First stage of analysis
1. Look and listen in the game: What features (or assets
) are helping to create an illusion of exploring a world? How simple or complex are the graphics and media?
The game I play is called: “Where the goats are”. I can control a grandmother in the game, she can take a jar to fetch water from the well and then water the trees; she can also collect eggs from the chicken nest; she can also make cheese with the milk from the goats. The most important feature of the game is that it simulates the daily scenario from day to night, including the sky going from white to black, and the grandmother going to bed in the house at night. These features reflect the real life of a villager and make me want to explore more. The music is a heart-warming tune; the graphics in the game are also simple and rustic, very close to the village life.
2. How simple or complex are the settings in the game? How far can you explore and what makes the settings distinctive?
Basically, the main task of the game is very simple, which is the three operations I mentioned in the first point. If I water on time, the plants will gradually grow. Eggs can be taken from the chicken nest every day, and goat’s milk can be milked every day. A merchant will occasionally pass by the grandmother’s place, and the grandmother can exchange her sheep or cheese for hay or new sheep. wo grandmothers can also pick up letters sent to them from the merchant, and it is usually the grandmother’s family who share their lives with her. But at the end of the game, the environment will become more and more harsh, there are more and more crows perched on the roof, the wind will become more and more strong; merchants also have nothing to exchange, the grandmother walks more and more slowly. The whole environment becomes bleak. The game ended with it. I think this point is the most unusual thing about this game. Because the author lets the player guess and think for himself what is going on.
3. What kind(s) of character(s) are you invited to control? Are you invited to be multiple characters? Or just one character type?
I can only control the grandmother a role.
4.How do you get to know the character(s) you are playing? What details make them distinctive, quirky, memorable, etc?
I felt that the grandmother was lonely. Even though she can receive envelopes from her relatives every day, none of them come to visit her. As the environment gets worse, I guess the grandmother will die alone at the end. At the end of the game, even the sheep and chickens die, leaving the grandmother alone.
5. What kinds of interactions do you have with NPC characters?
The NPCs of this game are the sheep and chickens, and the merchants. As I said earlier, I can make cheese by milking sheep with a bucket, watering trees with a jar, and fetching eggs with a basket every day. These are all activities that I can do repeatedly every day. I can also trade my stuff with the trader for sheep and hay. When the sheep are hungry they eat hay, and when the hay is gone I have to go through the cheese or one sheep for more hay.
6. How are you challenged as a game player in this game? What are you being asked to investigate, where do you get stuck, and how do you make progress in the game?
The only challenge this game brings me is that I don’t know what the purpose of the eggs is. Are they for the grandmother to eat or do they have some other purpose?
7. What kinds of objects do you interact with in the game? Do you pick up written messages, do you ever need to consume food in the game, do you pick up functional things you need to get other things work?
In addition to my interaction with the merchants and animals, I also received daily letters from my loved ones. But I don’t need to consume any food. The hay allows my sheep to survive.
8. Where and how do you see the game respond to or comment on our reality? Or what cultural issues from our world do you see reflected in this game?
I think this game is suggesting that we need to care more about the lives of the elderly. If their significant other dies and they leave their loved ones to live alone, such elderly people will feel very lonely. Many people in society neglect to care and visit their aging parents or grandparents in general. The game reminds us to visit our aging loved ones more often by letting us feel the living conditions of the elderly.
9. Speculate: How could this game develop in the future, or what would be an improvement the developers could make in a next stage?
I think this game will be loved by more people in the future because he tells a very real story that is worth thinking about by the players. I think the author can set up one or two more tasks, such as adding the purpose of collecting eggs. This would solve a lot of people’s questions and make the game more interesting.
Kumu.io network
Direct link to my Kumu: https://embed.kumu.io/ad8fc5d23bb519340e6669454e8cda1c
Direct link to my Game analysis Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JK2Eoso__iGoenAokwZN-FvGYzdeDpZW74Xeb0dJSSQ/edit#gid=0
Images for different game elements
Sheep
Chicken
Old woman
Merchant
Crow
Basket
Water can
Hay
Mailbox
Well
Boiler
House
Fence
Chicken coop
Bonfire
White Table
Flowerpot
Images for the game overlook (from day to night)
Summary
This game has music and graphics that make players feel warm. The creators of the game use orange tones to set off the simplicity and warmth of country life. The simulation from day to night setting also allows players to experience the country life of the grandmother in the game more realistically.
I suggest that the author could add one or two tasks to the grandmother (the player-controlled character) such as cooking with the collected eggs; this would prevent the player from feeling bored and at the same time enhance the interactivity of the game.
The game shines because it projects the situation of the elderly in the real world from the side. Like the grandmother in the game, many older people in society need to live alone because their children and partners have left. Although they will receive envelopes from their loved ones, but the perennial independence will make them die in loneliness. So the author of this game is also reminding young people to pay more attention to the elderly in their families and give them warmth and companionship. This is worth more players to explore this game.