Gone Home

Hang on ... you're telling me someone's already released
a nostalgia-based adventure game
— and it's getting 5-star reviews?!!

Today I stumbled upon a Digital Spy article about porting a game to the Oculus Rift 3D system and my jaw dropped wider-and-wider as I read.

Back in August, indie developer The Fullbright Company released an adventure game entitled "Gone Home" for Windows, Mac & Linux.  It sold 50,000 copies in the first month.

Not just any old VHS tapes.  No, these are X-Files episodes, slapping us bang into the 90s.

Set in 1995, you play as a young woman who returns home after a year abroad; the house is empty and you must roam, exploring objects & notes to find clues about what's happened and where your family has gone.  Reviews suggest it is an immersive, emotionally-satisfying experience.

Obviously, any period setting will need an authentic look-and-feel.  However, by setting it within recent memory, the detail must be dead-on to ensure that there are no anachronisms or anomalies.  I still remember reading an interview with the makers of movie The Krays explaining how important it had been to ensure an accurate 1960s period setting because so many of the people watching the film would remember that time so vividly.

There's something more going on here, though.  This doesn't just look like the 1990s.  The choice of items (e.g. brick-sized cordless phone, SNES cartridges, cassette tapes, bedroom posters, etc.) pulls the nostalgia chain so hard, it's difficult to see how it could be anything other than deliberate and calculated.

Founded by former BioShock developer Steve Gaynor, the company consists of 4 team-members, but with bits of input from friends at companies like Double Fine.  These developers are clearly of an age where the '90s were their formative years.

"We started from, 'we want to make a game that's about exploring a place and finding bits and pieces of the story scattered everywhere.' If it was more recent than the 90s, so much of that stuff would be in devices. An email message, a text box," he says. "It was a very practical decision of, 'we'll choose this era because that means people would be actually writing notes and leaving them for each other.' That physicality is important to the game."

It came from the team's own memories -- what could they recall about their living rooms in 1995? Recorded VHS tapes off TV with written labels, two recordings on one tape to save memories, for example. Such details give the game its very lifelike and plausible texture. Gaynor also read blog posts about experiences of people growing up in that time, and was influenced by the memories of others.

-- "The story behind Gone Home", Gamasutra (24 Oct 2013)

The music is sourced from genuine 1990s riot grrrl punk/grunge bands; indeed, the game was demo-ed with audiences at related music festivals (targeted fanbase promotion in action).

In the company's blog, there's even is a section about the use of flowery motifs to enhance the Victorian credentials of the house.  And another about the development of generic game titles & logos for the SNES cartridges.

There's a mine of stuff to research, and I haven't even watched the "Making Of" videos & articles yet!  This will make a very interesting case study.

Applied nostalgia adding value to a video game design?  Fullbright have done it.  And it works.

1980s bedroom (part 3) Start construction

Having designed a replacement 1980s-themed look for the main bedroom in the Gremlins: Gizmo game, the construction process was initiated by marking out the rough positions of objects on Maya 3D modelling software.

To get in the correct mindset I decided to start with the rug, because I felt that the specific period content would put me in the correct mindset for later work.

A quick hunt yielded the correct bitmapped font style associated with many Japanese arcade games.  I'd anticipated using the standard 3-bit RGB 8-colour palette but had totally forgotten that many arcade machines had already started using alternative colours quite early on. For example, Galaxian (1979) uses the standard palette but Pac-Man (1980) includes orange and pink ghosts.  After experimenting with different colours I decided to stick with the standard 8 colours.

This particular 8x8-pixel font was used on Namco titles, becoming synonymous with arcade games of this period. 

To complete the rug I added a pixellated version of the original rug's "earth & stars" centre image, as planned.  (If this were a production version I'd probably tidy up the stars to make them clearer.)  The floor was quickly textured using an existing repeating pine laminate pattern.

