University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Free Will: a video game

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Free Will: a video game

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Content FREE WILL, A VIDEO GAME
by
Celine Tang
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May 2024
Copyright © 2024 Celine Tang

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the USC Games faculty, staff and students for their support of Free Will, and
offering us a space to experiment with this game. Thank you to those who spent time playtesting Free
Will, and offered their valuable feedback. Thank you to my family for believing in me. Thank you to my
team for their great effort and passion. Without my team, this game would have always been a dream of
mine, yet never to come true.
Special thanks to Sean Bouchard, Kiki Benzon, Martzi Campos, and Laird Malamed, who
advised my journey and offered me guidance and support throughout.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iii
Abstract...........................................................................................................................................iv
Chapter 1: Why did I make Free Will?............................................................................................ 1
Chapter 2: Free Will in Video Games..............................................................................................3
Chapter 3: Inspirations and References........................................................................................... 4
3.1 Narrative Inspiration............................................................................................................ 4
3.2 Mechanic Inspiration........................................................................................................... 5
3.3 Influence of the Milgram Experiment..................................................................................6
Chapter 4: Narrative.........................................................................................................................8
Chapter 5: Developing mechanics................................................................................................. 11
5.1 Answering the Thesis Question......................................................................................... 13
Chapter 6: Production Process.......................................................................................................14
6.1 Designing the Production Timeline................................................................................... 16
6.2 Happy Production Tips...................................................................................................... 18
6.3 Integrating Steam...............................................................................................................19
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 21
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 22
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Abstract
This thesis paper explores the development and conceptual journey behind the creation of Free
Will, a narrative-driven video game designed to challenge players' perceptions of agency and morality
within the constraints of a deterministic world. The author initially approached the project as a reflection
on the absence of free will, inspired by philosophical determinism and observations of player behavior in
video games. However, as the development progressed, the author's beliefs began to shift, leading to a
deeper exploration of the nuanced nature of free will and moral responsibility.
Drawing inspiration from indie games such as Undertale and The Stanley Parable, as well as
real-world psychological experiments like the Milgram experiment, Free Will integrates metafictional
elements and unconventional gameplay mechanics to immerse players in a narrative that blurs the lines
between reality and fiction. The game challenges players to confront their own moral compasses and
consider the consequences of their actions within the game world.
Throughout the development process, the development team encountered various challenges,
from refining the narrative and mechanics to integrating Steam functionalities for a more immersive
player experience. Despite these challenges, the team remained committed to their vision of creating a
game that pushes the boundaries of traditional video game storytelling and prompts players to question
the nature of free will in both virtual and real-life contexts.
Ultimately, Free Will serves as not only a thought-provoking gaming experience but also as a
platform for exploring complex philosophical concepts and the intricacies of human decision-making.
Through its narrative-driven gameplay and innovative mechanics, the game invites players to reconsider
their understanding of agency, morality, and the nature of choice in a deterministic world.
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Chapter 1: Why did I make Free Will?
For most of my life, I have not believed in free will. I designed this game, initially, as an
ironic gesture, lamenting the impossibility of free will. I thought determinism offered the most
logical and scientific model for how we make choices and how our lives progress. Determinism
holds that our actions are not freely chosen, but, rather, they result from previous actions,
situations, and events; life is a chain reaction that advances in one way only. We may feel like
active agents with autonomous wills, but even our thoughts are simply chemical operations that
proceed deterministically. We are made up of physical components, and are thus bound by the
physical law of cause and effect. I was convinced that none of our actions are actually free. This
view raises questions about responsibility and morality: should criminals be held accountable for
their actions, if they did not really have a choice? I didn’t have an answer for that, but it didn’t
shake my belief in determinism. In video games, I found further support for my deterministic
view. Games – like life – offer an illusion of choice: player actions are programmed in the game.
Players can only act in ways the developer intends; to act otherwise will ensure one’s failure or
break the game entirely. Code is the law of the game world in the same way that physics is the
law of our world.
But during the development of Free Will, my belief in determinism began to shift. During
the pre-production phase, I’ve had many discussions with my advisors, peers, and team, and they
shared their views on the subject. Eventually, I came to the understanding that free will is not a
black-and-white matter. Humans may have some degree of free will. Our experiences and
behaviors are determined, for example, by our inherent potential and limitations. Included in
these are our past experiences and current environment. However, within these constraints and
conditions, we can make choices.
1

