P2: The Empathy Machine – Angela Mao

Link to Game

The game I chose to create for the assignment is called The Miraculous Journey of Bowser. I would like you to play it first, before you read the rest of my write-up. You can find the game here on Itch. 

Branching Choice Map

My game has branching paths based on the number of “mean” choices you make. Once you make 4-5 mean choices in certain situations, you are directed to a bad ending where Bowser turns everyone away and ends up in a Lost and Found Bin. My actual Twine has many, many branches, but part of that comes from me duplicating scenes so that I can count the number of mean choices accurately.

You can find the full twee file here from Twine. 

I attached an image and link of my map. 

Overview

The Miraculous Journey of Bowser is about an arrogant, pompous purple Jellycat hippo named Bowser, who comes from the Paper Source in Town and Country. However, disaster strikes when Bowser is knocked off his high shelf and dragged to Stanford campus. To find his way home, he interacts with other stuffed animals across campus, such as Unicorn Cat the Squishmallow, Cork the Corgi, and Axe the Pink Dinosaur. His interactions with others determine his fate – will he choose to change his way of thinking, or stubbornly stick to his sense of superiority? 

I initially thought of this idea because I wanted to make a cute, wholesome game that still inspired empathy. I really love my stuffed animals and I have many of them, so I thought they would be fun characters to flesh out! My initial concept was Bowser goes missing, and a bunch of my stuffed animals have to go out and find him, but I quickly realized that many POVs was going to be difficult. 

The idea of toys got me thinking about a childhood book I loved – The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Edward Tulane is a china rabbit toy who also starts off arrogant, but basically gets viciously humbled when he gets lost. He ends up having many different owners from different walks of life (and loses some he really loves), causing him to become a better rabbit. This is one of my childhood books that has stuck with me to this day, and I wanted to convey similar emotions/sentiments since it touched me so much. I decided to take the premise of being arrogant and getting humbled, although my story does differ quite a bit from Edward Tulane.

History Versions of Game

Playtest 1

The actual first version of my game was brought to class on October 15th, where I conducted an in-class playtest with Evelyn, who is also a CS377G student. You can find the version that I used here and the playtest write-up I submitted here. 

Overall, the most important feedback points were:

1. The choices provided were too obvious and black/white. It was either nice or mean. [Find clipped recording here.]
2. The other helper characters were not as well developed, so it was harder to be attached to them. 
3. The player should be able to save Ellie the Elephant at the end too. 

After this playtest, I made changes. The 3 most important ones are: 

• I added in more scenes (e.g. more scenes talking to Ellie at the beginning).
• I added in more choices (3 at each point, and made each choices more ambiguous / added neutral choices)
• I removed the bad ending, since I wanted to focus on building the wholesome vibe/feeling. 

Playtest 2

The second playtest I conducted was on October 19th with Ryan, who was a student in 247G prior. You can find the version I used here and the playtest write-up I submitted here. 

Overall, the most important feedback points were: 

1. Some choices were still too obvious (e.g. most people will play with Cork) so “bad paths” will never get explored.
2. There could  be more consequences for actions (ex. Bowser gets coffee spilled on him is a good one, but more stakes would be nice)
3. Some nice story points never get seen because the player didn’t pick a certain option

Empathy Check: After this playtest, the player expressed that they understood the main goals of the story, and in his words “don’t be arrogant and be nice to those along the way, and know the importance of friendship.” 

Playtest 3

I conducted my third playtest on October 20th in class using the same version here (did not change anything in between).  The playtest was Brydie, who is a student in CS377G. 

Overall, the most important feedback points were: 

• She liked that the character started off sassy, and thought the dialogue helped show growth from beginning to the end 
• She would’ve liked more definite personalities for the other characters
• The choices were good and made sense – they did feel meaningful to her [Find clipped recording here]. 
• She thought that Bowser still started off with the ability to make nice choices too soon, which seemed out of character for him at the beginning. 

Empathy Check: The player expressed that the setting of stuffed animals really lends itself to empathy, but to make sure Bowser takes longer to develop to make the empathy feel more earned. 

