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Cultural-specific mechanics (Case study: Agave VR): can mechanics in games reflect cultural values?

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Content Cultural-Specific Mechanics
(Case study: Agave VR)
Can mechanics in games reflect cultural values?
By
Hesiquio Mendez Alejo
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC CINEMA TIC ARTS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(Interactive Media)
May 2021
2021 Hesiquio Mendez Alejo
Dedication
I dedicate this thesis in memory of Jeff Watson. Jeff encouraged me to move forward when I was
hesitant about working on this framework.
ii
Acknowledgments
I would first like to thank my thesis chair, Andreas Kratky, and faculty advisor Sean
Bloom for helping me with this project and believe in me. Thank you so much for helping me
with my struggles, doubt, and experiments; I really appreciate your patience. I would also like to
thank Damon Packwood for supporting, providing resources, and lending his time to go over the
project in this document.
I would also like to thank the rest of the Interactive Media and Games department at the
USC School of Cinematic: Laird and Carl for all the advice and patience this past year. Richard,
I participate in your wise words and guidance in game design. Margaret, I would not have gotten
this far without your teachings in game development. Thank you, Peter, for our conversation and
guidance while working on Cats Your Vote. Martzi and Jesse, I appreciate your help and
teachings on augmented reality and sound design. Tracy, Danny, Sam, and Collin, thank you so
much for everything you do for your students.
The production of Agave VR would now have been possible without the help of the team:
Omar Uraimov(Technical Designer), Carys Gooi (3D Artists), Jacob Ruttenberg (Adio Design),
Jonathan Morales (Technical Artist), Juan Morales (UI/UX Designer), and Mariana Arizagui
(Producer). Thank you so much for your contribution and help with the project.
I want to extend my gratitude to my mentors and family, and friends: Robin Hunicke and
Elizabeth Swensen; Thank you so much for all the support and guidance in my game
development journey. Maria Alejo Roldan and Juan Pablo Mendez Zarate, my parents, both of
you, taught me to work hard and be playful. Mariana Arizmendi Aguilar, thank you for all the
support, help, and patience in this journey. Frenchie, Juan, and Johnny Thank you all for the
support.
iii
Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
List of Figures v
Abstract vi
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation 1
1.2 Inspiration 2
2.0 Foundation 4
2.1 Mechanics 4
2.2 Culture, Values and Community 4
3.0 Cultural Values as Mechanics - The Framework 6
3.1 The Personal 6
3.2 The Internal 6
3.3 The External 7
3.4 Connecting the Framework 8
3.5 Other thoughts 11
4.0 Implementation of cultural mechanics in Agave VR 12
4.1 The Personal 12
4.2 The Internal 12
4.3 The External 14
4.3.1 Quetzalcoatl Prototype: 14
4.3.2 Conejo and Coyote Prototype 17
5.0 Agave VR from actions to mechanics 19
5.1 Other Intangibles as inspiration. 22
5.2 Developing Narrative Beats: 22
Game Loop 25
Artstyle 26
5.3 The overlooked challenges 28
6.0 Other’s Work in this Area. 30
7.0 Conclusion 34
Bibliography 36
v
List of Figures
Figure 1: Framework for Cultural-Specific Mechanics 10
Figure 2: Quetzalcoatl Prototype Storyboard 15
Figure 3: Quetzalcoatl Movement 15
Figure 4: Quetzalcoatl Collecting Maiz 16
Figure 5: Concept Art for UI 17
Figure 6: UI Implementation 17
Figure 7: The Rabbit and the Coyote world view. 18
Figure 8: Visual process of Ixtle. 20
Figure 9: Sketch of verbs and actions in VR 20
Figure 10: Caterpillar from the agave 21
Figure 11: List of verbs from the caterpillar. 21
Figure 12: Rey Condoy Dance - shorturl.at/gioCY 22
Figure 13: Tangible and Meaningful team table 23
Figure 14: Verbs to Mechanics in Agave VR 24
Figure 15: Climax team table 25
Figure 16: Agave VR System flowchart 26
Figure 17: Agave paintings 27
Figure 18: 3D Models reference 27
Figure 19: Agave VR art 28
Figure 20: Never Alone screenshot 29
Figure 21: Mulaka screenshot 30
Figure 22: When Rivers Were Trails screenshot 31
v
Abstract
This paper establishes a framework to think about cultural representation from a
mechanics perspective in game development. This process focuses on obtaining mechanics based
on actions that reinforce cultural values through collaboration with communities. This
framework is based on previous experimentation, personal projects, and industry projects that
discuss specific cultures. This paper will describe the motivations for developing a framework
and define the culture, values, and mechanics. Drawing from this framework while also helping
the process, this document presents a case study. Agave VR is built around the relationship
between the player and nature. The player’s primary experience goals are to feel gratitude and
appreciation for the land and the agave plant. These experiences are based on the relationship
between indigenous people and nature and the cultural practices of giving back to nature when
taking from it. These goals are approached through a survival game experience where the player
must use the land’s resources to survive and give back to the land that is providing these
resources.
