report on the design choices

Design brief

I wanted to see if I could incorporate one into Twine. I chose the Map of Tender, a metaphorical map for the seventeenth century which teaches men how to court women properly. A lot of different interpretations of the map are made, which is also described in the novel Clélie where the characters all have a different opinion about the map.

It has different paths that lead towards two bad ends, two good ends (implied marriage) and one unclear end, which translates well into the Twine structure. At the end the player can choose to start over again or to consult the digitised map in the interactive IIIF viewer.

Process

First I started reading secondary literature about the map. These mostly addressed the social values present in the map or its geometrical constructions. I didn’t really know how to apply these ideas in the game. The map also is an object that has a lot of old gendered concepts. Next to the bad path, but not on the bad path, is a mountain named ‘pride’, the meaning of this word has changed a lot. I could use the word ‘arrogance’ instead, but this point made me think about that I also don’t want to exclude the non-cisgender perspectives.

Design

I first thought about making a dating simulator from it, with typical mechanics such as a simple character creator and different love interests, with stats determining the end type, but choose not to. It may be interesting as a tool to think about the past and gender social constructions, but it is not something I felt that could be done in the project’s time frame. Instead I choose to make an interactive view of the map. The user can navigate the different paths, viewing different parts of the map each time. Regarding the courting aspect of the map I leaved it a bit out, the player travels with somebody and their relation ends in a positive or negative way, but the game doesn’t mention the genders or the type of relationship (it is framed as a ‘friendship’ and the different stages can be interpreted in different ways by the players).

General thoughts

Instead of making the concepts of the map playable, it is more of a guided viewing on the map. It is an interactive exploration of the past, but isn’t really a game as there are no ‘playable’ elements, except maybe trying to get the good end, which is closer to betting. This Twine was quite educational for me, as it forced me to look closely at its details while transcribing it. Maps are associated with adventure and I’m sure more playful stories can be told with them. Dating simulators often indicate the progress through metaphors, such as a thermometer, a growing plant or a colour scale. The Map of Tender was my central focus, as something to interact with, but it could be used as an interface element to indicate progress, not in terms of geographical progression, but in a metaphorical way.