The themes and challenges presented in Free Will emerged from watching people play
video games, and from my own personal experiences playing games. I have always felt
compassionate about video game characters’ suffering; more often than not, players kill
characters, whether that be their controlled character or NPCs. I couldn’t help but wonder, what
would the characters do if they knew they would die in every single copy of the game sold? That
question made me ponder about our real life situation: we live, knowing that one day we will die.
I used to believe in nihilism because of that: perhaps nothing matters if it will all eventually fade
to dust. All the legacy we try to make will be forgotten, and the last atom on Earth will vanish
eventually. So, what was the point?
However, during the process of ideating the game, in one of my discussions about the
narrative with my team, I was enlightened by another view. Since everything will inevitably end,
everything does matter to us, because that is all our experience will ever be. We do not owe life
to anyone but ourselves, and we have the control to shape our own life. The view that “Nothing
matters” could, in fact, be a source of liberation.
2

Chapter 2: Free Will in Video Games
In Andrew Kissel’s paper, “Free Will, The Self, and Video Game Actions,” he proposes
the idea of a willing torturer and an unwilling torturer:
The willing torturer engages in virtual torture because they desire to engage in virtual
torture… [T]he second player is the unwilling torturer. The unwilling torturer also
engages in virtual torture. However, the unwilling torturer is extremely uncomfortable
with their in-game actions. Although they desire to complete the game, they do not desire
to engage in virtual torture. (page #)
The amount of freedom that a game gives the player is often limited, so that the player may
proceed in the story and reach an ending. In Free Will, the Game System takes on the role of
limiting freedom. It symbolizes hard determinism, the belief that all our actions are
predetermined, and nothing we do will change it. However, the character of Will contradicts the
Game System. Will is a young boy – sweet, harmless and weak – and is in dire need of the
player’s protection. The Game System’s request of cleansing the Corruption scares Will, and
makes him uncomfortable. In Kissel’s terms, players become “unwilling torturers” of the
kind-hearted Will, and feel uneasy about the actions they have to take for the story to proceed.
The cognitive dissonance produced when the player acts in a way that does not align with their
values contributes to one of the game’s experience goals: guilt.
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Chapter 3: Inspirations and References
Free Will was inspired by a lot of indie games that were released in the past decade. Its
theme was inspired by The Stanley Parable and Undertale; its mechanics were inspired by
OneShot and Doki Doki Literature Club. I will briefly introduce these games, and explain how
they contributed to the birth of Free Will.
3.1 Narrative Inspiration
In Undertale, there are two well-known paths the player can take to get very different
endings: the pacifist path and the genocide path. The path names are self-explanatory. However,
after players go on the genocide path, they can no longer take the pacifist path. Many players
will attempt the genocide path after finishing the pacifist path, despite spending hours with the
NPCs and putting in immense effort to avoid killing NPCs (it is easier to kill than to spare in
Undertale). I wanted to understand what in the design of the game compelled the players to
make such a decision. I realized it was curiosity that drove players to explore this path. Players
are curious. They have the option to kill everyone, and they want to do it because they want to
know what happens after that. Players are seldom concerned about the suffering of the characters
in the game, because the characters are fictional. But what if the characters have real feelings?
What if they remember that you were their friend and hero of the world, and suddenly came back
to slaughter everyone? I wanted to create something that addresses these questions and how
players would react – if I convince them that the character’s suffering is real, will they still
choose to satisfy their curiosity over saving the characters?
The Stanley Parable is a game largely about agency and control. Players play as Stanley,
who was “happy” working an endless, boring job, until the player comes and takes control of
