“Games may be used to put players in compromised and uncomfortable situations, potentially in conflict with other players or themselves. A great deal of emotional development can be caused by such experiences, accompanied by the need to accept that hurt. This talk includes development discussions from our ethics design groundwork at Polynormal Games, as well as my own experience with writing intense, trauma-focused games.”
‹ All reading
You don’t hate your audience enough: Learnings in player-hostile design – Snek – GodotCon 2026
“In this talk, I will cover the appeal of deliberately engendering discomfort in players. How and why to make them uncomfortable, and the ethics of mechanical and narrative coercion.”