Design Lead & Producer

Cold Equations
August 2010 - December 2011

Cold Equations is an experimental game adaptation of the short story “The Cold Equations” written in 1954 by Tom Godwin. The game is intended to capture the emotional resonance of the short story. This five minute experience explores the idea of failure in games, and uses interaction and the promise of potential reward to emotionally attach the player to the characters and the story.

http://www.constellationgame.com/

Using the lessons learned from Richard Rouse’s GDC 2010 talk, “5 ways games can make you cry” I feel that the game can impact the player in the way I hoped. The key is that it has to be for the right player. I realize now that the game is designed for a ludic player, but is best suited for a narrativst player. As a translation the other thing I realize now is that in the short story the narrative is responsible for the feeling of failure and in the game the mechanic is responsible for the feeling of failure.