Playtest 4

I conducted my fourth playtest on October 22nd in class using the same version here (did not change anything in between).  The playtest was Julia, who is a student in CS377G. 

Overall, the most important piece of feedback I got from this playtest was: 

• When Bowser is consistently mean, maybe he shouldn’t have a happy ending. The choices feel less consequential when it always leads to a happy ending. [Find clip here (50 seconds to 1:13)] 

Empathy Check: She said this game is trying to show the importance of community and not thinking you always know better than anyone else. In real life, some people might think they’re important because they have a certain job or degree (in the game, it is because he is a Jellycat). She thinks it is a meaningful story and she enjoyed reading it, and everyone has had moments where they were lost and trying to find their place in the world. [Find clip here (first 40 seconds only)] 

After this playtest, I made changes for my Refine Prototype based on the Playtest 2, 3, and 4. The most important ones are: 

• I moved the entire game to Twine, but this version was completely black and white. 
• I added in more backstory about each character, so the stuffed animals would feel more real. 
• I added in a moral dilemma for Bowser to spice things up. Bowser has to choose between saving himself or saving Cork from an incoming coffee cup, which is a true test of his character. When Bowser doesn’t try to save Cork, he needs to go on a side quest to fix Cork’s stitch before he can advance forward.  
• Added some physical consequences to Bowser (e.g. he gets stained with coffee permanently). 
• Added more sass/mean internal dialogue to Bowser at the beginning so his character growth is slowed. 

Playtest 5

I conducted my playtest with my friend Susan, who has not taken any game classes before., on October 26th. You can find the version I playtested with here. 

The playtest was relatively short, and because Susan doesn’t have much game experience, she didn’t give detailed feedback on the game mechanics. 

Empathy Check: Susan said that she learned from this game to always help others and to accept people’s help. She thought the “one line about accepting it is the first step lowkey hit pretty hard emotionally.”

Playtest 6

I conducted my sixth playtest with my Butch, the TA (Hi Butch!) in class on October 27th. You can find the version I playtested with here (did not make any changes since last playtest). 

Overall, the most important feedback points were: 

• The tone of the story was very good 
• Don’t always order the choices the same way (e.g. the mean choice is always last)
• Establishing empathy very well
• To more show not tell with Bowser, especially when he tells characters his motives – how much would he really reveal? 
• Add a bad ending – It might help to have a route where if you continuously choose the options that don’t align with that change, then you get an satisfying ending [Find clip here – first 40 seconds]
• Like the double interpretation aspect – where kids might just get the surface level “be nice to people” but an older audience (like Stanford students) might get the vibe of “You aren’t the shit. Don’t be super overconfident. Be nice to those who come from different backgrounds.”
• Overall feedback was good direction + clear message

Playtest 7

I conducted my seventh playtest with Christina (Hi Christina!) in class on October 27th. You can find the version I playtested with here (did not make any changes since last playtest). 

Overall, the most important feedback points were: 

• The player really lined the line about being wanted and being worthy and how they are different 
• A really interesting point she brought up was how this is a story to appreciate disabled individuals – just because someone isn’t beautiful or perfect doesn’t mean they are not worthy of love – I hadn’t even thought of this myself [Find clip here – 10:15 to 10:32]
• Also saw the point about how this story can reflect Stanford students – one thing was that Stanford students think that “if I ever show that I’m not perfect, then I can’t be loved” Find clip here – 10:40 to 11:54]
• Maybe at the end, Angela should go to the clearance bin and pick the stuffed animals up. 

Playtest 8

I conducted my eighth playtest with Sebastian (an avid Jellycat lover, he said he has many), a student in CS377G in class on October 27th. You can find the version I playtested with here (did not make any changes since last playtest). 

