#meanwhile the other one has some lacking aspects to it. somewhat fast paced in regards to the main character. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hereforarchivesake · 6 years

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Sick without you

#11 “I’m a lucky girl. I’ll admit that”

Prefall! Soldier 76 x Reader (Female)

Her lungs felt like they were trying to escape the coughing echoing through the hallways. The usual residents had vacated the area not because of the Plague that had infected her but for the annual celebration within Overwatch headquarters. She wanted to attend, her excitement for the event had been ever-rising over the last few weeks. Jack would be back in time for it, meaning she could finally see him again. But luck had never been on (Y/N)s side and this time illness was her form of karma. It started a few days ago. She had just gotten off the phone with Morrison, his talk about the celebration flooding her mind as she wondered what was planned for this year.

Her mind wanders back to the year before. It took place a few days after their first date. The butterflies still flying around in her stomach. She walked down the hallway the music already ringing in her ears as she hummed along. The tune of the old, as she liked to call it. It played during important celebrations and meetings, had done so for as long as she could remember. And as Jack would later inform her, it was from before the Omnic crisis.

She made her way to the hall, ready to have a great night.

The doors were still open, balloons and banners in different blue and orange colours hanging around the place. People crowding around the buffet, forming groups while discussing what's been going on. Everything was full of life and seemed to reflect what she knew of Overwatch. Her eyes shot around the place, looking for the blonde hair of her dreams. She spots him near the stage, his face covered in worry. She makes her way towards him, her body pushing through the other agents. When she was near him, she stopped for a moment wondering if he even wanted to see her, especially now. Sure, they were friends, comrades in arms even before all this, but if she went to him now it would cross a line she wasn't sure she wanted to cross yet. Before she could truly pull through with that thought, he had spotted her. Their eyes meeting, seemingly casting a spell on her beckoning her to him. He smiled at her, his face seemingly losing the worry for a moment. She returned his smile, her hands interlocking with his. The anxiousness previously seen in his eyes replaced with adoration.

“You'll do great, Jack” She whispers, her voice barely audible over the crowd’s indistinct chatter. He smiles at her comment, his mind is put at ease for a bit. He pulls her closer, chin resting on her head as he breathes in her scent. The world around the two seemingly melted away, his nerves fleeing his body. Neither spoke a word, as the noise became silent their heartbeats falling into one. He takes a few deep breaths before Ana Amari takes the stage, her words pulling them to back into reality. The whole room went silent, as words of thanks and appreciation filling people's hearts with glee. Not much was spoken in reality, but that isn't what they want from the Captain. They were waiting for their Commander to speak.

“It is now my pleasure, as it has been for years, to welcome Commander Jack Morrison to say some words.”

She felt his body move away from her, the warmth leaving her as he walked up the stairs and onto the stage. She watched him, the way he clenched his hands in nervousness, the slight trip in his walk as the anxiety threw off his balance. The deep breath he took before he started talking. His words blur in her mind as she watches him, the way his lips move.

She feels the energy in the room change, the pride of each agent as he speaks of all the successes, the sadness over the losses in the hope for a better year. It filled her being as well, Jack always had this energy about him. It was what drew her in, what made her say yes when he asked her out. It was what made Jack Morrison commander, in more ways than one.

(Y/N)s trip down memory lane was interrupted by another coughing fit. Her throat dry, lungs burning in her chest. The sensation matching the heat that was emanating from her forehead. Her fingers trying to reach for the phone. The object just out of reach from her curled up position in the middle of the bed. She rolls to her side, her bones protesting at the movement.

Her fragile fingers dialled Ana's number, knowing Jack would have forgotten his phone. You'd think the commander would be organised enough to remember something that simple.

“(Y/N)? Where are you?” Ana’s voice filled the room.

“Jack...” a coughing fit interrupted her pleas.

“Oh dear...I’m so sorry but I can’t get Jack on the phone.” Ana sighs. She wishes she could help her friend but as luck may have it she was stuck. “Just...Try and make yourself some soup and I will get Jack to come to you straight after his speech, alright?”