him. The Narrator tells the player exactly what to do, and if the player follows all the instructions
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that they are given, they arrive at a Mind Control Facility, where they can turn off the system
that has been controlling Stanley, and eventually reach a paradise and be “happy”. However, the
irony is that the player is still under the control of the Narrator, and therefore is still not free and
powerless. If Stanley chooses to turn on the system, the Narrator gets upset and reveals that it has
been manipulating the facility; it laughs at Stanley’s (and by extension, the player’s) lack of
power and agency in the game and detonates a nuclear bomb in the facility. The game presents a
lot of options for the player and responds to the player action narratively. I took inspiration from
the power dynamic between the Narrator and Stanley, creating a scenario where an authority’s
goal does not align with the players’ goal, and exploring the conflicts that emerge from these
conflicting goals.
3.2 Mechanic Inspiration
OneShot and Doki Doki Literature Club are both considered “meta-games” that involve
interactions outside of the game window. OneShot features puzzles that involve changing the
desktop background, exiting, and reopening the game; Doki Doki Literature Club plays with fake
files with .chr and .txt extensions, and has the game system manipulate those files. I took
inspiration from these games to create my own meta-puzzles, but tried to push the boundaries of
them a little further. More than just files, the actual system of the computer could also be
considered as a playground! I played with things like changing system times, opening multiple
instances of the game, creating screen shatters outside of the game window, and spawning
endless repair windows to expand the magic circle, to convince the players that the game is
bigger than it really is, and the characters could be real – just trapped in a video game.
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3.3 Influence of the Milgram Experiment
While I was exploring the possible mechanics and narratives, I came across the Milgram
experiment, conducted by Stanley Milgram at Yale University in 1961. In the experiment,
participants took on the role of “Teacher” and were ordered to press a button to shock a
“Learner” when they answered a question incorrectly. Unbeknownst to participants, the Learners
were actors who pretended to be shocked by the Teachers when the button was pressed. The
experimenters pressured the Teachers to shock the Learners and, when the Teachers hesitated or
refused, the experimenters prodded them with statements: “Please continue,” “The experiment
requires that you continue,” “It is absolutely essential that you continue,” and “You have no other
choice, you must go on” (Milgram 16). Each time the Teacher refused, the experimenter used a
prod more severe than the previous one. If the Teacher refused after all four prods were
delivered, the experiment was terminated. The goal of this experiment was to research the impact
of authority on obedience.
Interestingly, up to sixty-five percent of the participants were willing to apply the
maximum voltage level, despite most of the participants voicing concerns. This experiment made
me think that under the pressure of authority, one may feel like they do not have a choice. I
wondered what players would do when the Game System (authority) pushes them to perform
certain actions, even when these actions result in the characters’ suffering. In sequence 14 and
14b1, for example, the Game System pressures the player multiple times to delete Will. If the
player refuses to delete Will all the way to the end, they will get the “true” ending.
Although I am recreating Milgram’s experiment to a certain extent, I am expecting a
different outcome. Sequences 1 to 13 establish a strong bond between Will and the player,
making the player feel like a guardian, a companion and a friend to Will. While there are many
6

“willing torturers'' who love to see characters suffer, I believe that I have been successful in
making the players feel empathetic towards Will. In addition, I have created mechanics that
expand the magic circle, to make players believe that Will is more than a simple video game
character. I hypothesize that, since the player has built a relationship with Will, they are less
likely to torture Will. Although I have no way to officially gather data and feedback, I plan on
keeping a close eye to the Steam page’s comments and community’s reaction.
7