vi
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
I was taught the "Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics: A Formal Approach to Game
Design" (MDA) by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek.; an approach to game
design taught at UC Santa Cruz. We focused on Aesthetics, which is what makes the game "fun"
(2). and emotional design goals. This framework is an excellent approach to game design that
empowers games to unfold an emotional outcome that the player will experience.
While learning how to make games during my undergraduate studies, I wanted to talk
about my culture and experiences. I looked for examples and methodologies to create games
with serious topics. I found unique pieces and games with different structures and experiences
that reflect the cultural stories, but what the player can do in these games or experiences often
does not reflect the culture. Instead, they use common mechanics in popular video games like
running and jumping in platformers. In action-adventure games, it is common to destroy part of
the game environment to progress or obtain objects. These mechanics can force the player to
disrespect a culture if the environment or place represents a culture.
For my undergraduate capstone, I designed a game about my culture. I, too, fell into a
similar situation of wanting to create a platformer where the main mechanics are running and
jumping. This choice was because I loved platformers. I still remember professor Elizabeth
Swensen from UC Santa Cruz asking me, "How does running and jumping tell the story about
your culture and values?" This question led me to think about my choices as a game designer for
my undergraduate capstone. Juanito el Nahualito is a short puzzle-based narrative experience
1
about a teenager learning about his cultural background. For this game, I applied the MDA
framework with some additions. The experience goals were: love towards family and kindness
towards nature; these were also the cultural values I wanted to portray. Juanito el Nahualito was
my first attempt at creating value-based mechanics but that was not the main focus of the project.
I wanted to be true to the culture, so I decided to collaborate with part of the indigenous
community. However, reflecting back, I feel I did not have an established structure to develop the
game mechanics and ended up recycling puzzle adventure mechanics. Rather than portraying
their values through mechanics that aligned better with their culture, I was focused more on
communicating their values through the story.
For this reason, I wanted to learn more about game design and pursued graduate studies. I
think this was the right approach since my experience at the University of Southern California
has allowed me to experiment and learn different game design methodologies. I truly have
enjoyed learning about game development with the professors there.
1.2 Inspiration
I believe that games coming from a cultural perspective should take the time to explore
new mechanics that represent the culture, just as we also take care of not misrepresenting and
using stereotypes. Of course, this is a separate topic but related to games that have cultural
aspects in them. My inspiration for looking into exploring mechanics comes from various
sources. From looking into how values influence our design choice, which comes from Values at
Play in Digital Games by Mary Flanagan and Helen Nissenbaum, the main thing that resonated
with me was to realize how our values influence our decision-making when designing games.
