Critical Play: Worldbuilding

by Benjamin | Posted on
The game A Dark Room, built by Double Speak Games, is played in a browser. The premise begins simple: the player lives in “a dark room”, as the name suggests, with unknown monsters from the outside forest looming as a survival threat. The game operates in a minimal world environment, confining the information conveyed in the player’s surroundings to allow more details to be unveiled as the game continues. In addition, the game leverages a selective supportive cast that serves to offer context about the world’s environment over time. This makes the presence of cultural or societal traits quite rare, both in the exposition and during the rising action.
In the game, the minimal surroundings alongside the randomization of character pronouns and lack of first names serve to prevent subscription to stereotype but also prevents a feeling of continuity. This makes the game characters less familiar and results in a less interesting and less engaging experience that is harmful with respect to the game quality.
Figure 1: Minimal game context, introduction of builder

The beginning of the game offers a minimal initial surrounding. It introduces gender by mentioning a woman who is a builder: “builder says she can make traps…”. This deviates from genre stereotypes of men in wilderness roles, but potentially still subscribes to the common depiction of women building and collecting while men use direct combat for hunting. This is done through indirect characterization, in contrast to direct characterization, as the traits are implied.

Later, the builder shares that she can construct a cart, still subscribing to the same paradigm. The challenge of choosing a singular gender for the character is that creates a monolithic impression within the game. There are no arrangements with some men in certain roles and some women in others. This is of course challenging when there is only one character to choose. However, there are plenty of supporting characters who do not have names or consistent gender, aside from the builder. This makes the game feel empty and relegates it to being a strict person vs nature game when collaborators or antagonists could have a broader role.

Figure 2: Introduction of mysterious wanderer

In the future, a mysterious wanderer appears. This wanderer is first a man, and the player is told that the builder is unsure of his trustworthiness. In the future, more wanderers appear, identical in offer and appearance; however, they shift in gender apparently at random between man and woman. Thus, the randomness does allow the game to break from stereotype, but also prevents the game from meningfully deviating from stereotypes. The random assignment thus makes these characteristics meaningless altogether.

This prevents any continuity between wanderers, as the gender changes at random and no first names are assigned. The exact messages are shown in the game code:

#: ../../script/events/room.js:269
msgid ""
"a wanderer arrives with an empty cart. says if he leaves with wood, he'll be "
"back with more."

#: ../../script/events/room.js:348
msgid ""
"a wanderer arrives with an empty cart. says if she leaves with furs, she'll "
"be back with more."

Source: https://github.com/doublespeakgames/adarkroom/blob/1fada4620b6c…

 

Later, the builder shares that there are more wanderers and “they” will help too. Thus, the player is prompted to build a hut. Here, the referenced wanderers are vague. The player is told that a “weathered family” stays in the hut. The game lacks a connection to the outside world or to real experiences. The player is left passively pushing buttons to collect resources without significant emotional investment in the game.

Figure 3: Resources and action options depleted

This problem is compounded given the game’s frequent waiting periods, which forces patience. For instance, when the only options are to stoke fire and build a trap, the former does not seem to affect gameplay much and the latter requires 20 wood. Thus, the player needs to wait about 15-30 seconds until they have enough wood. This makes the game one of patience without significant excitement.
Overall, the absence of cultural traits within the game alongside the anonymization and randomization of supporting character traits remove connection to the game. This harms the game because the other game mechanics include a sparse surrounding and time without opportunity for action, making for a slower pace and less enjoyable player experience.

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