One Chance and what it means to me
One Chance is a browser game hosted on a number of websites by someone named LemmiBeans. The game begins by telling you that every living cell on planet Earth will die in 6 days, and cryptically, that you have one chance. When you gain control, you walk through your house and find out that you have a wife and daughter. Right off the bat, that one chance line tells you what you're in for. What could it mean? One chance to save the world? One chance to make amends? Doesn't matter, you only have one chance.
The game does a great job of presenting the mundanities of every day life. With the deadline approaching, I felt frustrated at my characters seemingly merry jig as he walked around. I made sure to see my family every day, but I had a job to do. I had to save the world.
As the days pressed on and progress didn't, I started to feel helpless. I felt like I was doing everything I could and still getting nothing. I didn't want to give up though, and despite my coworkers suicides and a loss of funding, I still felt like there was hope.
When the news of the end of the world finally broke, I saw a noticeable shift in the attitude of my wife. Instead of greeting me at the door on my way out, she simply lay in bed and pleaded with me not to go t work today. That my family was more important. But screw that noise, I had a world to save. I still said hello to my daughter. She was the last bastion of innocence in a world paralyzed by fear.
2 days later, I found my wife in the bathtub. There was blood everywhere. Had I not been so work-focused, she might still be alive. Still, I worked. I took my daughter with me. It was a mistake. There were bodies of my coworkers littering my office. Another day, another failure.
There was no one left. I worked tirelessly alone, hoping beyond hope that I could still fix this. That I could still take back what I did. I wasn't looking for fame or glory. I didn't want to feel like a hero. I just wanted to right my wrongs. I couldn't. I slumped against my work bench, the red X of failure burned into my retinas. I closed my eyes.
True to it's title, the game doesn't allow you to restart (theoretically you could play it on another website, but it kinda defeats the purpose). When I refreshed, I was greeted by the same scene of me, slumped on the floor, eyes shut.
What inspired me from this game is the feeling that any choice you make is irreversible. This idea that life is scripted and choice is but a mere illusion is something I absolutely want to incorporate in my games. I want the players to choose. But I don't want them to have a choice. This is the way the game goes, and all you choose is how it gets there. One Chance is a prime example of this. While not through the choices you make (there are multiple endings depending on your 6 days) but through the titular one chance nature of the game. While I like this style, it doesn't quite gel with what I mean to accomplish. It has definitely shown me that there is more than one way to achieve what I want, and forced me to go back and re-evaluate.
Truly, I love this game. Not only for what it is, but for what it represents. One Chance and other games like it show us that games don't have to be all the same. Games don't have to elicit just joy or fear. Games can evoke a wide range of emotions. That is the type of designer I want to be.