The notion that values are embedded in technology motivates a practical turn in the work
on values in design. We can do more than simply demonstrate systematic relationship
2
between technology and values; we can do something about it. If we accept that
technology can embody values, the practical turn allows designers to and producers to
consider ethical and political concerns alongside more typical engineering
ideals.(Flanagan et al. 9)
The book briefly talks about culture but does not go in-depth. I take Flanagan's approach to look
into my cultural values. I come from Oaxaca, and in my family, our indigenous values have been
embedded into our everyday life. Values such as respect and appreciation of our nature,
collective work for the community's good, and family values like respecting and appreciating our
elder's knowledge are present and consistent. These are also some of the values I explore for
mechanics in Agave VR.
An essential piece of work that inspires this work comes from Brenda Romero's The
Mechanics Is The Message, which suggests that the participant's engagement makes the player
part of the experience rather than an observer. I chose Virtual Reality(VR) to explore new
mechanics because it allowed for gesture-based mechanics and emergent gameplay. The
difference between pushing a button to represent the value of respect and the gestures that are
embedded in indigenous cultures and can be represented in using hands in VR can make a
difference in the player experience to relate to the values.
When thinking about cultural values, one must also remember the importance of what
Damon Packwood calls "Cultural Aesthetics."(Packwood 35:26-38:00) What other previous
experiences does the culture have, and how can those inspire new experiences? Active
experiences from cultures like music, sports, art, dances, and rituals one can look into for
inspiration and how they can be applied in game design. I looked at gestures in dances and rituals
from my community to create mechanics in Agave VR.
3
2.0 Foundation
2.1 Mechanics
Mechanics is an essential part of what defines games: Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans'
definition of mechanics from Game Mechanics Advanced Game Design. "Mechanics are the
rules, processes, and data at the heart of the game. They define how play progresses, what
happens when, and conditions determine victory or defeat".(1) The definition I will be using for
the framework developed in this document, comes from MDA: A Formal Approach to Game
Design and Game Research "Mechanics are the various actions, behaviors, and control
mechanisms afforded to the player within a game context."(Hunicke et al. 3) In both of these
definitions, we can agree that mechanics are the rules we allow for the player to interact with or
do in the game. I primarily focus on creating "actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms"
through cultural values. Often in game design, we also refer to these as verbs, as in actions we
allow for the player to do through gameplay. In this framework, I look into extracting verbs
representing cultural values and practices that reinforce those values.
2.2 Culture, Values and Community
“Culture taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits.” The
word “culture” carries a general concept representing and reflecting ways of life that
include rules, values, knowledge, experiences, and behaviors. (Brennan 4)
This definition of culture allows us to understand that culture is a cyclic system where
people can grow in, practice, experience, and learn from others who are also part of the system.
4
Defining values can be pretty complex, but for this paper’s scope, we are going to borrow
Flanagan’s definition of values.
Values are properties or things and states of affairs that we care about and strive to attain.
They are similar to goals, purposes, and ends, but usually, they possess a higher degree of
gravitas and permanence, and they tend to be more abstract and general. (Flanagan 5)
With this definition, we can agree that values are important and meaningful goals and purposes.
Values are also critical in ethical studies since they also can lead to an understanding and a way
of living to get to those meaningful goals and purposes. This definition leads us to think about
values from a cultural perspective that a community may practice. Lastly, a community is
defined as a unified body of individuals or nations with a common cultural and historical
heritage, values, social, economic, or political interest. I think about communities as a
representation of a culture that practices cultural values through their ways of living.
5
3.0 Cultural Values as Mechanics - The Framework
This framework comes from three points of view, the personal, which goes into
evaluating the designer(s) biases and values; the internal, which refers to the internal perspective
of the culture; and the external, which allows us to see and study the culture through research.
Through this process, designers need to keep notes of the critical values, and because of scope
(limited time in the development process), they may only be able to choose a few of those
values. Once they have gone through this process, they will end up with verbs and actions that
reinforce those values and help develop meaningful mechanics.
