If we analyze the history of literature, one thing is clear: when Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy, offices, bureaucracy and e-mails were not what they are today. Because by now, everyone knows that hell is made up of office cubicles with PCs running Windows 95. Dah.
And let’s agree Don’t we sell our souls to the devil a little at every endless business meeting, discussing goals and objectives? Why not make that pact official using this sophisticated, state-of-the-art software to make our pie charts improve exponentially?
Well, seriously. Presenter Slides™ It’s not what it seems. I don’t quite know what it’s meant to look like, but that’s definitely not it. I don’t even really know what it is. I don’t think I need to explain to them either. But it’s something like a game, a comedy (although not divine), and a practical work of the facu. Yes, really.
From the thesis to Steam
Presenter Slides™ was made by two people, the Danish Mathias Schifter and the Slovenian Brin Žvan (of whom I already reviewed in the past other things). They did it not only to improve the performance of office workers, take business people to another level, and because they are fans of Zoom meetings, but also as part of his thesis in the Master of Game Studies in Denmark. Thesis that was supervised by the great michael sicartwhom we interviewed in one of the best episodes of the Early Access podcast.
Because yes, the world of video game development is a (pixelated) handkerchief. In addition, the first batch of the project was physically distributed on CDs, which already meant a previous challenge for the players: getting a PC with a floppy drive to run it.
But hey, beyond the academic value, this is a game very entertaining and, above all, very unexpected.
It has parts that look like they were made in Bitsy, 3D parts with pixelated stock photos (openly inspired by the aesthetic of PRODUCER 2021), a devilishly funny story and several psychedelic mini-games. One of which requires connect a webcam and exercise. Nothing scarier than that.
It’s not you, it’s your paradigm
Presenter Slides™ enters the paradigm of abusive games, and the paper that accompanies it seeks to reinterpret that term, coined by Douglas Wilson and the already named Miguel Sicart.
The idea of abusive game design is to shift the focus from the player (classic game design) or the designer (art games), and instead focus on the relationship between the two, thinking at the same time. game like a dialogue. A dialogic relationship where the designer seeks to surprise and subvert the limits of those who playthat by trying to understand the perverted logic of the rules, they are somehow understanding the designer’s way of thinking.
But Brin Žvan and Mathias Schifter consider that every time an abusive game goes mainstream, it becomes the norm. It is not for nothing that those who break the fourth wall are becoming more and more popular. When he did it Undertale He was a transgressor, but is he still a transgressor almost a decade later, when whoever plays is already waiting for the fourth wall to be broken?
These two theorists and devs then consider the term to be counter-design, because no matter what the hot thing is, there is always going to be a counter-culture breaking with the paradigms of society, and moving along with it. So Presenter Slides™ seeks, according to his thesis, subverting expectations as an expressive resourceto generate sensations and humor.
It is difficult to make comparisons when it comes to these titles that are precisely characterized by breaking all the rules. But I could state that if you like weird indies like Frog Fractions, Pony Island (from the creator of enrollment), there is no game or the already mentioned PRODUCER 2021; this thesis should be your type. Also if you just want to improve your productivity and work performance.
If you need me to continue convincing you to play it, I can tell you that It’s free on Steamthat finishing the main story only takes about half an hour and that, above all, is nominated at the IGF as best student game.
