Part 1: Navigating Empathy, Survival, and Vulnerability
In this course, I experienced a variety of digital and physical narrative games. I had never played games like this before; they were definitely different, but incredibly eye-opening. Some pushed me out of my comfort zone, some challenged my decision-making skills in impossible situations, and others brought up deeply personal memories. Visualizing how these choices branch out helped me understand the power of player agency in these experiences. Here is my reflection on the games I played and what they taught me about empathy.
The Required Empathy Games
1. Spent
http://playspent.org/
The Experience: I played this game with a strict survival mindset, spending money only on absolute necessities. I managed to end the game with $1,200 saved.
Likes/Dislikes: I liked the realistic interface, but I really disliked the constant feeling of struggle the game instills in you. Even when winning, it doesn’t feel good.
Learnings & Improvements: What struck me most is seeing how people in entirely different parts of the world face the exact same fundamental problems of survival. The game effectively achieves its goal, though it could perhaps include more long-term planning options rather than just day-to-day crises.
2. BBC Syrian Refugees
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32057601
The Experience: I chose the Egypt route and prioritized my family above all else. I ended up successfully surviving and arriving in Europe.
Likes/Dislikes: I liked how heavily the game weighed your choices and forced you to think about the people relying on you.
Learnings & Improvements: It taught me the harsh reality of refugee trade-offs. To survive with my family, I had to give up things and make choices I don’t think I would ever normally make in real life. It effectively forces you to re-evaluate your morals against your survival instincts.
The In-Class Experience
3. Tabletop Games (Cloud 4, Evolve, Sucrose)
The Experience: These in-class games heavily encouraged us to speak about our feelings and personal values with our group.
Likes/Dislikes: To be completely honest, I disliked the forced vulnerability. I am not someone who prioritizes sharing my feelings, especially with people I don’t know well. I answered the prompts because I felt obligated to participate and respect the class, but awkwardness dominated the group’s vibe. I kept wondering why anyone would care about how I react to anger, and I often regretted my answers right after giving them.
Learnings & Improvements: I learned that forced sharing can sometimes build walls rather than empathy. An improvement for these types of games would be to play them strictly with close friends, where that level of sharing feels natural rather than silly or intrusive.
4. The Empathy Toy
The Experience: I was on the building team, watching the other two players try to rebuild our structure with blindfolds and different communication styles.
Likes/Dislikes: I actually really enjoyed this. I like building things with my hands and observing how different personalities tackle challenges. The hardest part was the rule that I couldn’t help them when they were struggling.
Learnings & Improvements: It taught me a lot about the urge to intervene. Even when asked not to help, my instinct is to give a hand. The game functions perfectly as is, but it was a great test of my own patience and observation skills.
Professional & Student Digital Games
5. Skills Practice: A Home Visit
https://h5p.org/branching-scenario#example=439819
The Experience: A video-based branching game where you play a nurse doing a mental health check.
Likes/Dislikes: I really liked this game because it felt highly practical and grounded in real-world utility.
Learnings & Improvements: I learned actionable communication techniques. It taught me how to maintain a conversation with someone facing a serious problem without judging them, and how to ask evocative questions that encourage them to open up. I plan to implement these techniques in real life.
6. Depression Quest
http://www.depressionquest.com/
The Experience: A text-based game about managing life with depression.
Likes/Dislikes: I disliked how long it was, and it was frustrating that my choices actively made the main character more miserable.
Learnings & Improvements: The frustration was actually the lesson. It showed me that I don’t naturally know the best way to deal with depression. It was a wake-up call that I need to learn better ways to support depressed people in my life, and how to handle it if I ever feel that way myself.
7. September 7th, 2020
https://caitkirby.com/downloads/Fall%202020.html
The Experience: A simulation of COVID-19 student decisions.
Likes/Dislikes: I completely disconnected from this game because I couldn’t relate to the panic it portrayed.
Learnings & Improvements: During the pandemic, my family and I (elhamdallah) didn’t let COVID control our lives. If clubs were closed, we ran in the streets; if restaurants were closed, we got our food and ate in the car. We just adapted. I also genuinely prefer online learning. An improvement would be adding branching paths for students who actually thrived or adapted well to the lockdowns, rather than assuming a universal state of anxiety.