3.1 The Personal
The "personal" part of this framework borrows from the conscientious designer
mentioned in Values at Play in Digital Games by Mary Flanagan. To understand game
development and games' capabilities as a medium, designers must also understand their own
biases and approach towards game development. Designers must look at their values and most
important values within their surroundings, including their family values. The search for personal
values is an endeavor to figure out what is essential for the designer and how those values shape
their work. The designer must identify how their values and biases impact their work and how
they will impact the players.
3.2 The Internal
A community is the physical representation of culture. Culture does not act
independently; it is the practice of rituals and practices of a group or groups that practice beliefs,
6
arts, costumes, and traditions. The internal part of the process refers to a connection or clear
communication with the people who practice the cultural values. As designers, we have to make
sure that the community's voice is heard and that the community is part of the process. This part
of the process helps us not to misrepresent the community and the culture.
What does this communication look like? One must approach leaders, representatives,
elders, organizations, or groups of people who are part of the community and practice preserving
the culture. One must also remember that the community can choose their stories, values, or
practices not to be shared outside their community and respect that decision. This approach
allows us to present the game project, ideas, and plans, where the target audience is the
community, and we seek for the community’s consent. If the community approached the
designer, the designer should still keep the communication strong and ongoing in the process.
After creating this bond and clear communication, the designers and community must look for
the values and stories and agree on these.
3.3 The External
When talking about a culture that one may not be a part of, it can be a challenge when
one is looking to represent the culture. I think it's important to acknowledge and look to work
with anthropologists, ethnographers, and sociologists. One must also recognize co-design
practices when working with a vulnerable population. For scope purposes, we will have a
focused view on cultural heritage in this step. In entertainment media, we often see stereotypes
of other cultures that lead to misrepresentation. We can do better by examining and
understanding different elements that compose culture, specifically cultural heritage. We can
understand cultural heritage through two lenses: The tangible and the intangible. The
7
physical/material can represent the tangible cultural heritage; these are easier to identify and
represent visually; examples of these are buildings, places, tools, etc. UNESCO refers to
Intangible heritage as elements that represent the culture without being tangible; examples of
these are language, chants, dances, rituals, knowledge, festivities, etc. These approaches give
identity to culture as much as the community that practices and uses them.
We can see culture well represented in various visual media from those tangible and
intangible aspects of cultural heritage, like documentaries, films, interviews; where images are
reinforced with discourse, chants, music, testimonials, interviews, etc., from a specific culture.
An approach that can introduce a culture to the team could be recollecting from different media
and previous works that have already approached the culture. Not only do we have to study these
resources, but we have to understand and dissect them through a value, actions, and verbs
perspective. We must understand the intangible through actions and symbolism of previous
work.
3.4 Connecting the Framework
This process considers designers that may or may not be part of the culture. In either
case, I think it is essential to establish how we use the designer's biased evaluation. These biases
should not be enforced in a project or projected to reinforce those onto the players. Suppose one
is part of a community from the culture. In that case, they can access personal experiences,
practices, values, family who may also be part of and practice those values, which allows for
perhaps more straightforward access to the culture. Still, it is also essential to realize that other
perspectives from the culture exist, which may allow for a richer experience while also serving
as a way to correct for possible biases of the designer. It is important that any representation is
8
developed in thorough exchange with other members of the culture. Personal experience does not
mean they(the designer) can represent the culture or community. If the designer does not have
this access because they may not be part of the culture, they must rely on the community (the
internal) and the external parts of the process.
9
Figure 1: Framework for Cultural-Specific Mechanics
10
3.5 Other thoughts
Through sharing this process with other peers in game development, a question often
comes up: "What If I do not like some values from my culture?" I like to think that this process
may allow us to use games to talk about topics like this. I acknowledge that there are practices
and values that I cannot entirely agree with within my culture, and I think we should talk about
them. To directly address some of the values that we might disagree with, I think we can use the
cultural-specific mechanics framework.
