interaction with the world around us can help lift us out of depression and help us find happiness. This is also reinforced by the fact that interacting with objects in Elude is always beneficial to the player, and therefore the ‘resonate’ mechanic creates a connection in the mind of the player between interaction and positive change in game feel.
In the last section of the game, the player is transported to a new ‘depression’ level, and presented with a downward slope leading to a steep drop into an open void. Only when the player nears the bottom of the hill does an alternate exit open back at the top, which will allow them to exit the ‘depression’ level.
This situation creates its own gameplay experience, unique within the game, as movement is much faster down the slope than up it. This makes it clear that this part of the game is meant to convey that it’s much easier to give up than to make the effort to turn things around.
Visual Experience
The overall visual style of Elude resembles a hand-drawn cartoon or animation. The character in particular is very cartoon-like in appearance. This style makes the visual aspects of the game very accessible. The cartoon-like appearance of the character helps to create a generic, androgynous character to serve as a blank slate, so that the player is better able to empathise with the character regardless of the specifics of their own personality.
As with gameplay experience, the visual experience of Elude also changes between the three levels. Each level uses different visual cues to reinforce the depression metaphor. These include colour psychology, shape association and visual memory cues.
The ‘normal’ level’s colour scheme consists mainly of mid-tone blues, greens and greys. Visual assets in this level include trees, statues and birds.
The use of mid-tones places the ‘normal’ level directly between ‘happiness’ and ‘depression’. The use of blues and greens in the background creates a calm, almost meditative mood. This is consistent with the metaphor of this level as a ‘normal’ or balanced mental state.
The trees within the level are closely spaced, with branches which overlap each other. This makes the level feel populated, almost cluttered, which may represent the metaphorical clutter of a busy life. This would be supported by the fact that the player must search through these trees for ‘passion objects’ to use with the ‘resonate’ mechanic. This may be analogous to coming across certain aspects of life which interest, engage, or ‘resonate’ with us.
There are statues in each version of the ‘normal’ level which represent different aspects of life which can arouse passion – the first being knowledge, the second music, the third art and the fourth and final one representing relationships.
These statues are given some context by the quotations which accompany them. The first statue, representing knowledge, takes the form of an owl sitting upon a pile of books. It is accompanied by the quotation “Renew your passions daily” (Guillemets) – a message which reinforces the idea of renewing the character’s passion by activating ‘passion objects’.
The second statue, representing music, takes the form of a songbird with some form of flute-like instrument in its beak. It is acccompanied by the quotation “What passion cannot music raise and quell!” (Handel)
The third statue, representing art, takes the form of a toucan – a coulouful, tropical bird, with a paintbrush under one wing. This statue is accompanied by the quotation “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Picasso)
The fourth and final version of this level contains a pair of statues, taking the form of parrots – a bird species which forms strong social bonds and typically mates with the same partner for life. The pair of statues is accompanied by the quotation “There is no end, there is no beginning, there is only the passion of life.” (Fellini) This pair of statues, along with the quotation, is clearly meant to represent relationships, as well as the cyclical nature of life through the birth of children.
These statues serve as solid, grounded reminders to the player of some of the intellectual, creative and social aspects of life which make it worth living, providing the passion which is necessary to make our way through life’s challenges and pitfalls.
The ancient look of these statues may represent the fact that these aspects of life are consistent throughout the ages – they transcend time as central pillars of humanity and culture. This reinforces the message of the final pair of statues by continuing the idea of the cyclical, unending nature of these concepts.
The ‘happiness’ level’s colour scheme utilises brighter blues and greens, as well as adding accents of white. This brighter colour scheme reinforces this level’s metaphorical place as ‘happiness’. The overall look of this level is bright and airy, with an uncluttered background consisting of a mostly clear sky with a few white clouds. This open, airy visual coincides with the bouncy, near-weightless nature of player movement in this level.
Visual assets in the ‘happiness’ level consist of leaves and flowers which form platforms for the player to jump between. The use of leaves and flowers continues the overall visual theme of a connection to nature throughout the game.
In total contrast, the ‘depression’ level of the game has a dark colour scheme consisting of black and grey, with occaisional highlights of red. This darker colour scheme is designed to be unsettling, creating a sombre, melancholic mood.
Other visual aspects of the ‘depression’ level are very limited, mostly consisting of the silhouettes of creeping vegetation. Large areas of the screen are taken up by complete blackness, representing the feeling of being enclosed and isolated by depression.
Audio Experience
Audio in the ‘normal’ level consists of irregular, quiet, neutral background music; sound effects for walking, jumping and the resonate mechanic, and a birdsong sound effect on the activation of ‘passion objects’. Audio in this level is very neutral, consistent with its position as the middle ground between the ‘happiness’ and ‘depression’ levels, as established by the game’s mechanics and visuals.
The ‘happiness’ level has an upbeat and airy background music track which matches its light, airy visuals. This is consistent with the level’s metaphorical position as representing a happy state of mind.
Audio in the ‘depression’ level is darker, deeper and less melodious, consisting of ominous noise rather than music. In the final ‘depression’ level there are also whispering sound effects which become louder as the player nears the bottom of the slope. These could perhaps be a representation of the insidiousness of self-doubt and other insecurities suffered during depression.
Conclusion
Elude is an example of game crafted from the ground up as a metaphorical representation of a real-world concept. It aims to create a metaphorical model for depression which may be used to educate and inform on the subject of this mental illness. It is difficult to assess the success of this goal without further knowledge of the condition. However, it is possible to evaluate the success of the game’s metaphorical representation of different emotional states.
Through variations in game feel, mechanics and audio and visual themes, Elude effectively creates contrast between each of its three metaphorical levels, with each level clearly placed in their intended position in the metaphor.
Bibliography (References WIP)
Elude. 2010. [videogame, online] Web. Doris Rusch, MIT Gambit Game Lab. MIT. Available from: http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/elude.php Accessed January 11 2016.
Russo, A. 2011. Serious Game Analysis for IMGD 4600. [online] Available from:http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~rich/courses/imgd4600-c13/analyses/Elude/index.html Accessed January 11 2016.
MIT Video. 2010. Elude. [online video] Available from: http://video.mit.edu/watch/elude-6105/ Accessed January 11 2016.
Collado, B. 2011. Elude: Gaming as the “Opposite of Play”. [online] Available from: http://pulseandsignal.com/2011/05/elude-gaming-as-the-opposite-of-play/ Accessed January 11 2016.
Myles, A. 2012. Thoughts on Shorts: Elude. [online] Available from: http://nightmaremode.thegamerstrust.com/2012/01/30/thoughts-on-short-elude/ Accessed January 11 2016.
James A Chester Honours Project 