Prepare to throw yourself into the Abyss of Decision-based Design … or don’t!!

The Chosen Jam is a [two-]month-long Game Jam intended to explore Human Decision-making in Games. Developers are invited to submit Games, Metagames, Assets, and Toys that test the choices players make and search for reasons that they make those choices.

Do actions have consequences? Must they? What constitutes a “meaningful choice”? Is it better to live in the moment, regardless of the outcome? Do the ends justify the means? Do the means justify the ends? How do choices change a person? How do my choices affect others? How can all of this be measured in a playful simulation?

The choice is yours to answer these and more.

Your choices matter in these confines:

• Avoid Deterministic storytelling. If the outcome is inevitable, make the JOURNEY rewarding.
• Avoid fatalism except as a metacommentary. If you must restrict player agency and consequence, focus on the MEANING of restrictions of this kind.
• Avoid heavy-handed satire. Don’t just ape choice to be Ironic, like The Stanley Parable. Pretend that it’s your Life you’re writing.
• Leave room for review!! The choices you make as a developer may require branching.

Have fun, or don’t!!

Rinzai Gigen.

Subliminal Mind Games.