The Decision

A game about life and death

Description

This game was not intended to be a conventional video game and is best understood as a two-player experiment. It won the Golden Nica in the category “u19 - create your world” at the Prix Ars Electronica.

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 partly based on the Milgram experiment, in which participants were asked to carry out ethically questionable tasks. Although they were aware that another person was suffering, they still followed instructions without fully 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 LibGdx and KryoNet, both of which were great to work with. The pixel art was created with PyxelEdit and Paint.NET.

Resources

Since this project received some media attention, I would like to link a few interviews and articles about it. Unfortunately, almost all of them are in German.

It was a great honor to be part of the festival, and an amazing experience overall. I would like to thank everyone involved.