Les chmonnes sont
clares is a heritage video game that invites you to navigate the roads of
Clare to learn their history.
For bonus features and to support Rosella, Jonah and Chad, buy the TURBO EDITION.
Launch
The game was launched on April 4, 2016, at the Marc-Lescarbot theater during the Festival Clare-té. The following video shows three minutes of the launch event:
Background
Les chmonnes sont clares was my first game commission. The Fédération régionale des arts et du patrimoine de la Baie (the FRAP, an arts and heritage association) asked me to make a game for their Patrimoni'arts project.
The FRAP began this intergenerational project by recording five audio clips of people talking about the history of the roads in Saint Mary's Bay, the place where I grew up.
Photo: the FRAP
JonahMeltWave took part and created an electronic song based on the clips.
The game is essentially a virtual space containing these audio clips. The player explores the roads of Clare to find the five clips in addition to 18 points of interest.
I hired a local photographer, Rosella Melanson, to take pictures of the roads to show on-screen during the audio clips. To add more content, I later thought of taking pictures of interesting places, like the Montagne, Frenchy's, the wharves, etc.
Since we had so many nice pictures, I decided to design and print booklets to accompany the launch. The FRAP printed 50 to give away for free at the launch. It was really cool!
Photo: Rosella Melanson
The digital version of the booklet as well as JonahMeltWave's song are available in the TURBO EDITION. I also have a few physical copies left. Contact me if you want to buy one!
Les chmonnes sont clares est un jeu vidéo patrimonial qui
vous invite à naviguer les chemins de Clare pour apprendre leur histoire.
Pour des bonus features et pour appuyer Rosella, Jonah et Chad, achetez le TURBO EDITION.
Lancement Le jeu a été lancé le 4 avril 2016 au théâtre Marc-Lescarbot lors du Festival Clare-té. Vous pouvez voir trois minutes du lancement dans ce video :
Histoire
Les chmonnes sont clares étais ma première commission. La Fédération régionale des arts et du patrimoine de la Baie (la FRAP) m’avait demandé de faire un jeu dans le cadre de leur projet Patrimoni’arts.
La FRAP avait commencé ce projet intergénérationnel en enregistrant cinq clips audio de personnes qui parlent de l’histoire des chemins de la Baie Sainte-Marie, mon village natal.
Photo : la FRAP
JonahMeltWave a participé en créant une chanson électronique à partir des clips.
Le jeu que j’ai créé est essentiellement un espace virtuel qui contient ces enregistrements audio. Le joueur se promène sur les chemins de Clare et trouve les cinq clips en plus de 18 points d’intérêt.
J’avais embauché une photographe de la région, Rosella Melanson, pour prendre des photos des chemins pour montrer à l’écran pendant que l’audio joue. Pour avoir plus de contenu dans le jeu, j’avais ensuite eu l’idée de prendre plus de photos d’endroits intéressants, comme la Montagne, le Frenchy’s, les quais, etc.
Puisque j’avions beaucoup de belles images, j’avais décidé de concevoir et d’imprimer des livrets d'accompagnement. La FRAP en avait imprimé 50 pour distribuer gratuitement au lancement. C’était vraiment cool!
Photo : Rosella Melanson
Vous pouvez acheter la version électronique du livret (ainsi que la chanson de JonahMeltWave) dans la TURBO EDITION de la game. J’ai aussi quelques copies physiques de reste; contactez-moi si vous voulez en acheter un!
My friend John Bauer asked me to talk about Undertale on his podcast, Comatose. Click here for the episode (my segment starts at about 6 minutes). Since I already had the text written up, I figured I might as well publish it here:
Undertale is a hard
game to talk about. I mean, I can talk about the game all day, like how the
atmosphere is quirky yet dark, how the characters are varied and relatable, and
how amazing the soundtrack is. But given the game’s cult following and the way
it has impacted me personally, that can’t be all there is to it, right?
I find it hard to put
my finger on the deeper reasons why I loved Undertale. And it’s even harder to talk
about the game without spoiling certain aspects for potential players. But I’ll
try anyway!
For starters, let’s
talk about the basics. Undertale is a game, and games are built with systems.
The combat system combines old-school JRPGs with bullet hell gameplay, and
manages to stay surprising and fresh throughout. Undertale also boasts an
interesting morality system, with radically different stories dictated by your choices.
Undertale’s story is great,
the vibe is unique, and the lore is pretty deep. There are also interesting and
unsettling meta elements that I won’t get into here. These are even integrated
into the lore, which is a pretty novel concept. And as mentioned, the
soundtrack is really solid. Toby Fox, the game’s designer, is a musician, so
the audio was obviously handled with care.
So all these
qualities are great, and definitely contribute to the game’s success, but I
think the reason I fell in love with Undertale is the way it treats violence
and morality.
One of the game
tropes that Undertale remixes is violence. The media often decries the
depiction of realistic violence in video games, but the in-game context and
consequences of violence are rarely considered. It's just taken at face value.
Look at Grand Theft
Auto, for example. You can shoot up the city, murder countless people and be pursued
by the police and the military… and get off with only a small hospital bill.
This lack of any real in-game consequence almost trivializes the violence,
removing any real weight from those actions in the game world. Yes, the
violence is nearly photo-realistic, but it’s empty, almost devoid of meaning. Furthermore,
in this game and many others, the player has no choice but to participate in
violent behaviour, because a) the game mechanics are built around it, and b) it
is necessary to progress the story.
Alternatively,
Undertale can be played entirely non-violently. Undertale has an interesting
morality system that's actually built into its combat. The game allows players
to kill monsters for experience points and gold like a typical role-playing
game, but monsters can also be interacted with non-violently.
By choosing the Act command instead of the Fight command, players can bypass
violence altogether. I was surprised to find myself emotionally invested in
these common encounters. Whether it’s complimenting an insecure monster,
cheering on a singing monster, or petting a dog in armour, most encounters can
be positive ones if the player commits to this play style.
This means that the
choice to commit violence in Undertale can be avoided. Violence is even frowned
upon by other characters. The consequences to violence are made very apparent,
with changes to the world and story. Characters treat you differently. Which
totally makes sense. This makes the violence much more realistic, in a way. Don’t
be deceived by this game’s minimalist retro aesthetic: as the PBS Idea Channel highlighted
in one of their videos, Undertale could be the most violent game of the past
year.
Playing Undertale was
just such a great experience. In addition to being well-built and innovative, the
game is just so human, sincere, and personal. It’s refreshing to see a game
with such unabashed positivity. This is contrasted by the infamous and absolutely
devastating “genocide run” that leaves players feel really bad, or simply unwilling
to play that version of the game. The game is really shaped
by who's playing it.
And as you may have
noticed, this little indie game amassed a huge cult following pretty quickly.
From what I've heard and read, this burst in popularity was annoying to some
non-fans, which is understandable given the passion of the fanbase and the
difficulty in grasping why the game is widely loved without actually playing it.
If you’re interested
in games that offer more than entertainment, that are emotionally engaging and
challenging, be sure to check out Undertale, my favourite game of 2015.