“Thank you, Ana.” (Y/N) responds weakly. She knew this was all Ana could do. If she were to tell Jack now about her predicament he would come to her rescue, no matter the consequences. It would ruin everything.

She bids her friend goodbye, as the line goes dead. Her weakness befalling her again.

She knew Ana was right. She needed something to eat, her stomach growled at the thought, seemingly curling in on her.

Her muscles creak as she twists her way out of bed. Her feet barely touching the floor as the back still rests on a mattress.

Her fragile fingers pushing her body up, causing her figure to hunch over, somewhat imitating the image of a sad child. Slowly she ascends from the bed, deciding to stay wrapped in her blanket. She makes her way towards the kitchen, her cape dragging along on the floor. As she crossed the threshold her body falls limp against the wall for a moment. She takes a few deep breaths, followed by a mild cough before she moves forward again. Slowly, she pulled a pot from the cupboard, setting it on the stove. She leans against the counter, her head feeling fuzzy while the room started spinning.

“Sit down. I have to sit down.” She tells herself and she slides down the wall. Her body falling asleep on the floor, a deep slumber befalling her.

Meanwhile, Jack was finishing up his speech in the hall, his mind was cloudy with worry as he wondered where (Y/N) might be. He hadn't heard from her all day, well more Ana hadn’t heard from her yet. As he walked off stage he looked at his old friend. Her face clouded with worry, hard to hide.

“What is it?” He asks. His mind expecting the worst, in a way.

“(Y/N) called not too long ago. She’s sick...I’ll explain if anyone asks. Just get her something nice and help her.”

“Thank you, Ana.”

He smiles at his friend, while his mind wanders to his lover, wondering if she's ok. On his way through the crowd, he thought of ways to help her, beginning and ending with the idea of soup. Sadly, the great Commander lacks skill in one aspect of life... Cooking. That task often fell on his lover, for Jack handles things like setting the table or cracking open jars. Nothing special in that regard. But now, he felt like that responsibility fell on him. He wanted to do something nice for her, but first, he had to figure out how. He walks through the crowd, his mind filled with ways he could get this done but none seemed adequate.

He was so lost in thought that his surroundings became background noise. So much so that he ran face first into his friend.

“Hallo! Jack, are you alright?”

“Reinhardt. Yes… Actually, can you maybe help me with something?”

“Of course! What do you need?”

“Do you know how to make soup?” The usually overconfident commander shyly asked.

“Ah is your Liebchen ill?” Jack nods. “Natürlich kann ich helfen. Just mix melt some butter with a cup of flour. Then add water with the brühe and vegetables and let it sit.”

“Thank you, my friend.” “You’re welcome.”

After wishing their farewells the two go separate ways, Reinhardt going deeper into the hall whereas Jack leaves it. Sadly luck is not on his side, for as he exits the hall, he's greeted by one of Reyes’ new recruits, McCree.

“Howdy, Commander. Where’re you off to in such a hurry? The party has just started.”

He can smell the alcohol in his breath. The younger agents always did this during the celebration, who was he to judge...especially now.

“McCree. Let me go past.” He grumbles as McCree laughs. The man in question stumbles, as his drunken balance causes him to fall to the commander, who lets out a grunt under the sudden added weight.

“Going to see your sweetheart?” McCree’s laughing continues, the noise buzzing in his head.

“Yes. Will you let me past now?” McCree falls away from the Commander.

“Take a shot of whiskey with the Missy with me. Might help you get your stick out of your ass.” He laughs, continuing on his merry way.

Jack decides to ignore that last comment and instead makes his way towards his flat. He was going to take care of her for once... Hopefully without giving her food poisoning. His boots echoed through the hallway. His pace fast, arms swinging slightly at his sides - seemingly contradicting his pace. After few moments, and a flight of stairs, he stands in front of what could be classified as their shared flat. He still hasn't asked her to move in... He had planned to for months now but it never seems to be the right moment. Shaking those thoughts from his mind, he pushes in his passcode. The door slides open as the lights flicker on. He enters the nearly dead silent room. He hears her small snores rhythmically breaking the silence. Deciding against calling out for his lover, he enters the flat. Calmly, he removes his jacket and shoes, respectively putting them away at the door. He walks through the front area, around the island and into the kitchen area. He's quick to spot her on the floor, quickly falling to his knees to check on her.

