Prompt 1: Describe how the shape of the space influences the feeling of play.
In the game “The Vill”, the initial outside space is organized in a narrow, linear fashion. When the user follows the rough terrain that’s being shaken from an earthquake, they’re presented with two houses. While the earthquake, houses, and outside terrain are all analogues with real-world experiences, the game quickly contrasts this when entering the first house. This red house gives the player the feeling of uneasiness or almost hauntedness similar to Boo’s Mansion from the Mario games. The exit of the house also gives this feeling of hauntedness with the large, eerie mansion doors that act as the exit to the house. The space of the house is discrete and gains the haunted feeling from when the player tries to move into certain places of the house, only for what feels like a ghost to forcefully guide the player to different parts of the house. Inside of this house, the user can go up the stairs; however, once the user tries to go back down the stairs, they just collide with them and are unable to go back down until eventually, the ghost forces them to. While the red house exerts a mysterious and abnormal feeling to the user, the purple home further down the terrain employs a homely and safe feeling by surrounding the player with actors that are the same sprite. As well as there being no ghosts nor abnormal experiences occurring in the purple house, allowing the player to freely explore the inside of this house.