Senior Project Advisor
Kathleen Brian
Document Type
Project
Publication Date
Spring 2024
Keywords
death, digital media, decision-making, conceptualization, resurrection, gameplay
Abstract
NOTE: a free version of GameMaker is required to run this game and can be downloaded from https://gamemaker.io/en/download.
DEATH//AFTER is an original video game, generated by Cole Yamamura, in which a masked figure invites users to engage in one last encounter before their demise. Much like life, the figure chooses the game but the user chooses how to move through it. Depending on the user’s choices, the figure reveals additional challenges or one of several possible endings. A limited, unfamiliar deck of cards further complicates the matter, and the masked figure neither forgives nor undoes the user’s errors.
DEATH//AFTER seeks to familiarize the player with the concept of death by treating the subject neutrally. The design of the game challenges the assumed sequence of many contemporary games: life, death, and revival/reset, followed by a new beginning in the form of another life. However, its neutrality also challenges ritualized expectations for the dead, the living, and interactions between the two. The detachment of the masked figure underscores death’s inevitability while also emphasizing that what comes before the end is much more important than what comes after. By incorporating voiceovers that remind the player of life's difficult realities, and by asking that the player go through the game only once, the game allows for meditation on what it might mean to live a life that integrates the fact of human mortality.
[A supplemental attachment with installation instructions is included at the bottom of this page.]
Department
Honors
Recommended Citation
Yamamura, Cole, "DEATH AFTER: A Visualization of Death in a Digital Medium" (2024). WWU Honors College Senior Projects. 838.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/838
Type
Text
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
installation instructions