11
4.0 Implementation of cultural mechanics in Agave VR
4.1 The Personal
As an indigenous immigrant, I have made games about my identity; what it means to be
indigenous and immigrant. In my values, my parents have been the source of shaping those
values, the importance of identity, and hard work. In my family, we grew up with a strong sense
of identity as indigenous and what that means. We are from the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, a
Zapotec region. Oaxaca is well known for its music, dances, art, and food. As a family, we were
part of dances, learned how to play music, and participated in community performances; we
learned how to take care of our elders, learn from them and respect their knowledge from
working in the land. We are taught to preserve our rituals through art and dance. The value of
maintaining our culture, nature, and our elders is essential to me and has impacted my work, and
this is what I like to show to my audience.
4.2 The Internal
I was not born part of the Zapotec community but was integrated into the community
very early. My siblings and I learned traditional dances and were part of traditional musical
groups, which instilled an appreciation for the traditional community values in us. These
practices were essential to our community. We practiced something called Tequio or Gozona,
which roughly translates to working for a community's collective benefit (for the greater good).
As part of the community, we contribute to some labor or practice to continue our communal
traditions. The community that my family and I are part of traverses borders and are not only
12
located in the town of origin (Oaxaca, Mexico). Yet, our sense of community stays even as we
move to a different state or country.
Going back to my motherland was always a fantastic experience. Celebrating our
traditions with the family and community was always the event of the year. In this and other
celebrations, I recall seeing a specific ritual of a bull's sacrifice for the community to eat. Before
eating it, we thank the land and the animal for letting us celebrate our traditions, and some of the
blood of the bull would go into a hole in the soil along with other plants, vegetables. This ritual
of giving back to the land and thanking it is common practice in other indigenous traditions;
when drinking Mezcal, one must thank the land and pour a bit into the soil before it is drunk. Our
town is a beautiful mountain full of trees and hills with small cornfields and agave plants. Our
town is known for making artisanal Mezcal. One of the most memorable things I remember was
seeing how the community who lived in the town would take care of the agave.
For this part of the process, I started a conversation with the Mezcalero (Mezcal maker).
We talked about the tradition of taking care of the land and the importance of respecting the
plant. I also spoke to people from the community and spoke about the ritual of giving back and
the importance of preserving nature and tradition. Respect towards nature, balance in nature.
Receiving and giving back to the land were the most important values that we talked about. I
was also able to talk to a composer from the area. In which we talked about the importance of the
agave and our communities values. The composer(Honorio Cano Soto) is well known in our
communities and wrote a piece and sang the game's music. After deciding on these values for the
internal, we can move on to the process's external part.
13
4.3 The External
During the summer of 2020, I recruited people to be part of the development of Agave
VR. This group of amazing people who helped develop Agave VR is a diverse group of game
developers who were not familiar with the agave plant and the strong connection with Mexican
culture. I took this as an opportunity to develop the external part of the framework. We, as a
team, prototyped different concepts that were associated with Mexican culture. We chose to
spend three to four weeks on each prototype.
4.3.1 Quetzalcoatl Prototype:
First, we looked at two stories to prototype. The first one was about a Mesoamerican god,
Quetzalcoatl. From the beginning, I wanted to talk about a relationship with nature. The story
was about how Quetzalcoatl came to earth from space to teach the Aztecs about corn. This
prototype was a non-VR game and was focused on the feeling of flying, collecting corn, and
taking it to earth. This prototype was very focused on the story more than discovering new
mechanics and values.
14
Figure 2: Quetzalcoatl Prototype Storyboard (by Juan Morales)
Figure 3: Quetzalcoatl Movement
15
Figure 4: Quetzalcoatl Collecting Maiz
Prototype Video (https://bit.ly/399HGPy)
16
4.3.2 Conejo and Coyote Prototype
In the second prototype, we looked at another story; we prototyped a Zapotec story. The
Rabbit and the Coyote story was brought up to prototype because a famous painter from Oaxaca
interpreted the story in drawings and paintings; we wanted to do a similar concept but create our
interpretation in game form. We experimented with VR in this prototype because we wanted the
player to play as an observer to help the rabbit solve puzzles. In the story, the rabbit escapes from
the coyote and climbs a ladder to the moon. In this VR prototype, the player plays as the moon.
