For my games essential experience I want to explore the emotions of nostalgia
What experience do I want the player to have?
- I want players to feel connected with the emotion of nostalgia, this doesn't necessarily have to be nostalgia of the players own memories, and I'd like to experiment with a second hand or induced nostalgia. I did some research and found several articles on the sensation of nostalgia for something you've never experienced, specifically for a location you've never been to. This sensation is interesting to english speakers because it doesn't really have a word to describe it; in german, however, the emotion is sometimes called fernweh which literally translates to far-sickness.
What is essential to that experience?
An idealised yet untrue symbolic past
How can my game capture that essence?
By experimenting with:
- A character experiencing nostalgic emotions, that can be empathised with or projected onto by the player
- Repeated experiences or locations throughout the game that attempt to trigger a nostalgic response. This would involve experimenting with what memories can trigger this response and how much time needs to have elapsed before a memory can pass into this nostalgic state, and whether this is possible within the span of a single game.
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