http://simogo.com/work/device-6/

So mostly I thought it would be fun to talk about games. More specifically apps. More specifically, science fiction-y apps. Because we live in an increasingly multi-media world, and the question of how much technology is good is one present in some science fiction plots. The merging of video game with phone/ipod/ipad ect seems to have its own science fiction element, an idea that Device 6 plays with.

I highly recommend this game, but talking about why Device 6 is such a neat hybrid will get a bit spoiler-y.  But here’s the launch trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1vlWWnESf0

The game is divided up into chapters, and at the start of each chapter you are presented with a mandatory multiple choice question such as:

This, coupled with the opening where you are instructed to read the “software license agreement” feels like a comment on the way we interact with technology and legally binding information. When choosing whether to accept or decline the Terms and Conditions on, say, Facebook, the choice doesn’t really feel like it’s there. Sure, you can renounce all technology and live secluded, or you can spend days reading legal jargon, or you can click accept and hope for the best (Not the best plan, but the choice I think most of us make). In Device 6 the drive to discover how the story will unfold (the drive to stay a part of the game’s world) pushes you forward and you complete what you are faced with.

This theme is pushed to the max at the end of the game when the final screen gives you the ‘option’ of exchanging your points for one of a series of items. Guess what. You can only chose one item, and that item brings you full circle to the start of the game.

Device 6 also explores technology, and the implications of gaming itself through your inclusion into the narrative. The most interesting part of the game, I think, is how it unfolds.

The other piece of this game is that it is almost entirely text-based. There are interactive puzzles, and different images that you will scroll past, but most of the game is based on reading. This hybridity between game and novel is fascinating, play it and you’ll see.

But mostly I think this game plays with the idea of technology taking over reality, which is a theme present in science fiction. By having the game on such an easily accessible platform, the message becomes more powerful.