“(Y/N)? Sweetie? Wake up.” He calls to her, his hands lightly tapping her face.

“Jack?” She mumbles, her eyes opening a bit. “You’re home...Can we go to bed?” He smiles at her question, lifting her up into his arms, carrying her into their bed.

“Sleep Sweetie. I’ll wake you when food is ready.” She grumbles in response. Her body curling under the blanket, as sleep, befalls her again. Jack leaves the room, lingering at the door frame, looking back at his lover with concern. He sighs, walking into the kitchen. He leans against the counter, looking over the room. Mind wandering to his task, his hopes slowly falling as he realizes he cannot remember what to do.

Pushing himself off the counter, he walks to the front area reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out his communicator. His first instinct is to call Reinhardt and ask him about it again, but embarrassment gets the better of him. Instead, he attempts at finding a recipe online. He grabs the ingredients out of the cupboard. Constantly looking back at his device in an almost obsessive manner. His hands move slowly, as he reaches for pots and knives, melting butter and flour, frying the chicken and mixing the water and stock with the vegetables. Almost an hour later, and with kitchen messier than a bar after a fight. He grabs a spoon, seemingly the last few clean utensils in the area, tasting the mixture. A look of surprise crosses his face. It tasted good, a little salty but he knew that she wouldn’t complain. He reaches for a bowl and an extra spoon, filling it with the seemingly delicious mixture.

Cautiously he returns to the bedroom, his lover having barely moved from her original spot on the bed. Jack sets the soup onto the table next to their bed, before waking her up.

“Sweetheart” he murmurs, his hand pushing her hair out of her face. She grumbles for a moment before her eyes open. Her vision is unfocused for a moment, falling onto Jacks. “Hey, let me help you.” He pulls her up into a sitting position, reaching for the pillow she had previously occupied to put behind her. She leans towards the back, breathing in the scent of the soup.

“Smells good.” She exclaims, her speech slow and low. She hears him grab the plate and place it on her lap. “Thank you, Jack.”

“The great and mighty (Y/N) admitting that someone helped her. Never thought I’d see the day.” Jack mocks in a light-hearted manner. (Y/N) catches on to that, laughing slightly – trying to avoid a coughing fit.

“I’m a lucky girl. I’ll admit that” her voice gaining back some of its strength, as she starts to eat the soup. Eating it up in record time. “A lucky girl indeed. Maybe you should start cooking dinner.”

“Let’s not go that far, sweetheart.” He laughs, taking the empty bowl and placing it back on the side table. Moving his hand to stroke her face, her eyes fluttering slightly in response.

“Ready to sleep some more?” He questions. She nods, scooting further into the bed, leaving an open space. Jack chuckles, taking off his pants and shirt joining her. “I better not get sick because of you.” He mumbles into her hair, adding a light kiss. She mumbles something under her breath in response but passes out before Jack can ask what she said. Following her example, Jack lets sleep befall him, the world around them melting away, leaving nothing but them and the bed.

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annawitchcarnival · 3 years

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Does Once Upon a Tower Facilitate Meaningful Play

Once Upon a Tower is a mobile game in the mould of an endless runner, that I’ve been playing on and off the last two weeks. It's got a fairly addictive loop and some interesting concepts regarding its core topic of princesses. My objective here is to discuss how this game facilitates meaningful play.

Core Loop

The core loop of once upon a tower comes down to planning the path you’re going to take, moving to execute that plan, and then dealing with the obstacles on that path.

Planning Your Path: The first aspect of the loop requires the player to observe her surroundings. Which blocks can I break? Where are the enemies? Are there any fireflies? The game is very deliberately laid out in a single flow path, where the character can only go down, which creates a linear force on the player, and doesn’t leave things as open ended as in a multi directional movement system. This makes planning your path essential, but also very simple and easy to follow for players.

