Video Games

Between Both

Between Both is a interactive game like experience that facilitates the digital world and the physical world through a ritualistic experience. The player goes through three different segments of the world in order to connect with the land once again.

Palo Verde

 Palo Verde is based on the event when river water was contaminated and spread from Colorado to New Mexico. This river served as the main source of drinking water for the Navajo nation. The pollution was caused by Colorado’s Gold King Mine spill and spread toxic waste down the river. As mentioned before, in the article, “Navajo Blame EPA Inaction for Suicides [64],” the spike in suicides that occurred after the incident because of the EPA’s inactions. Russel Begaye commented on the EPA saying, “One of the things that they seemingly do is that they wait you out,” he told The Daily Beast. “I mean, they—they’ll say all the nice things, all the right things. They’ll put the proposals on the table, but you know that there’s no real action, there’s no real meat behind what they say.” The disintegration of the character in the game is symbolic of mental deterioration from pollution that affects the mind, spirit, body, and ultimately the community.

Slot of the Odds

Slot of the Odds is a game where the player is confronted with the desert and walls that block their journey. Once the player approaches the wall a slot machine can be played. The slot machine displays materials that are used in order to survive the desert. Once the player lifts the wall by playing the slot machine, the player is confronted by words that are meant to be comforting but quickly become over whelming. At the end of their journey the player sees a deity that they cannot access. The video has been sped up to show a time over lapse of the game.

Hey, Barrel.

 The first game is called Hey, Barrel.  it is a third person game where the player controls the movement of the barrel.  The goal is to make it to the river across the desert terrain. At the end of the game, once you make it to the river, you will see other barrels in the water, signifying pollution.  This game was inspired by Train, by Brenda Romero, the player doesn’t know why the barrel is rolling in the desert, it just is. The player is following the instructions given to them unknowingly causing harm to the earth until the very end.

Isotope

The second game is called Isotope, the player controls a radioactive ball of atoms. The goal is to make it to the surface from the salt beds in New Mexico, bypassing obstacles such as cement and sand. Once you make it to the surface you unknowingly infect the earth and its occupants with radiation, eventually dissipating into the air.

Half Life

The third game is called Half-Life. The decay and half-life of radiation is 24,000 years, which means it remains radioactive for generations. The game symbolizes the travel of the radiation. The player collects other atoms ultimately infecting plants, and the life around it.  When the player has infected 5 plants an animation will play to demonstrate the silent glow that is radiation. As in the case of Chernobyl, once there is a nuclear disaster, the people, the plants, and the wildlife become radioactive and remain as such until they do not exist.

What Would Have Been

What Would Have Been is the first exploratory game experience that I made. It is a metaphorical experiential mind map of how my mental illness affects me. I made a soundtrack to accompany the game and guided the audience through the levels. Each level represents a different emotion, experience, and memory.

The wearable controller is used to control the game, using your body movements and placing your hands on the 3D printed material to operate the player, I used this in order to perform the story for the viewer rather than the viewer playing the game themselves.

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