The bed was pretty straightforward.  I've used the duvet's polygons to do the work of 'unsettling' the duvet, to make it look more natural, with the help of a lattice deformer; this will allow me to experiment with different cover patterns if needed, quickly and easily.

So far it's going to plan.  Once the wall are in place this will start to look a lot more substantial.  More construction reports soon!

1980s bedroom (part 2) Design

I've done a lot of work analysing the memorable objects and visual cues that go with specific time periods, so it's time to experiment at synthesizing a period setting which could be used within a game.

With this in mind I have embarked on a small project to try to apply my ideas to a real-life game, to see whether my ambitions meet my expectations.

---

Recreating a Decade

In my previous post I identified a game environment which needed a "nostalgia injection", adjusting or adding elements to evoke memories of the 1980s.

Earlier visual research identified a number of semiotic indices that are associated with the 1980s period, and I believe that the following will work well in a bedroom setting:

• Lots of red, black-or-white and grey
• Objects decorated in (RYB) primary colours
• Stripes! (Fabric patterns and also horizontal window blinds)
• Spacious grid patterns

You can see most of these indices within the reference image below.

Photo snatched from "Making the Most of Children's Rooms" (1984) , through Retro Decorator blog

It's interesting to note how powerful these can be without the assistance of specific historical items.  Consider the following photo.  The clothing could easily come from other decades; the hair from 1970s onward; but the grid pattern on the pillows is doggedly '80s.

Joe Dante's Gremlins (1984)

My catalogue research showed a number of fashion trends which crop up repeatedly in photos:

• Copious shelving
• White-laminated chipboard furniture, especially drawers
• Laminate flooring or plain, unpatterned carpet
• Beds with duvets (as opposed to sheets & bedspreads)
• Pop & rock music posters
• Bedside lamps with white tapered-drum lampshades
• Angle-poise lamps (usually painted red, black or white)
• Terry (towel fabric) dressing gown (usually hung on door hook)
• Collapsible chair, made from plastic-coated tubular metal frame

A Flickr image of a 1986 bedroom (copyright Ben Salter)

Finally, from my compiled lists of specific nostalgia triggers, the following items may be useful:

• Portable colour TV (a great opportunity to use 'forgotten' brand names, such as Pye, ITT, etc.)
• Vinyl record collection, usually stacked on shelves
• Tape cassettes, stacked on shelves
• Record turntable, often in the form of a small all-in-one music centre
• Sony Walkman cassette player with headphones
• Home computer
• Pocket calculator e.g. Casio scientific
• VHS video tape, with hand-written label

Calculator, cassettes and headphones.  Note the grid wallpaper, black/white content and primary colours. 

Decisions, Decisions.

It's easy to say that I'm going to combine semiotic indices and period-specific items, but there are infinite combinations which can give differing mood and tone.

Collage of some of my research images.  Can you identify the famous bedroom at the bottom right?

First thing to consider is that the game needs to remain child-friendly, so it'll be good to keep it light rather than dark.  White walls with maybe a grey grid pattern?  Slab red, white and grey on different walls? Might be best to try all these variants and see what difference it makes.

That bedside lamp can be switched for an angle-poise lamp in a contrasting colour to the wall.  The bed duvet can go white/grey/red stripey.  Pop star posters would be nice, but there may be a problem with licensed images -- pastiche might be the best option here.

The train is probably best left in its current form, but adjusted to primary colours.

What about the alarm clock?  My catalogue research identifies that, by the mid-1980s, flip clocks were on their way out, replaced by digital 7-segment red LED clock radios.  However, this might not be recognised by a child as an alarm clock.  Further research shows that traditional hands-and-bells alarm clocks still existed, but they often featured characters Mickey Mouse, E.T. (or even Gizmo!)  Copyright clearance could present a problem here, but the Gremlins brand is owned by Warner Bros. and licensed to NECA.  Thankfully NECA (who publish the game) have the licence for E.T. toys, so we may be able to get away with an E.T. alarm clock -- which adds an extra '80s touch.