Chapter 4: Narrative
Free Will is a narrative-driven game. The experience goal of the narrative is to make
players feel sorrow and guilt as they play, and, on finding the true ending, freedom and relief.
Let me give you a summary of the story in chronological order. The “Original Game” is
an old, cliche, low production value game, where a serial killer invades the family home and tries
to kill the main character, Wendy, and everyone in it. Will is an NPC that was destined to die in
the opening cutscene. But when the opening cutscene is played over and over again for
playtesting, Will breaks. He breaks the game, and takes it over. The game now becomes Free
Will, where Will is the main character. Players enter at this point in the game. They are greeted
by the Game System, who recognizes that there are “Corruptions” in the world, and asks for the
players’ help to remove them. The Game System acts as a mentor and guide, it provides hints to
the players and gives the players objectives. Players then control Will, and Will becomes aware
of the players’ existence. Players protect Will, and navigate the house with him. Eventually,
when Will comes to face Wendy in her room, Wendy reveals to Will that they are trapped in a
video game, and he stole her main character status from her, causing her to become the
Corruption. She tries to kill Will to get back her power as a main character, but Will accidentally
summons the serial killer from the original game, who kills Wendy. The Game System finds out
that Will was the source of the corruption and demands that the player kill Will, in order to fulfill
the objective. If the player kills Will, “Free Will” becomes “Free Wendy,” which was the original
game, but Will is nowhere to be found, and the game ends. If the player spares Will, they must
attempt to repair the game, ultimately failing. They must leave the game alone for Will to break
through and thereby gain his freedom. When the players return to check on the game after Will
breaks free from the game, nothing but the Game System is left. It has lost its reason to exist –
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helping the players to play the game, and guiding players to fix the game. It eventually gives into
the meaningless void and shuts down. The players beat the game.
We made use of Steam achievements to help players understand the narrative of Will’s
escape. Will is nowhere to be found in game, but players will receive a Steam achievement – an
empty spotlight with a link leading to a website featuring a short letter that Will wrote to the
player after he broke free. The empty spotlight echoes the main menu of the game – Will used to
be under the spotlight, stating that he was the main character of the game. We provided another
achievement for “repairing the game”, positioning Wendy as the character in the spotlight, and
featuring an apology from the development team for the broken game. Another thing we did is to
disallow players from obtaining both achievements. Players who want to go back and fulfill their
curiosity, and completionists, will find themselves frustrated, as they clearly did not understand
the message of the game – to leave it alone, to suppress the curiosity.
While it may seem that either Wendy or the Corruption is the villain of the game, I see
the real antagonist to be the format of the video game: its future has been written, all player
actions have been programmed into the game, and the endings of the game are pre-determined. I
used to find a beautiful irony in the similarities between video games and the real world. Both
were deterministic, but created the illusion of free will. Edging toward Compatibilism school of
free will philosophy, I started to see the format of games a little differently. While video games
do have pre-defined rules, and what players can do is limited, most games offer some degree of
freedom and choice: this is the nature of player agency in games and it is, in part, what makes
games meaningful and fun. In cases where games do not offer freedom and choices, players
potentially become “unwilling torturers.”
9

Free Will is a game that appears to deprive the player of freedom and choices, but
ultimately requires the player to press beyond the Game System’s reach and find a new solution.
In doing so, players regain their free will and no longer need to play the role of the “unwilling
torturer.” However, for the “willing torturers”, I try to convince them that Will is more than a
fictional character, through expanding the magic circle with meta-puzzles and making Will a
sympathetic character. . I hopefully guided players to choose to save Will by not playing and
giving in to the itching curiosity that they will not know how Will escapes. The only way to win
is to not play, to leave the game alone. Players need to trust Will, and allow him to gain power to
escape the game by giving up the control. In relinquishing control, which normally occurs in a
game upon losing it, the player here actually wins.
Now let's discuss the protagonist, Will. In developing Will, I gave my artists and writers
the following direction: “Will is just a little guy.” They made him exactly that. He is a very
simple character. Roughly six years old, Will has been bedridden for most of his life. He doesn’t
have any friends or any peers his age. His manner of speaking sounds very kiddish, and his
physical characteristics are quite generic: he is a dark-haired boy. These design choices are
aimed at making the players feel empathetic toward and protective over him, in order to
maximize the guilt they feel when they are forced to do things to Will that will hurt him.
Unlike other RPGs (Role-Playing Games), where the players play as a character, Free
Will makes them play as themselves, as a being from beyond the game. I decided to do this for
two reasons: first, it is very meta! Getting the players’ Steam names and asking them to be
themselves in an RPG aligns with the game’s narrative and mechanics. Secondly, I wanted
players to make decisions and moral judgements based on their own inclinations and values,
rather than those they projected onto a character they are portraying. Through this game, I
10

