September 2017
Download Contacts on itch.io here
I've recently been learning to put contact lenses in, something I've been putting off for a while, because I don't really like the idea of poking myself continuously in the eye. My first tutorial session didn't do wonders for my confidence, either. I found the whole process stressful and frustrating, and I (for some reason) wanted to capture that feeling in a game. Games don't have to be empowering for a player, they can just express something that's true.
At the time I had also been playing Night in the Woods and one of my favourite features of the game was the variety of bespoke minigames, for example, this one where the player (playing as the main character, Mae) eats pizza with her friends:
There's a slightly clumsy, almost slapstick feel to these minigames, but they're used to great effect in expressing the personality of the characters. I wanted to create something similar - a minigame vignette of my experience. While Night in the Wooods uses simpler minigames that recur over the course of the story, I was trying to replicate the physical sensation and frustration of trying to put in my lenses:
- I can't hold my eyelids open for long enough to put the lens in, and my fingers keep losing grip.
- I can't tell whether I've aligned the lens correctly over my eye.
- I don't know how much pressure I should be putting on the lens.
- Every time a tiny thing goes wrong, I have to start the whole process again.
Because of these features of my experience I had to go with an intentionally complicated set of controls, a la QWOP, and I broke some principles that make regular games more enjoyable:
- The consequences of failure are not lowered as much as possible. Moving the finger to pick up the lens after failing is intentionally slow and annoying.
- Misinformation: the player has to work out through trial and error how much pressure they should be applying with their right finger.
- UI: scattering the areas the player should lend their attention to all over the screen replicates well the irritating multitasking required in real life, but making the UI an obstacle is something I'd normally want to avoid.
Whether or not the goal of making an intentionally annoying game was worthwhile, I'd say I achieved it, and I've heard from people who played the game that it feels true to their experience (imagined or otherwise) of putting in contacts. I was also really pleased to see YouTuber Jupiter Hadley play the game: