Post by Emma Dee in Discuss your manifesto!

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Another opportunity for long-winded rambling about how much I love this jam? Boy, would I!

First of all I'm so happy with how my entries turned out. I had some plans and intentions beforehand but the actual developing/writing process felt like flying by the seat of my pants. I had a specific vision for how the YSRF Manifesto was to look and feel, and I basically surprised myself at how exactly on point I was able to realize the project. I've always kind of harbored the notion that creating something (even just writing or talking about something) always places a distortion filter around the original idea, so one can never really truly understand the inside of someone else. But idk, this might have taught me that that's not always true.

Also I'm curious about what people think about YSRF games, and if anyone has ideas for existing games (besides my two) that maybe...have some of these elements in them? I always love looking at other games for just feelings and ideas to absorb. There's one game that kinda gives me similar vibes called Backdoor, but there's bound to be more that I just haven't heard of. Half of my life is just coming up with ideas and then finding out that someone else has done something very similar. :'D

The Notecards were born out of the fact that doing the handrwriting part of YSRF was super fun, as well as kind of inspired by the manifesto dumps of mark and ari. Plus like, I didn't realize until now how much pent-up opinion-ness I wanted to let out? (I'm usually very quiet and non-confrontational. I want people to like meee!!!) It was cathartic. Plus...handwriting, which has always been kinda cathartic for me.

Also a thing I think is funny is that, in Roll-Your-Own Manifesto, one of the D20 words is "fish" which I put in there as a random word for lulz, but then one or two of the manifesto entries actually coincidentally used the word "fish" and it made me giddy.

But eNOuGh aBOut me,,,,, I wanna discuss I Was Trying to Make a Game, but my Dog Was Sitting on my Lap, because it's one (of maaaany many) that really stuck with me! It frames the conversation of inclusivity in a way that was new to me. Plus the whole game is so carefully crafted to be soft and contemplative, which I love. I love the winding path you take while reading that makes you take it slow and think, similar to like the concept of labyrinths? The path could also be a symbol of the journey of a gamedev. I love the pink. I love the dog. I love the secret hidden messages! It's like eating cotton candy.

I could go into more manifestos specifically, or talk about what I've learned from this jam as a whole, but I think I'll stop there for now; my friend and I are gonna go out for sushi.

TL;DR THIS JAM IS GREAT AN I LUFF IT

Oportet6 years ago

While reading the YSRF manifesto, I couldn't help thinking of Pikmin. Admittedly, it was already on my mind (I already mentioned it in my own manifesto), but the game technically satisfies many of the manifesto's requirements.

You're a human-ish explorer stuck on an alien world, with your only speaking companion being your ship's sassy AI. While the titular Pikmin have debatable sentience, they don't speak your language. The only friend you have is a talking machine, whose well-being is tied to yours. It knows its purpose, and it complains about it sometimes, but its grumblings never amount to anything. Meanwhile, you're exploring a post-apocalyptic Earth where humanity has gone extinct, only known through small baubles they left behind - many of which are electronics. There's even some hybrid animal-machine creatures that have become a natural part of the ecosystem after literal eons of human absence, suggesting human technology has permanently and profoundly changed what "natural" means.

As to whether the game "explores the relationships between humans and technology", I'd say no. Your ship's interactions are limited outside of brief cutscenes; it does things, but its lack of agency makes it easy to forget. Yeah, it accompanies you throughout your adventures, but it always feels distant, like its sentience doesn't change much. Characterizing humanity through their possessions is neat, but the characterization only comes through diary entries segregated from the gameplay; neat, but too easily missed to be communicated clearly. And the whole machine ecosystem thing is only explained, again, through optional diary entries. And the living machine entries don't even reflect gameplay.

I think that might say something about YSRF as a genre. You can have a YSRF narrative, but without gameplay integration, you aren't a YSRF game. There needs to be some reason to take notice of machines' personalities, or else they become just another source of exposition. If your gameplay is the narrative ala visual novels or Telltale-style adventure games, then you're set. But if you're making, say, an FPS, then your talking gun needs to be more than a gun. Though considering how frustrated players become when they have to look after their equipment, YSRF might be incompatible with action games. Then again, personifying technology gives the player a ton of new stuff to get emotionally attached to, which might make the tradeoff worth it.

Okay, one manifesto down! Aaaaaaaaand about a dozen more to go. My "overanalyze everything" approach might need tweaking.

Emma Dee6 years ago

Oh my gosh, this is beautiful! "You can have a YSRF narrative, but without gameplay integration, you aren't a YSRF game." is such a powerful phrase and it's really gonna stick with me moving forward. Both the Machine and Human working together -- not only through narrative but through gameplay as well -- is definitely a big theme that I think is valuable in YSRF games.

I've (sadly) never played a Pikmin game, but I'd love to look into it for inspiration. Thank you for the mention!

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