wanted to see what happens if the players’ goal misaligns with the apparent goal of the game.
However, we won’t be able to get an answer until the actual release of it.
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Chapter 5: Developing mechanics
When I was deciding on the gameplay of Free Will, I thought I wanted mechanics that
would fit the narrative. Since the narrative involves a lot of metafictional elements, it seemed
appropriate to have mechanics that draw attention to the artificiality of video games as such –
breaking the fourth wall in order to free Will from the game. With my very limited knowledge of
C#, which is the language used in a common engine, Unity, I experimented with meta-puzzles in
my first prototype.
In this early iteration, I created two meta-puzzles in a bedroom. The first is a battle that
requires players to change a text file named Will.txt.hey can alter Will’s name, HP, and skills.
After the players add “Cleanse” to the text file and save it, the game would read the substrings of
the skill’s line, dividing by commas, and update the in-game UI (user interface). The second is a
puzzle that requires players to place a door file into a folder in order to make the door appear in
game. To achieve this, I had a script that created a folder and some text files, and when the file is
placed in the folder, the door appears!
I received much positive feedback from my cohort and advisors on the prototype, and
decided that meta-puzzles are perfect for the narrative of this game. Most of the puzzles came
naturally to me by simply asking questions like “what if…?”, and I was very lucky to have seven
engineers who entertained my ideas to the best of their abilities. We made over ten meta-puzzles
and interactions in total, ranging from reading the system time, to creating hundreds of “repair”
windows outside of the game. During the development of these mechanics, we often ran into
situations where we were unable to achieve the exact mechanic I had pictured in my head. In
those cases, I would have a discussion with the writers to confirm the narrative goal, and try to
alter the script and the vision to meet the limitations of the game. We always found a way to
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meet in the middle, and it was very rewarding to find a common vision among design, narrative,
and engineering.
5.1 Answering the Thesis Question
Now onto the thesis question that I proposed in the beginning of the development of Free
Will: “What would ‘play’ look like outside of the traditional boundaries of video games?”
Despite putting a lot of focus on the narrative of the game, I still tried to answer the question in
the development of mechanics. Without a doubt, the meta-puzzles are not common and
conventional. When playtesters, who are not familiar with the Windows operating system, or had
no experience with meta-games, play Free Will, they often struggle with navigating the system or
understanding the mechanic.
We tried addressing that initially by adding some tutorials with detailed guides, but
during playtests, we noticed some players who are not familiar with navigating with the system
space will still get lost. So we added as many tutorials as we possibly could. This method has
proven to be a great success: playtesters experienced a moment of enlightenment once they
realized that the magic circle is much larger than they thought. But if we try to throw in a curve
ball in the puzzles, it breaks their understanding of the magic circle again and we need to give
them tutorials again on the new mechanics. Through repeated and detailed tutorials and “hand
holding” guides, the players can quickly get used to the new, expanded magic circle. I dare say
Free Will succeeded in expanding the magic circle and breaking the traditional boundaries of
video games.
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Chapter 6: Production Process
I’ve been pondering the thesis since November 2022, before thesis preparation officially
began. Once the spring semester started and we had to ideate on our potential thesis, I knew what
I wanted to make – a game about player choices and free will. I spent the semester prototyping
ideas, trying to find a narrative and mechanic pair that I was happy with. I went through a few
different ideas, ranging from a malfunctioning player controller, to a main character suffering
from Quadriplegia. But I eventually settled on Will and, despite him having an illness
canonically in game, we never specified his illness, since it only served a narrative purpose.
As I have mentioned in the section about mechanics, my prototypes have gotten a lot of
positive feedback, reinforcing the idea that the meta-puzzles really work well with the narrative
of “breaking out of the game”. Upon presenting the game at the pitching event in Spring 2023, I
was fortunate enough to recruit a team of 19 people to help execute my vision. Most of these
participants are fans of Undertale and Doki Doki Literature Club, understood my vision, and
wanted to be part of the game.
The interview process was quite tedious. Every day I had to check the form for more
applications, read their portfolios and resumes, and interview the applicants to see if they were a
good fit for the team. That week alone I had 23 interviews. As I was interviewing and reviewing
the materials, I found it difficult to find the right writers; despite the writing samples they
provided me, it wasn’t clear that they could write in the style that I wanted. Upon seeking advice
from Martzi Campos, I requested a writing test with the writers, which really helped me pick out
the writers whose voices resonated with the tone and story of the game.
The pre-production went very smoothly. As the Lead Narrative Designer, I had a lot of
meetings with the writing team before Fall semester started, and I was able to hammer down the
14