Overall, the most important feedback points were: 

• Really enjoyed playing the game overall, the player thought moments in the game were cute and lovely, especially the ending. [Find clip here – 6:15 to 6:25]
• He had no desire to be mean – maybe was just him as a player

After these playtests, I went in for my final round of edits to my game. The most important changes I made were:

1. Adding in visual design. Specifically, I added colors to different parts of the story. In the beginning, the background is lilac (partly because Bowser thinks he’s like royalty, and purple is the color of loyalty. However, when he falls and it turns into night (and any time it turns into night in the game), the background becomes black.  The background becomes black anytime a wrong decision / mean choice is made as well. I also added in cute photos of all the stuffed animals!
2. Added in bad endings per playtest feedback. The bad ending is Bowser ending up in a lost and found box every time, although there are different ways of getting there. I decided that after 4-5 mean choices, Bowser doesn’t get rewarded for his mean behavior and inability to change. After Bowser gets past the coffee incident (the climax of the story), he is guaranteed to win, but he can lose 3 times before that. 
3. I fleshed out the aspect where Bowser lets Cork get coffee on him. If Bowser already made 4 mean choices, he loses automatically if he betrays Cork. Otherwise, he has to choose to go on a redemption journey and fix Cork, otherwise the player will lose the game. 
4. In the beginning, I added more language around Bowser thinking he is inherently the best because he is a Jellycat, and he looked down upon clearance items. I wanted to emphasize the second running theme of thinking you’re superior because of your background, and how that ties into Stanford students. 
5. If you are meaner earlier in the game, some of your choices are impacted (at the coffee scene, you only have 2 options in the game). Also, if you generally trend nice (0-2 mean choices only), then at some points you’ll automatically be shuttled into the nice option without having to pick later on. 
6. I replaced Ellie the Elephant with Ice Bear… sorry. 
7. Overall, I went and edited my writing to make it sharper and added in sass/funny moments as well, just to make the story more entertaining. 

Playtest 9

I conducted my final playtest after edits (I played with the final version of the game) with Alice, my 8 year old little sister. Overall, she really enjoyed playing the game and found seeing all the different stuffed animals fun. To her, this game was about being nice to everyone and making friends with people, even if they are different. This makes sense to me, as children would see the simplest, purest message from it. 

Reflection

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of creating my interactive fiction game starring my stuffed animal Bowser. I was able to apply a ton of course concepts to my game by playing through different CYOA/branching fiction games. One main thing that changed a lot throughout my game were the choices, which is arguably one of the most important aspects of IF. In the beginning, my choices were very obvious and limited, and there weren’t many meaningful consequences that came out of them. However, after the lecture about meaningful choices, I was able to fix them to 1) be more varied 2) be more ambiguous (so players would choose a greater selection) and 3) lead to consequences (getting dirty, losing the game, etc). 

I also got to practice developing characters, which was super fun. I used the idea of GMC (Goal Motivation Conflict) to flesh out Bowser and his friends. For instance, Bowser’s motivation and goal at the beginning are pretty selfish; he is vain and wants the best home for himself because he inherently deserves it. Through his journey, most of the conflicts for him (besides getting dragged to Stanford) are internal. He has to decide whether or not he wants to be the better hippo, and give up his pride. For other characters, such as Unicorn Cat, we can also apply the GMC framework. Unicorn Cat’s goal is to help Bowser, and he is motivated to do so because he was once like Bowser. He doesn’t have too much conflict, besides ones that Bowser provides by turning him away. 

One consideration I had when developing this game was the audience. After all, stuffed animals are inherently a childish topic and I wanted to keep it wholesome. I would say I have two target audiences – an older one, who probably sees deeper themes such as background/classism, celebrating disability, and encouraging people to be humble, and a younger one, who sees the basic premise of being nice and letting people in. I intentionally tried to weave both themes into the narrative. I felt like I was able to get the desired emotional response out of both of my audiences, which I was really happy about. 

Next time and with more time, I would’ve loved to have even more dilemmas and side quests for Bowser to go on. I could’ve also introduced a villain, maybe someone who is trying to reinforce the wrong values Bowser holds. I also think doing a parser fiction version of the story could’ve been cool, although that would lead to a more problem-solving game than narrative-driven. 

Thank you for reading! Here’s a picture of Bowser and his game in real life.