Thursday 30 August, 2018

The ethics in Little Nightmares is pretty thin. At one point I found myself stuck in a cage alongside many other creatures about to get taken by the janitor. It’s quite difficult bring myself to always just ditch the other creatures and run away from him. That’s one of the tough choices I’ve needed to make in the game. Another, which rivals borderline horror, is having to cut off the janitor’s arms, as he corners you and you pretty much have no other route than to maim him. It’s not that I feel bad about it, it’s just quite disturbing putting a little girls such terrible events. The way I resolve this was to keep Six as safe as possible, both mechanically, as well as what I believe Six would be going through. I kept her in safe dark tunnels for a while to feel like I was easing her into the content of the world, instead of just dragging her through and through such atrocities.

Good job Sage! You bring up some interesting perspectives. I'm especially interested by the way you think of Six's mental health beyond the strict physical mechanics of the game space. Is a traumatic event less traumatic if it happens to a fictional character? More to the point, should players change the way they play a game based on who the character they control is? And are there ethical ramifications of developers building a game about a fictional character forced to go through a series of traumatic events?