Diet is my first attempt at following some different trends in independent game design, mostly focused on creating unique and emotional responses through interesting literary elements, or even a general storyline. Recent major inspirations include Dear Esther (the Chinese Room), Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui), and Ceramic Shooter (Theta Games). All these games are vastly different, but what is interesting about them isn’t necessarily any game mechanics but a clear attempt to inject interesting literature into interactive media. I feel this trend is new (at least in reaching the indie mainstream) and a good show of maturity and progress (yes, I enjoyed Heather Chaplin’s GDC rant) for games.
Diet is a story focused on body image and the absurdity in schemes to get people feeling bad enough about themselves to hurt their bodies in the name of losing weight (e.g. harmful dieting, anorexia, bulimia). The first thing that struck me about the story (to be posted) was that it was a simple concept, interesting, and even included some, albeit small, cultural commentary. Body image and the advertising industries attack on it affects everyone, but it certainly hurts women more than men, which is important. It’s important because men still dominate the gaming industry and demographic. Creating games and content directed even slightly towards women (without sexualizing and\or patronizing them) is an essential step the industry will have to take to continue it’s stride to be culturally relevant.
Development-wise I’ve just started setting up the Valkyrie engine (XNA) to get ready for a simple, topdown pixel 2d project. I’ve temporarily hijacked pokemon-ish pixel art until I find content suitable for the game.
Growth in Computer Science 