Prompt 2: Drawing on Doris Rusch's account of games as expressive media, describe how the abstract rules simulate some real-world system.
This game," 初雪", is about a girl meeting the first snow in a year. My role is a girl who seems to study in an elementary school. Another boy is walking around in the first scene, the classroom. The boy makes players feel like they are really in a school because there are other classmates. The main mechanic in this game is walking and interacting with items. In the first scene, the girl has to turn in the homework and leave the classroom. The girl goes outside and enjoys the snow scene in the second scene. In this scene, the snowflakes are resources. They fall on the ground, and the players have to catch them to continue walking. It makes the game like real-world because children like to catch snowflakes in real life. In the third scene, the girl goes back home. She can interact with hot chocolate, fire, sweet potato, and bed. The rule is to get close to these items and press the "Z" button to interact. These are things that people could have after getting back home from cold places. Drinking hot drinks and using the fireplace to keep warm these actions make the game more real. In the end, the character goes to bed and fall asleep. After sleeping, she has a dream of going outside again to see the first snow. These four scenes add up to a day in a girl's life, going to school, watching the snow, going home, and going to bed. Each part is very consistent, so it is very much like the real world.