Shelving and bed wood can go white; same for the door.  Windows can lose curtains for blinds.  The alphabet at the top might have to stay, if it's a game element (although there's no evidence for this in any gameplay videos I've seen).

The toy car can become a toy Ferrari or a Big Trak (or maybe even KITT, the Knight Rider car); the table lamp can acquire a round tapered drum lampshade.  The left chair can go tubular; right one can go office-style.  Floor can stay laminated, but less glossy (maybe also lighter, i.e. pine?).  The flatscreen TV can become a colour portable.  Shelving on the right can old vinyl records and cassettes -- maybe even a VCR and video cassettes.

The lava lamp is a bit of an anachronism, because they'd gone out of fashion in 1970s and didn't return until the 2000s.  However, I'm guessing it plays a part in the game so we may have to leave it in.  Possibly change the colour scheme (red?).  The telescope is probably best left, as it fits pretty much any period.

The number 4 wooden block is actually a jack-in-the-box.  Although I've tried to avoid obvious cliches, a box themed on the Rubik's cube might fit nicely here.

The large mat in the middle of the room could switch colours.  Again, the alphabet & earth may play a part in gameplay so may have to remain.  I'd recommend a retro-game 8-bit graphics styled version of the mat, which keeps the content but places it in the era we want.

Wow.  That's a lot to build.  Next step is to produce a mock-up, which will probably involve a mixture of quick 3D modelling and photo composition.

1980s bedroom (part 1) Context

I've done a lot of work analysing the memorable objects and visual cues that go with specific time periods, so it's time to experiment at synthesizing a period setting which could be used within a game.

With this in mind I have embarked on a small project to try to apply my ideas to a real-life game, to see whether my ambitions meet my expectations.

---

An Example Application

The following image is taken from the 2011 video game "Gremlins: Gizmo", developed by Pipeworks Software for the Nintendo Wii & DS.  It is a collection of mini-games based around the the exploits of our eponymous hero as he explores a house.

The original Gremlins movie (1984) was a dark horror comedy, rated 15 certificate due to violence & some gory content.  Surprisingly, the film company discovered an alternative market for their intellectual property, selling the cute & cuddly Gizmo character as a mass-produced soft toy -- a toy which still sells well today.

So who is this game actually aimed at?  The cutesy graphics and simplistic objects (toy trains, alarm clocks, etc.) and undemanding gameplay are clearly designed with kids in mind.  You can see in the screenshots that the main bedroom has a timeless, wooden look with a cosy Autumnal colour-scheme and an eclectic collection of objects -- a mix of old-fashioned and modern (such as the flat-screen TV) -- which will be recognised and understood by young players.

However, there is a strong likelihood that selected elements are intended to appeal to parents -- such as the inclusion of the recognisable Gremlins movie theme music and versions of classic arcade games from the late 1970s & early 1980s (with corresponding period sound effects).  (You can see a sample in this gameplay video.)

I believe that there is potential here to enhance this game's appeal to parents.  Parents will be the ones actually buying the game.  They'll be the ones looking at the screenshots on the case before handing over their hard-earned cash.  There is emotional traction in playing to their sense of nostalgia; their desire to relive their own youth ... especially if they can share that with their own children.

The parents' original exposure to the Gremlins brand or Gizmo toy is likely to have been in the mid-1980s, so it is logical to tie the game to this time period.

I am NOT attempting to emulate the look of the original movie (or its 1990 sequel).  Although some parents will have seen the movie(s), many will not have done; so emulating the precise appearance is likely to be too restrictive.  The loose 1980s association should be strong enough to achieve my goal of emotional affect through nostalgia.

(It's worth noting that the opening scene in the game includes Gizmo throwing a frisbee emblazoned with the Pipeworks logo.  This element already sets a nice 1980s tone.)