We still wanted to practice and explore the value of giving back. As the moon, the player helps
the rabbit to escape from the coyote. The player would guide the rabbit by pointing at an area on
the map, and the rabbit would follow that light. The moon would be spending its light to help the
rabbit not fall prey to the coyote.
UI: Moon Light
Figure 5: Concept Art for UI Figure 6: UI Implementation
17
World
Since the player takes on the moon's role, we thought of letting the player control a small
floating space for each puzzle. With one hand, the player would be able to rotate the world, and
with the other one, the player would be able to use their light.
Figure 7: The Rabbit and the Coyote world view.
Prototype Video (https://bit.ly/31f1yfF)
18
5.0 Agave VR from actions to mechanics
For the third and last prototype of the method's exploration, I wanted to explore the
intangible cultural heritage of one important tangible object from my culture. I thought of the
agave plant since that has a vital significance in various Mexican indigenous communities, and
there are records and stories about it. I first thought of products that the agave can produce and
then proceeded to list those products, interviews, and documentaries that talk about the agave
and other art forms that the agave has inspired.
After listing out the products that come from the agave plant, we chose different items
and listed the actions and verbs related to the product's process. This exercise allowed the whole
team to learn more about the agave plant. In this exercise, I also asked to imagine how we could
translate those actions and verbs into VR mechanics. Here are some examples that came out of
that exercise.
19
For Example:
Juan Morales chose Ixtle:
Ixtle is a fiber that comes from the agave and is used to make garment, or rope. Juan wrote down
verbs/actions and the process of Ixtle and sketched our ideas on how to approach it in game
form, specifically in VR.
Figure 8: Visual process of Ixtle.
Figure 9: Sketch of verbs and actions in VR
20
Hesiquio Mendez Chose: Caterpillar Agave.
Caterpillar that grows in the agave is a plague; this plague is valuable since it's used to flavor
Mezcal, season food, and can also be a snack.
Figure 10: Caterpillar from the agave Figure 11: List of verbs from the caterpillar.
21
5.1 Other Intangibles as inspiration.
We have dances that reference the value of giving back to the land. This specific dance
recreates the ritual I mentioned earlier, and through studying, I thought of recreating the gesture
of respectfully receiving. In Agave VR, the player uses this gesture to ask for seeds and other
resources around the environment respectfully.
Dance Gestures.
Figure 12: Rey Condoy Dance - shorturl.at/gioCY
5.2 Developing Narrative Beats:
Although Agave VR is focused on developing mechanics, the team looked at values and
verbs related to the agave's cultural values and the community's values. We developed story beats
while developing the mechanics for the game. The verbs that we got through our exploration
helped to create the story arc of the experience.
22
Beat 1: Opening (Sunset)
● The first thing the player sees is an old maguey plant in a relatively barren landscape. As
the player approaches, the plant begins to die, leaving the player with a handful of seeds.
● The land communicates with the player by showing them a large rock with painted
instructions on planting the seeds.
● The player must then dig or find a hole in the ground and plant the seeds.
Before Establishing this beat, I asked the team the following questions for the opening of the
experience:
You put on the VR Headset.
1. What do you see? (Tangible)
2. What do you interact with? (Tangible)
3. What is the first thing you do? (Meaningful)
Figure 13: Tangible and Meaningful team table
Beat 2: Rising Action (Rain)
23
● As night falls and it begins to rain, the player is introduced to the body heat resource. The
land communicates again with a painted rock instructing the player on how to make fire.
● The player must find sticks and place the firestick in the firepit to create fire. The player
also receives a smaller rock with a fire symbol that they put in the instruction rock.
