Using game design to explore fears/memories
Have any of you used (or considered using) game design as a way to explore your fears or memories?
When I dream, my brain likes certain settings. Maybe you're the same way.
There's a place I dream about often, based on some woods near where I grew up. I intentionally created an area in Flare that looked like this place. I get a wave of deja-vu everytime I play that area.
I've been out of university for 10 years, yet I still always have stress dreams that I'm back in school and I've forgotten to attend class. I'm starting to wonder if I can use game design to explore or deal with these memories.
Have you ever been so bored in class that you'd fantasize about emergency situations? What if a fire broke out, or a ninja came in through the window, or a bear broke down the door.
How many people dream about forgetting to wear clothes? Or losing their teeth? Or falling and waking up? Can we make games out of those shared experiences?
Any of you make games that were really about your personal memories, fears, etc?
Now I kinda want to make a School tile set. Could be therapeutic.
You know, my futuristic city concept is actually based on some dreams I used to have. One of these days I should get around to making more scenes like that.
But no, I'm not sure making a game based on "forgot my clothes" style dreams is a good idea at all. Dream-like flying, on the other hand, would make a nice game mechanic.
Have any of you guys tried "The Path"? Its structured just like a dream sequence and has very few gameplay mechanics.
That makes the game extremely effective and very interesting.
Btw heres the home page http://thepath-game.com/
I always thought making levels based on bathrooms with overflowing toliets of poop would be an intresting design. Some of the stalls would not have doors and toliets, sinks, showers, and baths could be placed randomly all over in a tile like maze way. Then it would look like a nightmare.