The traditional rectangular radio cassette player (on the table) is a possibly accidental anachronism -- most all-in-one players produced in the last 15 years have had excessively curved designs.  However, it illustrates the potential for nostalgic subversion, and already fits my planned 1980s vibe.

Hence my project aim is to develop a re-designed bedroom for this scene, playing up 1980s elements while keeping the game accessible to young children.

Payphone Jackpot

Nostalgia can invoke strong emotional feelings, and the basis of my research lies in trying to exploit these.  However, it's also a very personal thing.

In my research, therefore, I've sought to find common experiences which are likely to resonate with a large number of people, in order to maximise the chance of a "hit".

I've already found it useful to "band" triggers into time periods, corresponding to the common experiences of different generations.  As noted in the old-fashioned sweets post, childhood plays a strong part in this, because it often evokes the strongest memories.  (The controversial "primal scream" psychotherapy of Arthur Janov was based somewhat on this premise, albeit misguidedly.)  As a child, some objects fascinated us more than others, due to their novelty.

Payphones

Back in mid-September, while reorganising lists of mechanical nostalgia triggers, I found a old note I'd made about the rotary dial mechanism on old phones.

This seed stayed at the back of my mind, gestating and becoming the "gift that just keeps giving".  I realised that payphones encompass several very strong nostalgia triggers, valid across a wide age range.

GPO/British Telecom payphone dating from the early 1970s to mid-1980s.
(Photo from telephonesuk.co.uk, taken from an exhibition at the National Telephone Kiosk Collection) 

A particularly strong one for me was the physical pressure that needed to be applied to force a coin into the 1970s models.  That's a very unusual mechanic, and one which would be highly evocative to particular age groups.  A nightmare to put into a video game, though!

Styles, fashions & functionality have changed, but each generation of payphone has had its own distinguishing -- and, most importantly, unique -- characteristics.

Prior to 1964, "A" & "B" button payphones were common.
("A" was used to commit to the call; "B" to return money.)

Are you old enough to remember hanging telephone directories?
The lists of numbers on the wall?  The cramped space?  

For decades, callers lived in fear of the "pips", which would require them to deposit more coins.

Phonecard payphone, introduced in the 1980s.

A British Telecom phonecard, with distinctive metallic detailing and round indent at the right-hand side.

Is it possible to put this stuff into a game?  Yes, I believe that it is.  It'd probably work best in a first-person game, where a task requires someone to make a call to retrieve information.  Look up the phone number in the directory; rotary-dial the number; deposit coins.  Make the message just long enough to trigger pips, and require second deposit of coins.  (Even better if you need to scan around, looking through the gaps in telephone kiosk windows, watching for potential attackers!  Imagine the tension as you wait for the dial to rotate back to position between digits, worried that you're a sitting target!)

Telephones

Basic telephones encompass several very strong nostalgia triggers, valid across a wide age range.  There's the shape of the handset itself; the dialling or push-button mechanism; and especially the sounds heard on the line, such as engaged tones or recorded "please replace the handset and try again" messages.

The distinctive Trimphone (1970s), popularised on TV shows like Swap Shop, as phone-ins became commonplace.  

Telephony represents a treasure trove of nostalgia triggers, mostly because a sizeable chunk of the population shared common experiences which have now disappeared as technology has moved on.

This phone number is permanently emblazoned in the minds of a generation.

Certainly, in my planning and compilation of potential items for use in games, phones have come up again and again.  Whether it's just the physical appearance of a handset, or a deliberate subversion of the user interface -- such as making the user enter a number using a rotary dial -- they offer an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the core principal of my research: that nostalgia can add value to video games.

Measuring emotional response

Look at the image below.  Does it mean anything to you?  What about the lyrics?

Watch the YouTube video clip!

Like a streak of lightnin' flashin' 'cross the sky...
Like the swiftest arrow whizzin' from a bow!

Like a MIGHTY cannon-ball he seems to fly;

You'll hear his name just ev'ry-where you go.

