Genom detta kandidatarbete prövar vi på att testa ett annorlunda tillvägagångssätt inom spelutveckling och design, till att försöka skapa en mer innovativ och tilltalande spelprodukt. Med hjälp av termen Critical Play från Mary Flanagan, undersöker vi genom reflektion, diskussion och ifrågasättande, alternativa sätt att tolka världen på. Genom prövning skapar vi en underhållande gestaltning och analyserar ifall Critical Play som utveckling­ och designmetod även går att applicera tillsammans med teorier från medvetandefilosofi i åtanke. Vi ser möjligheter i att föra fram en avvikande spelupplevelse, genom att presentera spelvärlden och dess objekt på ett visuellt asymmetriskt sätt för alla spelare / In this bachelor’s thesis we explore alternative game­design and game­development methods and use them to try to create more innovative and publicly appealing games. Guided by Mary Flanagan’s Critical Play method, we investigate through reflection, discussion, and questioning the other interpretations of how we experience the world. Through tests, we build a video game and analyze whether or not Critical Play is a feasible method for creating games, even when philosophical tenets governs the underlying game mechanics. We discover possibilities to create unique game experiences by presenting game­objects as visually asymmetrical entities.

In the development of digitally connected solutions that require the use of personal data, the issue of data privacy is an important factor that must be taken into account. Simply informing users about how data is used and getting their consent with a simple click is not enough to create awareness of the issue of data privacy and let them make a conscious decision about the use of their personal data. Furthermore, there is a big gap in knowledge about what personal data is and what is considered sensitive data. Especially the knowledge about what biometric identifiers that they are used in a variety of everyday life applications and in which sense the handling can be problematic is unknown.This thesis project explores how the use of critical play in form of an activist game can create awareness of the issue of data privacy, inform about the value of biometric data and foster self-reflection of handling one’s own personal data. Through the simulation of dependencies between personal data, the motivation to share them and the aggregation of personal data in combination with real and prospective use cases, players are empowered to reflect on their behaviour and to critically deal with the topic of data privacy.

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Language is a system that fundamentally influences us as human beings. There are numerous schools of thought critiquing our use of language and celebrating attempts to break free of the control it has over our lives. In that perspective a transformative play with language can be seen as critical play, and a game design approach supporting this kind of play can be defined as critical. The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique invented by the Dadaists in the 1920s. It was the fundamental lack of belief in society and language that gave birth to the cut-up method. Mary Flanagan includes it in her book “Critical Play: Radical Game Design” as part of the critical game-design paradigm. The singer-songwriter Dave Kapell invented Magnetic Poetry in the early 90s inspired by the cut-up technique and how artists such as William Burroughs and David Bowie used in their work. I am a co-founder of Ozma Games – a game studio based in Malmö, Sweden. In Ozma we are working on a social word game called Words of Oz. Magnetic Poetry inspired us in the design of Words of Oz, as we wanted to make a casual game that could evoke players’ creativity. The Dadaists clearly wanted to challenge the way we use language. In this essay I will compare the Dadaist cut-up method with its later adaptations Magnetic Poetry and Words of Oz. My question is whether the critical design approach is sustained in Magnetic Poetry and Words of Oz or if the change in technology and framing has limited the subversive potential from which they originated.