story quite quickly. Later in the Fall semester, however, I rewrote the endings to adjust the scope,
according to the team’s implementation speed. The process of creating the script was very
enjoyable and I always looked forward to reading what the writing team came up with.
Once we had a draft of the backstories, we started pre-production for the audio team..
Unfortunately I did not have a strong vision on the audio aspect, as my music and sfx knowledge
is limited. In the middle of the Fall semester, we struggled to decide whether we should have
themes for rooms, or characters, or story beats. The audio team Lead, Johannah "Johh" Chung,
made the suggestion to do a mix of all of the above, and make use of FMod to create different
feels of the same track in the same room, but for different story beats. Her suggestion let us reuse
the music we had already created, while still delivering the experience as intended.
In my original prototype, I used various shades of gray and pixel art to create a retro style
that is close to Pokemon Red’s monotone color palette (See Fig.1). Since my prototypes used red
as an accent color, we decided to follow that direction and highlight objects that are inflicted
with Corruption red, so players would know what objects will advance the critical path. Since the
game world used to consist only of shades of gray, Will reacts to the colors that did not exist,
thus contributing to the meta-narrative of the game.
Fig. 1. Screenshot from Pokemon Red
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The engineering team faced difficulties during the production process. Instead of using
existing plugins for dialogue systems, such as Yarn Spinner and Pixel Crusher, the Lead
Engineer decided to create our own dialogue system. However, building a dialogue system from
scratch took a lot of time and effort from the team, and I had to accordingly shrink the scope and
endings. We also encountered many struggles fixing bugs and building new sequences, which
caused the first semester of implementation to be stressful. At the end of the Fall semester, the
producer, Lena Jeon, called a meeting and raised these concerns to the team; the team responded
optimistically, and there were significant improvements with the implementation pipeline and
communication.
6.1 Designing the Production Timeline
After having the skeleton outline of the story, I started dividing the story into sequences.
Based on what Tracy Fullerton and Richard Lemarchand have taught me in the courses about
directing and production, I listed out every location and interactions, and created a game macro
for the team to refer to. Initially, the game has 18 sequences, including 5 endings, the sequences
were divided into 3 acts: Act 1 goes from the start of the game to Will defeating his first
corruption; act 2 goes from entering the first floor hallway to discovering Dad’s body; act 3 goes
from exploring Wendy’s room to different endings.
I decided to hold sprint meetings every two weeks, which leaves us 16 sprints in the
entire school year, excluding times like winter break and spring break. The reason that I thought
biweekly meetings would be beneficial is because first, in my experience, weekly meetings
causes burn out very fast; second, I am working with a lot of undergraduate students, who have
midterms and other important matters to tend to, and I wanted them to have some wiggle room
16