The time will come when ev'ry-one will know – the – name – of –

CHAM-PION, THE WON–DER HORSE!
CHAM-PION, THE WON—DER HORSE!

No?  Well that's a BIG problem if I want to use it as a nostalgia trigger.
Maybe you're too young to remember this slice of hokey western adventure.
Maybe you're old enough, but never saw it at the time.  Memories are very personal, after all.

Verifying the affect of nostalgia triggers

I've finally got moving on the experimental phase of my research.  The results of these experiments will inform the final production phase, where I will aim to create casual mobile game(s) which will act as a living demonstration of the added value of nostalgia in game design.

My first experiment starts by looking at an axiom: to verify that nostalgia triggers will actually provoke a positive emotional response.  Existing psychology research proves the general case for this, but I need to confirm that my chosen triggers are effective before proceeding further.

Some triggers will undoubtedly get a muted response.  Take the example below:

Image stolen from Flickr; copyright Marc Sayce

Opal Fruits were launched in the UK in 1959 by Mars Confectionery, advertised with the long-running slogan "Made to make your mouth water".  However, when Mars released the same sweet in the USA in 1967 they changed the name to Starburst.  To simplify global marketing, the UK Opal Fruits name was phased out in 1998.

Will someone react emotionally to seeing the old name?  Adsa thought so, reintroducing the old branding for a limited period in 2008.  Was it a success?  I think the fact that they haven't repeated the gimmick speaks for itself.

This is a concern that I must consider when selecting nostalgia triggers for my game.  Therefore I shall be measuring the strength of response to a range of triggers in order to weed out poor candidates.

I'd considered full double-blind psychological tests, but realised that this would be overkill for the scale of project that I'm working on.  A simple questionnaire -- asking participants to grade relative excitement upon seeing an item -- will be sufficient.

Rowntree Mackintosh (now Nestle) Toffo sweets.
"A man's gotta chew what a man's gotta chew!"
Produced from 1970s to mid-1980s; re-released in the mid-2000s for a short period. 

It'll also give me an opportunity to cross-reference the data with the age of participants, hopefully finding a correlation between their formative years and the periods in which products were active.

Gender & Statistics

In recent weeks I've been teaching a number of my students about the issue of gender in games design, making use of the research I did a year ago, covering the ideas of Sheri Graner Ray & Jesse Schell.  (Games design is a small world, so it was little surprise to discover that Graner Ray now works for Schell's games company.)

By coincidence I've also been re-visiting older blog pages to fix broken links, due to an increase in traffic* over the last month.  And one page with lots of broken links was Gender & Games Design.

*

Hopefully it's other people finding my research useful, but I'm becoming slightly alarmed by the fact that 10% of total hits are for the Showaddywaddy page, and that 80% of my total traffic comes from the USA.  The data suggests that somewhere in Texas there is a mock-1950s glam rock revival waiting to happen.

During the process I stumbled upon some interesting info, and thought it was worth posting as an update to my original blog entry.

Statistics!

It's very easy to quote numbers for gender in gaming, but it usually boils down to the same two statistics: women account for only 20% of console gamers, yet they represent 70% of the casual games market.  (Sheri Graner Ray quotes these figures herself, in this video interview.)

However, it's difficult to find the origin of these statistics.  My own notes suggest that the 70% figure comes from 2004, so is it still valid?

Therefore I was very pleased to discover Nick Berry's DataGenetics' analysis of gaming based on Facebook "affinity".  This 2010 webpage contains detailed charts, which give a graphical breakdown by age & gender in the USA market, allowing comparisons to be made.

The chart for casual game Bejeweled Blitz shows a very clear bias to female players (78%), with middle-aged women accounting for a major chunk.

But is the Facebook userbase predominantly female anyway?  Social networking is certainly something which appeals strongly to women.  Cross-referencing with 2012 data from Google's AdClick service shows that Facebook is fairly evenly distributed for gender (60% female) but biased toward ages 25-44.  So Bejeweled definitely exhibits a primary female pull; the age thing might just be a reflection of the survey pool.

