Meditations - April 10

Meditations is a year long project headed by Rami Ismail and Jupiter Headley involving over 300 game developers. Each developer has to develop a game reflecting on a day in the year. The game can only be played on that day every year.

I solo designed and developed April 10 using Unity. 

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What is April 10

Everyone has a metaphorical plant inside of them that needs care and attention every once in a while. In this game you tend to a plant over the course of six hours. It will slowly grow next to you as you go about your day. However every once in a while it will get scared and you'll need to tap it to remind it you're there and everything is going to be ok.

Development

April 10 uses deep game mechanics to express a lived experience in gameplay form.

Deep game mechanics is a design process where a game designer will take emotions and human experiences and communicates them as mechanical systems. It is sometimes used as art therapy or to explore how complex real-life systems work.

In 2019 I gave a talk at Freeplay Festival on how I designed and developed this game as a way to overcome a traumatic event and come to terms with PTSD. It is also a manifesto for a more diverse, compassionate games industry.