Moving: Next the player has to attempt to execute her plan. Usually by moving into a potentially dangerous situation or taking an unknown leap of faith. Either way the player needs to start swiping and execute her course of action.

Solving Obstacles: While planning and moving are the bread and butter, once you encounter an orc or a fireball then you need to move from passive planning to dexterous action. You need to swing your hammer at the right time, or move out of the way fast enough. The difficulty of the game relies on the precise timing of this step in the loop.

Mechanics

The core mechanics of Once Upon a Tower are: Move, smash with hammer, gravity, a grid space, breakable and non-breakable platforms, and an obstacle. An interesting aspect of this game is its very simple control scheme. The player only needs to swipe in one of four directions for all of the interaction in the game, from moving, to hitting enemies, to buying items, it all relies on the direction you swipe. If you’re swiping toward an open space, you simply move. If next to an object, you hit it with your hammer.

Move: Moving is the most direct mechanic of them all. Merely move your character from one place, to the next place.

Smash: If the player swipes against an object, then that object is destroyed. There’s no health, or conditions. If you’re adjacent to it and you swipe it, it is removed (assuming it is an object that can be.)

Gravity: If the character has nothing underneath it, then she falls. She will keep falling until there is something underneath her.

Grid Space: Everything on the map is laid out in a grid. The map is only a certain amount of tiles wide, and every object takes up some amount of tiles (usually only one). The player’s movement is strictly tied to this tile setup, and will always have a position related to one of these spaces.

Platforms: The player needs to stand on something, and she needs to be able to change her environment somehow. If the player had no platforms, she’d fall forever. If the player only had invincible platforms, the player would merely be navigating a narrow path with no effect on the game in any discernible way.

Obstacles: The final ingredient is the challenge. The player needs something to actually test their skill. The game features several different obstacles, but it only really requires one. Be it a roaming orc, a crawling spider, or even the moving pistons.

Other Mechanics

I will create a quick table of all the additional mechanics I could think of, with a brief description of each and how they interact with the core mechanics.

There are more mechanics in the game, however this should give a wide range of the types of concepts that are introduced. Each additional mechanic feeds into the core loop and its core mechanics. The spikes and crabs make gravity more stressful, fireflies add a new way to approach formulating your plan, items add more ways to solve problems. Planning becomes more strategic and varied, moving becomes more dangerous and distinct, and obstacles become more difficult and unique.

Meanwhile there are a few mechanics that tie each run in the game together. The princess outfits create a reason to build up those fireflies. The high score gives players a reason to go as far as she can in each run and compare themselves to how she’s gotten better.

Dynamics

While I described some minor dynamics that arise from each of those added mechanics, there are larger scope dynamics that arise when all of these are put together and the most important one that informs most of the game is: what the player wants to accomplish with each run? This question gives rise to additional dynamics, but it will always come back to this question. The answers I found are: Wanting to get the most fireflies or wanting to get as far down as possible. Once the player has decided which she’s gonna prioritize for a run, then all further decisions come back to this idea.

Firefly Collection: If the player decides to collect as many fireflies as possible, either for a better high score or for more princess costumes, then there are several dynamics that arise from that goal.

First, when the player is acting on that first part of the core loop, she is probably going to plan her path toward as many fireflies as possible, and killing as many enemies as possible. The player's path should lead her as close to the danger as possible, because usually that’s where the points lay.

Furthering that, the player will end up playing a slower, more calculating game. She’s going to need to be close to the enemies anyway, so she’ll have to play it safe to survive and collect.

When it comes to items, she may tend not to buy anything because she only wants to collect as many fireflies as she can. Even if it might help her in the long run, it might seem better to hoard as much as possible.

Getting Further: The other option for the player is to ignore fireflies and focus on getting as far down as she can.

Instead of planning for fireflies, the player will plan for safety. Instead of risking anything, you’re going to avoid as many enemies and obstacles as possible. This dynamic I think is somewhat unfortunate, since it prioritizes avoiding fun.