8. Sleep-Deprived Mom Game
http://bit.ly/SleepMom
The Experience: A simulation of the choices a new mother has to make on little sleep. I scored a 10 out of 14!
Likes/Dislikes: I was impressed with my score and liked the straightforward mechanics.
Learnings & Improvements: While I haven’t lived it, I could conceptually understand how mothers are deprived of so many personal things for their children’s sake. It directly made me feel more empathy and appreciation for my own mother.
9. Being Under the Influence
The Experience: A student-created game navigating the pressures of drinking and partying.
Likes/Dislikes: I couldn’t relate to this game, and I really didn’t enjoy the vibes. It is far removed from my reality, as I am not friends with people who party or drink. I have friends who smoke, but I have always known my limitations and never wished to join them.
Learnings & Improvements: While the game didn’t resonate with my personal life, it reinforced the importance of knowing your boundaries. An improvement might be to offer branching paths for players who are already firm in their limits, rather than assuming the player is actively struggling with temptation.
10. Orphan by Heart
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1To5rlSOTbt9-oqV9dBAEYJ76NvT–YpEFiK9dzzdmi4/edit?usp=sharing
The Experience: A meaningful student game exploring the societal realities that orphans face.
Likes/Dislikes: This game scarred my heart in a profound way. It brought up a very personal memory: my father passed away when I was 10 months old, which is something I usually never speak about. When I was in Year 3, a classmate came up to me and said “kol sana wanty tyaba.” Since it wasn’t my birthday, I asked her why, and she said it was Orphan’s Day and she knew my father was dead. I just replied “wanty tyaba” and walked away. I was deeply embarrassed and upset.
Learnings & Improvements: This game, and that memory, made me question why society sets up performative celebrations like Orphan’s Day. I know my classmate’s intuition was good, but the situation was horrible for me. The game successfully captures that heavy emotional weight and made me genuinely want to help end the sad reality many orphans face, rather than just pitying them for one day a year.
Final Comparisons & Conclusion
Comparing these experiences, there is a stark difference between the digital narrative games and the in-person tabletop games. The digital games built empathy through private decision-making and resource management. I felt the struggle, but I felt safe exploring it alone. Conversely, the in-person emotional games required public vulnerability, which made me feel awkward and defensive, detracting from the empathy the game was trying to build.
Furthermore, games that taught me a concrete skill (like A Home Visit) or touched on a deeply personal lived experience (like Orphan by Heart) felt much more impactful than games that assumed a universal reaction I didn’t share (like the COVID-19 game). Ultimately, this assignment taught me that player agency is powerful, but a game’s impact heavily depends on whether the player can authentically relate to the premise and the environment in which the game is played.
Part 2: Brainstorming My Digital Narrative Game
For the second part of this project, we are transitioning from playing games to conceptualizing our own. To guide my game design, I reflected on my top character strengths: Creativity, Love of Learning, Humility, Kindness, and Humor (with an overarching theme of Humanity). I want to build a narrative that naturally reflects who I am and what I value, while avoiding the forced awkwardness I disliked in some of the tabletop games we played.
When thinking about potential topics, four main ideas come to mind: Disabilities, Sports, Cartoons, and Robots. Here is how my strengths might shape these ideas into a game:
Disabilities & Humanity: Since Kindness and Humility are among my top strengths, creating a game centered around navigating life with a disability really speaks to me. Just like the Orphan by Heart game touched on a deeply personal reality, I want to create something that builds genuine understanding rather than just pity.
Cartoons & Humor: Heavy topics don’t always have to be depressing. I could use my Creativity to design the game in a cartoon art style, using Humor to make the story approachable, engaging, and lighthearted, even when dealing with real-world challenges.
Robots, Sports, & Love of Learning: Alternatively, combining robots and sports could be a fascinating angle. I could create a narrative where a robot has to learn the “human” aspects of sports—like teamwork, dealing with a loss, or understanding physical limitations. This would heavily tap into my Love of Learning and could serve as a unique, sci-fi metaphor for overcoming obstacles or disabilities.
Right now, I am leaning toward a concept that mixes these elements—perhaps a cartoon-style narrative game where the player helps a character (or even a robot) navigate a sport while managing a specific disability. My goal is to use humor and kindness to teach the player something new, putting them in someone else’s shoes in a way that feels organic and genuinely fun.
Gemini conversation link
https://g.co/gemini/share/2e16dc0b248a
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