Muru Chen | A Lonely Bird: Trigger Emotion to NPC by Game Mechanic

A Lonely Bird is a 3D experimental game that explores how game mechanics trigger players’ emotional attachments to NPCs.
 

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A lonely bird is a 3D experimental game. It explores how game mechanics can trigger players’ emotional attachments to Non-player characters (NPC), combining with the game narrative. In the game, the player acts as a bird trying to escape the island with the help of a companion.

Emotional attachment is the sense of liking, connection, and closeness that a player feels to NPCs. It can provide ample emotional character experience and willingness for suspension of disbelief, having players more emotionally engaged in games.

I am always fascinated by the emotions between players and NPCs created by narrative. The stories make NPCs more vivid as well as make me more immersive in the game. However, there are many times these emotions are disturbed by game mechanics. Because game mechanics in most games do not consider emotion expressing, they may sometimes have a dissonance with narration. When players experience such conflict, they get a less emotional attachment to NPCs and less sense of immersion. “Ludonarrative Dissonance” has become a common problem in the game industry.

Based on the context, I wrote the research paper exploring whether game mechanics could trigger players’ emotional attachments to NPCs. I found that even though many game theorists suggest that it is hard to balance game narrative and game mechanics, several games achieve that. Inspired by the game Journey and Passage, as well as learning profoundly about emotional attachments, I decided to make a game and explore more potentials of game mechanics to produce emotions.

This project focuses on evoke several common genres of emotions from players, especially “cool and capable” and responsibility. In the game, the player (acting as a bird) will grow trees that will produce eggs. When the egg successfully hatches, the player can get scores. The companion (another bird) will significantly improve the efficiency of the work. Meanwhile, the player needs to take care of the companion. In the end, the player has to choose if the player or the companion can leave the island.