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<\/a><\/p>\nPippin Barr was a natural fit for <\/span>GAME\u2019s latest journal<\/span><\/a> focusing on the academic potentials of critical game design. His recent games include <\/span>SNAKISMS<\/span><\/a>, a collection of philosophic\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Snake<\/span><\/i> games, <\/span>v r 3<\/span><\/a>, a faux museum exhibit dedicated to the Unity game engine\u2019s different water shaders, and <\/span>Game Studies<\/span><\/a>, the videogame adaptation of some of the discipline\u2019s core scholarly texts. The abundance of game ideas he shares over on <\/span>twitter<\/span><\/a> even inspired a <\/span>game jam<\/a><\/span>\u00a0late last year. In this article, he talks about the development of two games, <\/span>Jostle Bastard<\/span><\/i> <\/a>and <\/span>Jostle Parent<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which act as critical responses to two popular independent games, <\/span>Hotline Miami <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Octodad: Dadliest Catch<\/span><\/i>. The development of these games was shared on <\/span>Unwinnable<\/span><\/a> through playable builds, interviews and diaries, which give a detailed and humorous insight into his creative process, offering\u00a0an alternative perspective to the academic text presented.<\/span><\/p>\n The intention of the <\/span>Jostle <\/span><\/i>series is to approach the subject matter of the original games from a different angle, where entertainment is not the primary consideration. <\/span>Hotline Miami<\/span><\/i> is discussed as a contradictory work that is celebratory of the players\u2019 aggressive actions while also attempting to critique said violence. <\/span>Octodad <\/span><\/i>focuses on comedic interactions throughout the game while sidelining other potential gameplay possibilities surrounding parenting and responsibility. <\/span><\/p>\n Critiquing these games through design practice is framed as a form of both critical and adversarial design. Critical design is positioned as oppositional to affirmative design or \u201cdesign that reinforces the status quo\u201d, the most commonly understood applied use of design for\u00a0solving problems. In critical design, concepts such as \u201cuser-unfriendliness\u201d are used to<\/span> find <\/span><\/i>problems rather than solve them and as such, they act as critiques of design and technology. The potential that games have as objects that can be interacted with directly\u00a0suggests that they would make a good fit for critical design. Barr references scholars such as Mary Flanagan, whose 2009 book Critical Play presents a methodology for designing games with such intentions.<\/span><\/p>\n Adversarial design is a term Carl DiSalvo put forward in a 2012 book of the same name, which describes using interactive technologies and working products to create experiences that engage the user with political issues. One of the tactics used for this aim is labelled \u201creconfiguring the remainder\u201d: through an act of shifting typical design practices in relation to one another, previously unseen elements can become visible. Barr relates all of this to videogames as such; games that follow the standard affirmative design method exclude or make dormant a lot of possibilities, these are the \u201cremainder\u201d. The \u201creconfiguring\u201d relates to the design decisions often taken for granted, so an act of critical reconfiguration would enable an exploration of design, as seen in the aforementioned videogames that critique other videogames. The final critical products are still able to act as games, which allows them all the interactive possibility to engage with users on a critical level.<\/span><\/p>\n The paper is then split up into two sections critiquing the original videogames through a textual analysis as well as an explanation of the separate <\/span>Jostle<\/span><\/i> games reconfigurations. The <\/span>jostling<\/span><\/i> in the games is a simple physics-based action where the player can bump into objects and people, a less extreme form of violence that nonetheless provokes reactions in the game world. <\/span>Jostle Bastard <\/span><\/i>casts the player as a teacher who has to navigate various public areas with only this act of aggression available. The game does allow the player to avoid these interactions altogether, which Barr offers as a way for players to think critically about the use of violence as fun when not made mandatory. <\/span>Jostle Parent<\/span><\/i> uses the jostling mechanic differently, where it is necessary to help guide your children around hazardous environments, and the game includes the very real possibility of letting them accidentally die. Various other design moves, made both explicitly as well as emerging unintentionally through quirks in the code, inspire further critical thinking. The children of <\/span>Jostle Parent <\/span><\/i>are made more sympathetic through the inclusion of real names; the police of <\/span>Jostle Bastard<\/span><\/i> can not distinguish between the player\u2019s aggression and the NPCs’ acts of revenge and as such, they represent an unjust legal system. Barr\u2019s games work both in critiquing what is lacking in the original works as well as creating new and original work. As such, Barr has made a well-argued case for the merits of critical game design methods.<\/span><\/p>\n