I asked the team the following questions for the rising action of the experience :
1. How does the player interact with the world? (Tangible)
2. What is the player learning from interacting? (Intangible)
Figure 14: from Verbs to Mechanics in Agave VR
Beat 3: Climax (Morning)
● The player cannot do much with the baby maguey yet and receive appropriate feedback if
they attempt to manipulate it.
24
● As before, the player receives instructions from the land to consume or plant seeds. The
player is also introduced to the health resource as they begin to get hungry.
Figure 15: Climax team table
Beat 4: Resolution
● At this point the player is familiar with the various systems the game has to offer,
allowing them to enter the true test: survival.
Game Loop
In Agave VR, the main objective of the game is to take care of the agave. For the player
to help the agave grow, they must survive. To survive, the player must balance their body heat
and hunger. In Agave VR, after learning how to plant, obtain seeds, make a fire to increase body
heat, the player must survive to see the agave grow.
25
Figure 16: Agave VR System flowchart
Artstyle
We looked for art styles from various Mexican painters for inspiration. We looked for
different ways the agave has been represented. For the world, we chose low-poly for our art style
for scope purposes, and most of the world has been texture painted.
26
MoodBoard
Figure 17: Agave paintings
Art Style and Lighting
Figure 18: 3D Models reference
Game Art
27
Figure 19: Agave VR art
5.3 The overlooked challenges
These past nine months, the team and I have been working hard to push the project's
development simultaneously with the framework. One of the biggest challenges has been getting
a reasonable amount of playtesting. The cause of the shortage of playtesting has been the current
world situation with Covid. We have been testing, but it has not been as much as we wanted.
With the feedback we got, we know that players understand the importance of rituals, the game's
gestures, and nature. I think this goes well with the values we aimed to have. The challenge I
have contemplated the most is perhaps players not recognizing the culture the values come from.
Still, we have constantly checked the tangibles we used and made sure we did not use tangibles
without the intangible.
28
The next steps for making the Agave VR culture to be recognized are to add more context
to the project. An example of adding context could be to add an animation to a story similar to
what we prototyped in the Quetzalcoatl prototype. We could add an animation of previous
humans learning how to take care of the agave in a prehispanic style, along with perhaps
someone from the community telling the story about it.
29
6.0 Other’s Work in this Area.
I think that perhaps the most well-known work in this field of study is the game Never
Alone. Never Alone is a puzzle-platformer adventure game based on Iñupiat culture from Alaska.
This game did a great job of making sure the experience does not misrepresent the culture. This
is a true collaboration with the Iñupiat communities. Although I find the game mechanics' main
component to be running and jumping, I think it goes well with the urgency to restore balance
from the story. I also see the balance between the tangibles and intangibles, which means that
they use the culture's physical components as part of the gameplay and explain how they are
essential to the culture(through live-action video of members of the community interspersed
throughout).
This example is a unique example of collaboration since the Iñupiat approached game
developers to develop a game. From this framework perspective, the second step (The Internal)
was evident. From watching some interviews, Step three (The External) was also apparent.
Developers were very much inspired by the art and stories from the community. From my
perspective, I think developers truly listened to the community and put themselves as a platform
for the culture and their values to be preserved in game form.
30
Figure 20: Never Alone screenshot
Another game that I think connects culture to gameplay well is the game Mulaka. Mulaka
is a 3D action-adventure game based on the Tarahumara culture. I think this game does well in
the game's storytelling aspect, and I think mechanics are mostly well known from other
action-adventure games. I believe that some of the game design choices are great because they
work to immerse the player further while simultaneously representing parts of the culture. An
example of this is unlimited stamina for the main character, which the Tarahumara Raramuri are
known for running ultra-marathons and their high level of endurance.
Furthermore, it does a great job at acknowledging respect towards the plants from the
area and their value; the game shows their importance through harvesting them(the aloe plant)
and using them as a health resource. The Juki is another acknowledged plant but cannot be
collected, which is a sign of preservation of the plant. My concern with some game mechanics in
Mulaka is that even though the story is about protecting against evil spirits through combat, the
main character also destroys the environment to progress and collect resources for the main
character to survive the battles.