Compare and contrast Farmville with Call of Duty 4.  It says an awful lot about the gender split.

This split is not unusual, though.  In the movie world, Star Wars has a predominantly male following, whereas the Twilight series is synonymous with teenage girls.  (Berry notes the "double hump" in Star Wars age ranges, based on original and prequel movies; I'd also suggest there's an element of parents passing down their passion to their own kids)

 

TV is the same.  Consider Oprah Winfrey's 89% female audience:

Certainly, in the wider creative media production industries, these skewed demographics are not seen as an imbalance: instead, they represent an opportunity to target a specific audience more efficiently.

Danger, Will Robinson!

However, in my own personal opinion, these statistics are something we should be wary of.  Data such as this allows creative media producers an excuse to pander to the majority at the expense of the minority, creating a feedback loop of self-fulfilling prophecy.

For example, when Activision considered the cover design for Call of Duty 4 they undoubtedly knew that their primary audience was young & male (from previous games in the series) and chose imagery to appeal to that demographic.

But what if they'd tried to appeal to a female audience?  What could they focus on instead?  Maybe emphasise co-op gameplay?  Is there the risk that trying to widen the gender appeal could damage potential sales to their main market?

This is certainly a problem which has affected the book publishing industry, which has attempted to maximise gender or age sales using targeted cover imagery.  Writers like Jaqueline Wilson have spoken out about this gender profiling and mainstream media has commented on the rise of "pink plague".

I believe that this over-reliance on demographic profiling represents a form of social engineering, reducing consumer choice.  The "Rural Purge" in 1970s US TV programming is an example of this.  If we're not careful we may end up in a Gattaca-style dystopia where people are condemned to be allowed only those things which fit their profiling. And that's a scary thought.

Conclusion

There's a lot to think about here.  The key thing these statistics prove is that boys & girls can each like different stuff, and that's not a bad thing.  As a game designer it's important to reflect on things like this, and ensure that we're not stuck in a fixed mindset of our own likes & interests.  There may be a danger in taking these statistics too seriously, but there's also an injustice if we fail to consider them at all.

Retro Mania: Play Expo

In the previous post I wrote about why I'd decided to avoid retro-gaming in my MA research, so you'd be forgiven for wondering why I'm clamouring to discuss the subject again.

The main reason is because there's a gaping hole in my current experimental research when it comes to nostalgia triggers from the 1990s and 2000s.  My shopping catalogue investigation highlighted a modern void, where toys & games started to dwindle in favour of games consoles, leaving few potential non-game-related cues which would have an emotional resonance.

However, I think I've found an angle on how to include period video games without the associated legal problems.  And, importantly, to do this without treading on the toes of other research in this area.  Before I explain my thoughts, I'd like to describe the journey that let to my conclusion.

Bigger than the PS4

Last weekend I took a party of students to Play Expo in Manchester, which featured:

• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (3 weeks before release) playable on real PS4 consoles (4 weeks before release)
• Have-a-try Oculus Rift virtual reality hardware (still in developer testing)
• Preview demos of Dark Souls II (four months before release)
• Playable demos of Super Mario 3D World (due 5 weeks) and Mario Kart 8 (due in 4 months)

With all these exclusive AAA-titles on show, what was top-of-the-bill?  Retro-gaming.  It took up most of the venue's floor space, was promoted as the primary feature, and revealed a passion for nostalgia that simply cannot be ignored.

Rainbow Islands (Taito, 1987) at Play Expo
(In my opinion one of the best-crafted video games of the last 30 years: perfect pace & flow, cleverly unveiling greater challenges & rewards as the player's skill increases.  Like Mario Kart, it's a game where a beginner and an expert can play the same level and each have different, fulfilling experiences. And it's pretty cute, too.)

