This is a game about dark patterns in game design. Dark patterns are game design approaches that leverage the developer’s advantage to manipulate and exploit the players in order to maximize profit. Dark patterns are ubiquitous nowadays, and we believe they are unsustainable for both players’ experience and industry development, so we made this game for the players to raise their awareness and reflections. In this game, the player will play as a game designer in a blueprint-like workspace. They will first need to place the basic game modules (such as the basic system and gameplay) on the canvas and connect them together to build a game loop. Then simulated players will appear and move around the cycle and quit after some time. At this point, the players will be offered the option to attach dark patterns (such as pay-to-skip and game ads) on the game modules. Each dark pattern the player implements will erode the simulated game’s reputation, yet it will also bolster the profits. As the game concludes, the player will realize that the true measure of success lies not in the game’s reputation, but in its profitability. We also added a dashboard for all commercial data in the game and a player review page in order to make the progression more comprehensible.
Team Four People:
- Chao Liu
- Xinchen Gong
- Haoran Feng
- SIHUI LIU