for tasks. People like to finish their tasks, and in providing a ground for them doing so, I am
actually helping myself and the team to gain a higher morale.
The problem with only having 16 sprints is that I cannot divide the 18 sequences evenly.
So I put some shorter sequences and sequences that don’t demand many new features into the
same sprint. We then had 16 sprints filled with implementation. But then I thought to myself,
production never goes as smoothly as one intends; I should add to the schedule some wiggle
room in case things go south – and I should have even more wiggle room than that, because I
intend to put the game up on Steam, and I was not sure how long that would take. However, I
was still mostly optimistic about the timeline, until I came to a painful observation in sprint four.
The team’s implementation speed was way slower than other aspects of the production. While
the art team, audio team and narrative team were doing great work and delivering every sprint
goal on time, the engineering team was struggling due to the reasons mentioned above.
To help relieve that burden and scope according to the team’s capability, I went into the
game macro and trimmed down the story sequences and endings. I “killed my darlings”, and left
the game with the most important sequences that conveyed the experience goals. The result of
that was spectacular: the story felt tighter, and there was less work for the engineers to worry
about. The game was then down to 14 sequences, with 2 possible endings. I also started giving
out tasks related to core puzzle mechanics earlier, so people could connect them to the sequence
once the dialogues were implemented. The game was scheduled to be completed by the end of
sprint 15, but to my surprise, the speed of implementation really picked up after the dialogue
system was completed and optimized. The game was practically in its beta stage, or sequence
complete, by sprint 14, which is in the middle of March. As I am writing this paper, the
engineers are tackling the bug fix list and polish list since the sequences are all completed.
17

6.2 Happy Production Tips
It is not quite common to finish a thesis project this early, and I am very proud of the
team, the producer, and myself. Although we faced challenges, we were able to overcome them
and ended very strongly. Here are a few points to sum up what made us successful in terms of
production.
First, understand your team. Know what team could potentially create the most blockage
for the rest. This can vary from project to project: a 3D game with open world terrain will very
likely take more time in terms of creating art assets than a 2D puzzle game with a focus on
narrative. In Free Will, the engineering team struggled a lot because of the ambition of building a
dialogue system from scratch, and the unfamiliarity with the meta-mechanics using C# beyond
common Unity mechanics implementation. Therefore, I paid extra attention to the engineers and
would help them out by putting in simple dialogues and art assets – which are simple things, but
needed to be done.
Provide the struggling team with help; detailed documentation is a very handy thing to
have for every single team. For example, we produced multiple documentations on the
home-made dialogue system and art directions. Well-written documentation can help clear up
anything that is confusing, support general good practices, and make the onboarding process
more efficient for new team members. I also found standup meetings and posts useful for quick
feedback and finding out blockers. Seeing other people’s progress creates a sense of excitement
and urgency for the team. They are usually awed by other members’ work, and will be
encouraged to do work to match the other members. This creates a positive working environment
and increases productivity. In cases where they were not able to deliver any progress in the
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standup meetings, we can identify the blockers and clear the blocker quickly, or assign the task to
someone else if the member finds themselves too occupied.
The last suggestion I have is to try to hold in-person meetings. In-person meetings help
team members get to know each other, and people are more likely to speak up when they are in
person. It encourages them to engage with the discussions and understand others' tasks. Often, I
will find an engineer giving implementation suggestions to another team member who may be a
little lost. While I hold these meetings, I also like to treat the team with some food or boba tea.
After all, they are volunteers who are dedicating their time to my project. I want them to know
that they are very appreciated.
6.3 Integrating Steam
One of the important features of the game is using Steam in telling parts of the story. In
the ending where Will escapes from the game, he leaves the players a message through Steam
achievements. After setting up the basic information on Steam – game name, description, library
assets and such – I submitted the page for review, and the approval came after one week.
In order to create Steam achievements and access players’ information through Steam,
Julia Wang from the engineering team did research on the Steam API and created a guide to help
the team with implementation. Instead of using the Valve API suggested by Steamworks.NET,
we chose to use Facepunch, which is a higher level API that calls the Valve API. Facepunch uses
C# functions that can easily be put into the Unity projects. Although Facepunch has less
functionality than the Valve API, it is easier to use. Facepunch is free and available for download
on Github. Its README.md on the Github repository included all of its possible functions –
including accessing friends list, avatars, Steam username, writing and reading cloud files, and
creating Steam achievements and inventory items.
19

