The most memorable moments of the game was trying to chase Phil around the various levels, which was an interesting interaction in my opinion. Many of the games didn’t have a sense of urgency like this game did, which is a unique feeling this game provides. Rather than taking things slow and trying to immerse myself in the environment around me, I felt like I had to chase Phil, otherwise I worried he might get away. I found myself almost entranced in trying to get to Phil as fast as possible, taking the shortest route to close the distance between myself and him. I didn’t have the luxury of just running around randomly, especially once Phil transitioned to another level all together. The most surprising thing about the level to me was how I was able to move and chase Phil while Phil was still moving in what seemed like a routine. Whenever I tried to make some sort of loop with animating actors, the playable character would freeze and never be able to move.
I think one thing the designer could never be prepared for is a possible exploitation of the game and specifically Phil’s movement. If the player were to back Phil into a corner, I’m not sure where the game would go from there. However, I was never able to trap Phil, even though I found myself testing this mechanical limit to the game. Perhaps there is a sort of “out” for Phil written in the game’s code that prevents this from happening.
Prompt 3: Describe the procedural rhetoric employed by the game.
The newest installment in the Phil the Rabbit series, simply titled “Phil”, may not seem the most complex when you first see the title, but soon your love and care for Phil take over. The procedural rhetoric is based around the player’s interactions with Phil and the inherent desire to understand his behavior and make sure he doesn’t get lost, he really is a wild one at heart! As the player you don’t have to interact with Phil. You could simply enjoy the nicely designed scenes, walk around as your character, but it’s very hard to ignore such a cute creature. In the off chance you do, the game prevents you from going to the next scene until you talk with him, but I have a feeling that’s very very unlikely. To help make the possible interaction obvious, the game has Phil jump around, so you know he’s not just part of the background.
Our curiosity gets the best of us and we find ourselves talking to Phil, who runs off again, and as he cutely bounces away, it is tough to not curiously follow him. The dialogue indicates we never finished our conversation and it’s easy to want to know more. Now the player is left to chase Phil. Even if at first they don’t want to, he keeps going in circles, so it really draws the players attention. His attention is soon drawn by the grass though. We soon find this rhetoric continued as next time we reach him the dialogue tells Phil to wait.
Overall the rhetoric and goal is pretty convincing. While I did enjoy the visual identity of the various scenes, I never felt like I didn’t want to catch Phil and talk with him, so it was quite satisfying to get to him in the end and see him happily with us in a sort of pen, safe and sound.
Prompt 1: Describe how the shape of the space influences the feeling of play.
The shape of the space actually makes me feel warm and friendly to play this game, since the structure in the start of the game is more like a house structure. As we move on, the scene changes into a field where the road stands in the middle and many houses are on both sides of the road, which makes me feel like that my avatar and Phil are living in the same house and we just stepped out of it. The space is organized in a feeling that my avatar is following Phil’s footprints and we are trying to find Phil’s loved food – the grass. Also, the scenes are connected and continuous. The scene changed from the inner part of the house to the external part of the house. The contrasts that shaped this experience is the house furniture on the first scene and the house structures on the second scene. The scene where our avatar first met Phil is covered with tables and sofa, and this reminds people of being at home or indoor. The exit is in the bottom of the scene, and once we get out with Phil, there is no back option. Then we move to the outer part of the world, where Phil can find its grass on the right bottom of the screen. At first, I do not know which part is the exits since I skipped talking to Phil and just directly moved to the grassland. And then after a few trials, the upper part of the grassland is the exit to the next scene. And the next scene is organized to give a sense that we have caught Phil in the end.
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Prompt 5
The most memorable moments of the game was trying to chase Phil around the various levels, which was an interesting interaction in my opinion. Many of the games didn’t have a sense of urgency like this game did, which is a unique feeling this game provides. Rather than taking things slow and trying to immerse myself in the environment around me, I felt like I had to chase Phil, otherwise I worried he might get away. I found myself almost entranced in trying to get to Phil as fast as possible, taking the shortest route to close the distance between myself and him. I didn’t have the luxury of just running around randomly, especially once Phil transitioned to another level all together. The most surprising thing about the level to me was how I was able to move and chase Phil while Phil was still moving in what seemed like a routine. Whenever I tried to make some sort of loop with animating actors, the playable character would freeze and never be able to move.
I think one thing the designer could never be prepared for is a possible exploitation of the game and specifically Phil’s movement. If the player were to back Phil into a corner, I’m not sure where the game would go from there. However, I was never able to trap Phil, even though I found myself testing this mechanical limit to the game. Perhaps there is a sort of “out” for Phil written in the game’s code that prevents this from happening.
Prompt 3: Describe the procedural rhetoric employed by the game.
The newest installment in the Phil the Rabbit series, simply titled “Phil”, may not seem the most complex when you first see the title, but soon your love and care for Phil take over. The procedural rhetoric is based around the player’s interactions with Phil and the inherent desire to understand his behavior and make sure he doesn’t get lost, he really is a wild one at heart! As the player you don’t have to interact with Phil. You could simply enjoy the nicely designed scenes, walk around as your character, but it’s very hard to ignore such a cute creature. In the off chance you do, the game prevents you from going to the next scene until you talk with him, but I have a feeling that’s very very unlikely. To help make the possible interaction obvious, the game has Phil jump around, so you know he’s not just part of the background.
Our curiosity gets the best of us and we find ourselves talking to Phil, who runs off again, and as he cutely bounces away, it is tough to not curiously follow him. The dialogue indicates we never finished our conversation and it’s easy to want to know more. Now the player is left to chase Phil. Even if at first they don’t want to, he keeps going in circles, so it really draws the players attention. His attention is soon drawn by the grass though. We soon find this rhetoric continued as next time we reach him the dialogue tells Phil to wait.
Overall the rhetoric and goal is pretty convincing. While I did enjoy the visual identity of the various scenes, I never felt like I didn’t want to catch Phil and talk with him, so it was quite satisfying to get to him in the end and see him happily with us in a sort of pen, safe and sound.
Prompt 1: Describe how the shape of the space influences the feeling of play.
The shape of the space actually makes me feel warm and friendly to play this game, since the structure in the start of the game is more like a house structure. As we move on, the scene changes into a field where the road stands in the middle and many houses are on both sides of the road, which makes me feel like that my avatar and Phil are living in the same house and we just stepped out of it. The space is organized in a feeling that my avatar is following Phil’s footprints and we are trying to find Phil’s loved food – the grass. Also, the scenes are connected and continuous. The scene changed from the inner part of the house to the external part of the house. The contrasts that shaped this experience is the house furniture on the first scene and the house structures on the second scene. The scene where our avatar first met Phil is covered with tables and sofa, and this reminds people of being at home or indoor. The exit is in the bottom of the scene, and once we get out with Phil, there is no back option. Then we move to the outer part of the world, where Phil can find its grass on the right bottom of the screen. At first, I do not know which part is the exits since I skipped talking to Phil and just directly moved to the grassland. And then after a few trials, the upper part of the grassland is the exit to the next scene. And the next scene is organized to give a sense that we have caught Phil in the end.