A downloadable game

Artist statement: 

Dystopian Killers explores a future where the advanced development of AI technology has shifted from human civilization to a coexistence of humans and cyborgs. In this futuristic world, rich people are fed up with the monotonous life of humanized technology. They are eager to find somewhere to flashback to the historical era when humans dominated technology and AI. They invested a large amount of money to meet the extravagant demands of those upper-class people. They built up an incredible, hyper-realistic human world where cyborgs are puppets controlled by humans. The stimulated human world is filled with living, robotic creatures but with a realistic natural landscape away from all the fancy, modern technology. As wealthy people strive to gain excitement for their lives, they play different identities around the murder cases, experiencing a game within a game. This game allows players to explore a dystopian world where all NPCs are realistic cyborgs, and two of the players are cyborgs that blend into this ‘No cyborg players’ world. The games offer several types of murder cases, allowing players to conceive the process of the crime scene and the murderer’s motive. The game is designed to encourage the players to reflect on social issues, such as bureaucracy, violence, sexual abuse, money laundering, and mental illness in human society. The unethical cases and behaviour of the players in storytelling guide them to consider how their actions can affect other people’s lives. The game provides four specific types of criminal cases. Each character has their own traits to pitch the story. The game aims to satisfy players’ psychological behaviour of gratification and excitement. The game mixes casual, sassy, and readable tones, matching the wealthy elite's personality. 

According to Blumler and Katz’s (1974) Uses and Gratifications theory, people actively select and communicate specific media to satisfy their needs and achieve specific goals. I am a lover of horror, suspense and thriller genres. I enjoy analyzing crime cases and bringing a sense of excitement to my life. The television series “Westworld”(2016 - 2022), created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy and also cited in the first week of my magpie book, describes a dystopian world where the cyborgs have their consciousness and take revenge for the selfish behaviour of the wealthy people to treat them as a dead object. The themes of dystopian, AI technology, capitalism, humanity, ethical issues and the consciousness of robots in Westworld inspire me to create a game that can reveal the uncovered side of the players, which criticizes the capitalist world. Week 10’s prompt about collecting the fun and decoding the ingredients of fun makes me think more about the critical role that audience reactions and engagement can play in shaping my game’s experiences. Combined with these two creative notes, I added two hours of suspense music background in my game to enhance the storytelling atmosphere for the players. Meanwhile, the mechanism of drawing boxes intrigues the players to join the game narration while supporting some ideas if they think they are lost in the track. After playing this game, I hope my player can reflect on the world where we live and think more about the vulnerable groups in our society. 

Reference:  Williams, Amanda, et al. “Cultivation Theory and Uses and Gratifications Theory (by Amanda Williams).” Insights into Communication Studies Understanding Foundational Theories for Media Literacy, 31 Aug. 2024, pressbooks.openeducationalberta.ca/insightsintocommstudies/chapter/chapter-7-media-effects/.


The link for players to play the background music during the game: 

Background music: Stealth Music | Background Music For Spies, Investigations, Detectives, And Crime Scenes (two hours maximum, cited by FesliyanStudios Background Music)


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DYSTOPIAN KILLERS - TTRPG page .pdf 4.2 MB

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