Hi everyone! Welcome to another Dandelion Void devlog.
Today we’re talking about a hotly debated new asset we’ve (temporarily?) added to the build, along with some general reflections on horror, tone, and when humor enhances or inhibits player terror.
But first, we'd like to direct your attention to the MrAtomicDuck’s second stream of Dandelion Void -- featuring a ton of never before seen content! If you missed it live, the VOD is now available:
Molecular Moods
Our story begins with one of the most satisfying tasks in game development: programmer art replacement!
A few months ago we added new status effects, including indigestion and (un)happiness. As is common in development, we programmed a first version of these before we had time to make new icons, so Robin (yours truly) stubbed in some temp art.
These served their purpose for playtesting, but are obviously a bit of an eyesore. Finally, last week Brian was able to make proper icons for each of the stats.
Our style for icons resembles "science textbook" illustrations, and where possible we like to incorporate relevant pieces of human anatomy. A stomach was already taken by the hunger stat...
Top: hunger, health, temperature, boredom.
Bottom: exertion, fatigue, thirst
...so we went with gurgling stomach acid for indigestion:
We struggled more with happiness. A straightforward smiley face clashed with the visceral, grimy tone of the other icons:
while a distended pair of floating lips looked… odd
Finally, Brian asked: if we're representing stats with pieces of human anatomy, what is the anatomical equivalent of happiness? One answer is the humble dopamine molecule:
With this molecular inspiration, Roland whipped up a concept for Brian to translate into a lo-fi icon
Left: first attempts at the icon. Right: our current iteration for an "unhappy" status!
This has been a controversial asset amongst the team. Personally, I love the little guy. But Brian had to be convinced to even keep it in for a simple playtest, even though he was the one who finalized the icon! Let’s run through the pros and cons of this glum little fellow:
Cons:
It is a much less intuitive symbol for “happiness” than a simple smiley
It calls a lot of attention to itself
It reads as an explicit “joke”
Pros:
It’s the best match for our science textbook / human anatomy theme
Happiness isn’t an urgent status effect, so it’s ok if the player has to mouse over it to learn what it does the first time
We didn’t love any of the other options
We think it’s pretty goofy!
To be clear: we don’t know yet if we’re keeping the icon or not. But I found it interesting that the icon reading as a “joke” could be considered both as a positive and a negative. This sparked a discussion amongst the team on the appropriate level of humor for the game!
Laughing just to keep from dying
Horror and comedy are cousin genres. Each relies on a cycle of emotional tension that slowly builds and then releases all at once. The goal of both is to surprise the player and provoke an involuntary reaction – a scream, a laugh, or sometimes both. This is one reason why directors like Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger can make the jump from sketch comedy to blockbuster horror films.
Comedy and horror can also be mixed effectively, but you do have to be mindful of the genre expectations you’ve established. If you show a banana peel slip in an intense horror film, or a sudden grisly death in a lighthearted comedy, your viewer would feel that the tone of the work has been compromised.
One useful device to navigate this problem is distinguishing between explicit and implicit comedy.
Comedy is explicit when it is clear to the player that the game is intentionally making a joke.
In Resident Evil 6, the grizzled soldier Leon can take a break by going down a playground slide or bouncing on a panda spring ride
Fallout is a series with horror elements that makes extensive use of explicit comedy: from the wacky dialogue, to 1950s parody material, to all of the funny little drawings of Vault Boy.
Lethal company has a honkable clown horn, perfect for breaking the tension or annoying your friends!
Just a normal screenshot from a horror game: Resident Evil 6, captured by IGN
Comedy is implicit when the player is delivered a humorous situation in a way that seems accidental, emergent, or organic to the world. Note that the designers are often trying just as hard to be funny (or to give you the tools to make your own funny situation), but tonally they maintain plausible deniability
Lethal Company is full of implicit comedy. If you watch your friend navigate expertly between monsters and booby traps, only to be cut off mid-sentence as they fall to their death on an easy jump, you'll probably laugh! Not because the game told a joke, but because the game created an organically funny situation.
In Project Zomboid, Brian and I once planned a mission to rescue some lawn flamingos from a neighborhood where a large zombie horde had gathered. After discussing our strategy, Brian drove into the horde, dropped me off to die, and sped away. It turns out we each had completely different understandings of the plan -- I thought we were driving through and laying on the horn, while he thought I was jumping in for an extraction mission. Either would have worked if we had properly communicated, but the misunderstanding proved lethal... and extremely funny.
Almost every horror game features implicit comedy, because one of the most reliable formulas for a good laugh is misfortune + surprise!
In general, implicit comedy can be used in horror content without compromising the seriousness of a game's authorial tone – in fact, it’s almost impossible to make a game without it. On the other hand, the more you use explicit comedy, the closer you get to the “horror comedy” label. This isn’t inherently bad, but it’s a choice you want to be deliberate about.
Implicit and Explicit comedy in Dandelion Void
So, where does this all leave us?
To start, we consider Dandelion Void to be a science fiction game with a horror atmosphere, not just a “horror game,” so we have some flexibility with our tone. But we take our setting and worldbuilding quite seriously: the Pergola is an eerie overgrown ship with a tragic backstory. The setting has some goofy elements – walking plants, eclectic cabin-fevered ancestors, etc. – but we’re pretty far from the gonzo anything-goes worlds of some other post-apocalyptic franchises.
Cause of death: one filthy bed. Implicit comedy!
Using the above device, let's start with some examples of implicit comedy in Dandelion Void:
Just as I was settling down for bed one night, I realized my bed was covered in algae and I couldn’t pass the night due to my Fussy Sleeper trait. I had to make a woefully underequipped voyage into the dangerous nighttime jungle, took a few hits from a group of uproots, and bled out on the floor – all in search of a simple cleaning sponge.
After contracting a [redacted] illness, I managed to find myself some medicine – but it gave me so much indigestion that I threw up the contents of my stomach, and I subsequently starved to death
Our colleague Roland once had to remove his underwear before he had inventory room to pick up a furniture item!
Note: we’re working on making worn clothing items no longer take up inventory slots – but until then, it leads to some pretty funny moments.
Because these are all implicit, none of these funny moments come at the expense of Dandelion Void's horror atmosphere.
When it comes to explicit comedy, our policy is that the game is allowed to make “jokes” as long as they are (a) fully explicable through our worldbuilding, and/or (b) understated enough that they don’t call excessive attention to themselves. (b) is highly subjective, of course, leading to lots of discussions about where the line is!
Here’s a few examples of explicit comedy in Dandelion Void:
Many item descriptions are written in a spaced-out tone, offering “shower thought” musings about everyday objects
Many findable lore files describe humorous events – see the “festival of pliers” from the most recent MrAtomicDuck stream
Traits like “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem” let the player create quirky, silly characters
There’s just something a little bit funny about watching plants run around and chase you, or even funnier, one of your friends!
Robin has been the only one on the Manz-Int team bold enough to take this trait in playtesting. Will our players be braver?
The nice thing about a systems-driven game with expansive worldbuilding is that there’s room for a little bit of everything when it comes to tone: the trick is to find the ideal ratios, and make sure that no single element detracts from the overall experience.
Dopamine Withdrawal
As for the dopamine happiness icon, it’s definitely in the realm of explicit comedy. Does it hit the right level? We’re still not sure! It’s also possible that the humor will be fine, but it will create more clarity issues than we can justify.
We look forward to gauging reactions in our internal playtesting, and we’d love to hear your opinions as well. Until then, take care everybody and have a great week!
- Robin and the Manzanita Interactive team