31
I think this project does well on understanding the cultural values, and from the
framework proposed in this document, the values may lead to mechanics related to them. This
project, I think, shows those values in the story well and not in the mechanics as much.
Figure 21: Mulaka screenshot
Another fantastic game that I think does a terrific job with storytelling and teaching about
the indigenous culture of an Anishinaabeg is When Rivers Were Trails, a 2D point and click
adventure game. This game is fantastic because it balances the tangibles well with the
intangibles. Throughout the game, we see the importance of respect towards the elders by trading
and gifting artifacts, food, and stories. The game shows us the importance of community,
knowledge, and negotiation. I find it interesting to see how the affordances of point and click
told this story. One thing that this game inspired me to think about is how we can show respect
with mechanics.
32
Figure 22: When Rivers Were Trails screenshot
33
7.0 Conclusion
When designing about culture in games, I think it is important not to stereotype or
misrepresent the culture. I think this goes with reinforcing the values of the culture that the
communities find important and represents them. As part of game development, I think
supporting those values can be done through mechanics. By adding this framework to a game
development process, I think we can do a better job at finding and exploring mechanics that are
closer to the culture. I also acknowledge finding these mechanics may not be easy to implement
or iterate, but I genuinely think we can get closer with this thought process.
Agave VR used this process and helped create a more genuine experience to the culture's
values. The team experienced finding verbs through the actions and processes that helped
develop Agave VR mechanics while also appreciating the agave plant's importance for the
culture.The appreciation and understanding of the tangibles, intangibles, and values, were
obtained through the external and internal parts of the framework this document proposes.
One of the most impactful comments from one of the teammates regarding what they
found meaningful was how the people who take care of the agave plant create a close
relationship, for which we tried to focus on the game and helped shape the experience. This
process also allowed us to add the community's expertise. In this case, an agronomist works with
the agave daily. This process also allowed me to realize that this experience can be accessed and
understood even if the player is not part of the culture and that it is okay if the player does not
recognize the culture.
The first step of this framework is to understand the designer's values and biases. My
values are expressed early on in this document, but biases were not. My biases for Agave VR
were that only people from the culture might create a stronger connection with the experience.
34
Still, I have understood the commonalities in different cultures throughout this process and
playtesting. Combining the three steps from the framework is essential to understand the impact
that values in mechanics can make on players and designers.
35
Bibliography
Adams, Ernest, and Joris Dormans. Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design. New
Riders, 2012.
Phillips, R., Brennan, M.A., & Li, T. (2020). Culture, Community, and Development (1st
ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.libproxy1.usc.edu/10.4324/9780429489181
“Cultural Aesthetics in Video Game Education(Min: 27).” Performance by Damon
Packwood, GDC Vault, 2018, www.gdcvault.com/play/1025111/Educators.
Flanagan, Mary, and Helen Fay. Nissenbaum. Values at Play in Digital Games. MIT Press,
2014.
Romero, Brenda. “The Mechanic Is the Message.” Brenda Romero, 2009,
brenda.games/work-1.
Hunicke Robin,Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek. 2004. “MDA: A Formal Approach to
Game Design and Game Research.” Game Developers’ Conference. San Jose.
http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf.
“Community.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/community.
“What Is Intangible Cultural Heritage?” UNESCO,
ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003.
36

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Asset Metadata

Creator Mendez Alejo, Hesiquio (author)

Core Title Cultural-specific mechanics (Case study: Agave VR): can mechanics in games reflect cultural values?

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 04/14/2021

Defense Date 04/14/2021

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Agave,culture in games,game mechanics,Games,games design,OAI-PMH Harvest,serious games,virtual reality

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Kratky, Andreas (committee chair), Bouchard, Sean (committee member), Packwood, Damon (committee member)

Creator Email hmendeza@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-441763

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