I granted Julia access to the Steam Workshop, where she could manage steam
achievements, by adding her email that is tied to her Steam account. After creating faux
achievements to test the functionality, we found out that we could simply call the Facepunch
functions to unlock or lock the achievements. One thing to note while implementing Facepunch
is that in its Setting Up guide, users are instructed to copy the Dlls into the project. However, the
Dll has both 32 bit and 64 bit, and the engineers had to make sure to only include the 64 bit Dlls
for this project.
20

Conclusion
Free Will's meta-puzzles, which break the fourth wall and involve interactions outside the
traditional boundaries of gameplay, serve as a metaphor for breaking free from the deterministic
constraints imposed by the game system. The development journey of Free Will has been a great
exploration of the concept of free will within video games and the value of meta-puzzles as
innovative and thematically compelling game mechanics. I was able to change my own world
view, collaborate with a great team, and learn so much about the production process of a video
game from start to finish.
21

Bibliography
Kissel, Andrew. “Free will, the self, and video game actions.” Ethics and Information
Technology, vol. 23, no. 3, 9 June 2020, pp. 177–183,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09542-2.
Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: an Experimental View. [1st ed.] New York: Harper &
Row, 1974
Boom, Daniel Van. Pokemon Red and Blue’s most memorable moments. 1 Mar. 2016. CNET,
https://www.cnet.com/pictures/10-memorable-moments-from-pokemon-red-and-b
lue/.
22

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This thesis paper explores the development and conceptual journey behind the creation of Free Will, a narrative-driven video game designed to challenge players' perceptions of agency and morality within the constraints of a deterministic world. The author initially approached the project as a reflection on the absence of free will, inspired by philosophical determinism and observations of player behavior in video games. However, as the development progressed, the author's beliefs began to shift, leading to a deeper exploration of the nuanced nature of free will and moral responsibility.

Drawing inspiration from indie games such as Undertale and The Stanley Parable, as well as real-world psychological experiments like the Milgram experiment, Free Will integrates metafictional elements and unconventional gameplay mechanics to immerse players in a narrative that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The game challenges players to confront their own moral compasses and consider the consequences of their actions within the game world.

Throughout the development process, the development team encountered various challenges, from refining the narrative and mechanics to integrating Steam functionalities for a more immersive player experience. Despite these challenges, the team remained committed to their vision of creating a game that pushes the boundaries of traditional video game storytelling and prompts players to question the nature of free will in both virtual and real-life contexts.

Ultimately, Free Will serves as not only a thought-provoking gaming experience but also as a platform for exploring complex philosophical concepts and the intricacies of human decision-making. Through its narrative-driven gameplay and innovative mechanics, the game invites players to reconsider their understanding of agency, morality, and the nature of choice in a deterministic world.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Tang, Celine (author)

Core Title Free Will: a video game

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Degree Conferral Date 2024-05

Publication Date 04/09/2024

Defense Date 04/08/2024

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

Tag free will,game,game production,magic circle,meta-puzzle,OAI-PMH Harvest,player agency,player empathy

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bilson, Danny (committee chair), Benzon, Kiki (committee member), Bolas, Mark (committee member), Bouchard, Sean (committee member), Campos, Martzi (committee member), Huntley, Jim (committee member), Malamed, Laird (committee member)

Creator Email celine.h.tang@gmail.com,chtang@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113871310

Unique identifier UC113871310

Identifier etd-TangCeline-12782.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-TangCeline-12782

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Tang, Celine

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20240409-usctheses-batch-1138 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu