The Decision

A game about life and death

Description

This game was not meant to be a conventional computer game and is best seen as an experiment for two people. It has won the Golden Nica in the Category “u19 - create your world” at the Prix Ars Electronica contest.

Plot

Die Entscheidung (The Decision) is a computer game for two players. What’s at stake is life or death, as one of the players reaches a verdict on the survival of the other, though this doesn’t become clear until the game is well underway.

Player 1 acts out the life of a man who’s been diagnosed with cancer. The course of play offers numerous options as to what he can do during the remaining days of his life—for instance, the player can decide to spend time with his family, carry on with everyday life “as usual,” or fulfill his lifelong dreams.

Player 2 simulates the cancer itself in that he can determine the decisive characteristics of the cancer cells. At the outset, he’s assigned the task of killing the Subject (as Player 1 is referred to). But over the course of the game, he receives information about events in the life of the man afflicted with cancer. Thus, he is repeatedly made aware of the fact that, through his actions, he influences the life of a human being. At the game’s climax, he has to decide whether to kill the Subject or not.

The idea behind this game is based in part on the Milgram Experiment in which participants were called upon to carry out ethically dubious assignments. Although they were cognizant of the fact that they were causing a human being to suffer, they obeyed the instructions they received without considering the consequences.

In many computer games, players have to perform tasks without giving any further thought to them. At the end of this game, both players are prompted to reflect upon the decisions they made.

Technicals

This game was developed in Java using the engines LibGdx and KryoNet which are amazing to work with. The pixelart was created with PyxelEdit and Paint.Net.

Resources

Since this project received some media attention I like to link to some Interviews and articles which covered this project - unfortunately almost all of them are in german.

It was a great honor to be a part of the Festival and an amazing experience. I like to thank everyone involved!