Items in this player’s case are not something to be ignored. If you have fireflies, then you might as well spend them on boots to avoid those dastardly crabs. Or bombs to use for areas that might be too difficult to avoid.

Of course these two primary dynamic choices are not mutually exclusive. It should be noted that getting further down does increase your firefly count usually. And maybe a player is only going to risk it for some fireflies, the ones that are easier. Maybe the player will spend some money on boots because she thinks it will pay off in the long run more than anything else.

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of this game focus on a casual and friendly experience. The visuals evoke cartoons, the sounds are simple and the pace is tailored toward people with only a few minutes to spare at a time. The emotional draw is from passivity, the slightly engaging interaction from a simple world with simple themes and ideas.

Sensory: The game is pleasant enough to look at. Its characters are simple, low polygonal models of princesses and fantasy creatures. It features bright colours, which gives the game a sense of pop. This colour scheme was designed to ensure the player can always follow what is going on, what she needs to look for and what she needs to avoid. It's no accident that the most bright objects are the moving fireballs. Elements that would be the hardest to track.

Genre: The genre I think most accurately describes this is platformer. It is always progressing in a linear direction, there is a distinct lack of a “realistic” flow of the level design, and of course the character literally uses platforms throughout the game.

Emotional Response: This game primarily focuses on submission. Submission arises from a more simple experience. It is focused on a player base that does not have a lot of time or thought to be put into their games. Its goal is to induce a sense of repetition, which is enforced by repetitive gameplay, and a lack of complex decision making. This is usually the primary emotional response all mobile games tend to evoke.

Narrative and Themes: The game has a simple narrative. The player is a princess stuck in a tower, about to be rescued by a noble hero, before he is burned to a crisp. He drops his hammer into the princess's room and the princess decides to save herself for once. The game likes to advertise the last fact. Its central theme is promoted around this flipping of the traditional roles. It never delves into anything deeper with this rather distinctive feminist theme, but it is a feminist theme nonetheless.

Meaningful Play

The idea of meaningful play revolves around its two components. Are the actions in this game discernible and are they integrated. This game's actions are both easily discernible and adeptly integrated. However, I do not find it provides as much of a meaningful gameplay experience.

Discernible: As discussed Once Upon a Tower has a very simple interaction with the player. Swipe to move or smash. When the player swipes, you know exactly what is going to happen, cause there’s only two things that could happen. The player moves to a new tile or removes an obstacle from the game. When a player picks up an item, the character changes appearance slightly. When the player grabs a firefly, it flashes the top right corner and increases your count. All of the actions are easily discernible and remarkably identifiable.

Integrated: While the game is certainly discernible, the integration is harder to nail down. On a single run, it is integrated, you move down, enemies are removed from the game permanently, items stay with you until you use them, and failure means your game is over. Between the individual runs, the primary connecting tissue is your firefly score, and the princess costumes. Given a run that only lasts about five minutes, the integration is an aspect that feels weak. This isn’t anything new, most mobile games are designed with minimal integration for a grab and drop play session experience.

Why it isn’t meaningful (To me): I personally don’t find this game very meaningful. It has a certain lightness to it. A lack of depth, akin to watching sitcom reruns. The idea of integration to me should go beyond the scope of players actions impacting the game state. While it certainly reaches the mark for a game that can be mildly entertaining, I find it hard to find any investment in it, to actually derive meaning. I’ll address the target audience for this, because obviously, it doesn’t seem to be me.

This game never provoked any emotional response from me, never builds anything that made me strategize, nothing connected me to this world, nothing made me think or feel. If integration doesn’t include what a player takes away from a session, doesn’t rely on the thought or emotional response of the person interacting with it, then its integration is still meaningless.

Why it is meaningful (To other people): This game does provide meaningful play to some people. It’s audience was meant for people who only have spare minutes between their daily life. It was not created as high art meant to be thought about for years, and some people can find meaning in those simple pleasures. The integration is only important in those short moments, and building up to a high score or new costume can provide meaning to people who really enjoy those elements. What the game does well is create a short little adventure for somebody's favourite princess character, and that is certainly meaningful to somebody.

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