I'd noticed a retro section at Insomnia but this took things to another level.  Arcade cabinets, row-upon-row of old consoles & PCs, and even pinball tables.  There was kit there that I hadn't seen for 30 years.  These guys are serious about their retro.

TRS-80 Color (1986) & Apple II (1977)

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1981)

Dragon 32 (1984) and Atari 130XE (1985)

Old hardware & home PC bundles.

The legacy of the UK video gaming industry's roots was also evident, with displays focusing on Acorn's education products (including some nifty 1980s graphic design) and even an appearance by Jeff Minter's Llamasoft.

From Bedroom to Billions documentary.  Spot the ZX Spectrum demographic. 

However, despite the quantity of very old kit, it was clear that this event represented 40-year-old dads down to 20-something youngsters, with a fair proportion of 1990s and early 2000s gaming available.

"Woah! Imagine the size of the cartridges?"

The appearance of Retro Gamer magazine in the mid-2000s showed the early roots of the retro-gaming movement but I believe that it is only in the last few years that the market has started to move from niche to mainstream, aided mainly by digital distribution and micro-transactions -- allowing users to quickly & conveniently enjoy blasts of nostalgia.

Application to my research

Wandering around the event I realised that, while the old games themselves are objects of desire, the actual equipment & ephemera are also powerful nostalgia triggers.  From old Kempston joysticks to obscure home computers (like the SAM Coupé sitting in a corner), there's joy to be found in rediscovery of old friends.

Grandstand Galaxy Invader 1000 (1982)

I've finally realised that I can include these old games in my work: not by using the games themselves, with the associated copyright headaches, but by instead focusing on the physical appearance & characteristics of these devices.  It's also much easier to genericise these to create look-a-like products (e.g. "Game Kid" handheld console) with associated period style graphics & sound.

A new generation looking backwards

A year ago, in my first MA submission The Application of Nostalgia in Video Games Design, I noted that there was a significant sub-culture of retro-gaming which had now started to go mainstream (using the movie Wreck-It Ralph as an example).

In seeking to exploit the emotional pull of nostalgia I'd found that, prior to the 1980s, our halcyon memories of childhood are filled with toys & sweets ... but for those aged under 40 video gaming itself is a significant part of their childhood, adolescence & formative years.

However, video game nostalgia -- retro-gaming -- presents a very thorny path of still-active copyright & trademarks.  Most frustratingly, there is minimal room for reminiscence when many iconic tentpole Intellectual Properties (e.g. Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Mario, Sonic, Halo) have never actually gone away.  And it's not just the IP: the actual games themselves are still with us.  Nintendo's late-'80s NES Mario titles were re-released in the mid-'90s for the SNES and then re-released again for Wii in 2010!  Games companies are already exploiting their own nostalgia, and doing a very good job of it.

So I decided to ignore retro-gaming; to explicitly avoid it -- stating that I would instead "explore wider non-game-related nostalgia cues".  Whittling a subject down to a very specific area -- to a precise question -- is a vital part of the MA.  I went in my own chosen direction and am very happy with it, with no regrets.

The Future of Nostalgia

That said, I was very interested to discover that one of this year's talented new MA intake, Matthew Hoey, was considering focusing on nostalgia for his main research.

More specifically, he has been exploring retro-gaming and has already hit on an angle that I hadn't even considered.  He is currently focusing on the look & feel of older games and applying this as a nostalgia trigger in modern games.  It's a smart move, and avoids the whole IP issue (much like the fictitious title character games in Wreck-It Ralph).

Mattheus Hoeyus' Gamus Designus Bloggus

Matthew's retro-inspired game Lima.

His work looks very promising and I really look forward to seeing where he goes with this, especially due to its complementary relationship with my own research.  It's great to see academic research pieces fitting together like a giant jigsaw, each playing a part in expanding the whole discipline.  It's also satisfying to know that the future of nostalgia is in safe hands!