The Flesh Devil was found in Sector P9, the last survivor of a group living in a cave network behind a waterfall. This is a fact I found amusing – the department studying human video games are constantly coming across the design feature of placing notable objects and persons behind waterfalls. How strange that my prize would be found in the same way.
The human, whose name is “Kate”, tells us very little about how she lived before she was discovered. She likes to eat, despite being painfully thin, and she sings mournful songs through the night as she lies in her holding cell. Of course, she loves games, and we have already bonded a little over some of our favourites. A recent discovery, a crudely produced but brilliantly designed game called “Hour Of Glory”, has brought us a great deal of joy.
The game is about infiltrating an enemy stronghold, with one player controlling the commander of the stronghold and the other players controlling the stealthy agents who are breaking in. Unlike many games about sneaking into a base unseen, players also have the option of going in “loud”, shooting their way to the objectives and making as much noise as they like. The game has a timer – 60 minutes to accomplish the agents’ objectives. These aren’t real world minutes – the timer ticks down as actions are taken. Indeed, players can choose to take the chance of performing actions more quickly – with a higher possibility of failing – or take time with their action, hugely increasing their chances of success but pulling even more time off the clock. It’s this small design concept that makes the game so successful. Every single action presents a big decision for the player. And as the game of cat and mouse unfolds with the minutes getting closer to zero, the end of the game approaches with a giant serving of tension and excitement.