Outside of Week 2’s scaffolding focused on intention and experience, I would also like to research the body-horror genre. I am set on using that as a framework for the player experience and it is my intention for the game to do something unique within this genre – I want to try achieving the same emotional response body-horror tries to elicit through non-organic material. It is at the heart of my idea and no matter how it is executed I would like that to be preserved.
The above article was really great at giving me a variety of perspectives on how body horror can be used, what makes it tick and what it can represent.
Generally, article author Shannon Lewis boils body horror down to two things: change and relatability. Its essence is about transformation, and the emotional response people have comes from the thing being transformed. As she says, “I have a body and I know what it means to be afraid.” This combination of two core human experiences is what the genre hinges on to create impact.
While there is plenty of discussion of how gore is so effective at doing this, there are also other factors that make body horror so compelling as a useful tool/subject.
I find the quote from scriptwriter Freddie Van Der Velde to be very relevant to my game idea:
“[Body horror] finds its roots in our primal fear of the uncanny and from an internal, not external threat. This leads to an alienation of our own physical self”.
There’s a very clear link here to my game’s core theme of loss of self. There’s also plenty of uncanny valley-based robot designs out there (most famously from the FNaF franchise but Scott Cawthon’s other works and other media in general can also provide me some good aesthetic inspiration) that I could draw from later down the line to elicit similar feelings of discomfort that would usually be achieved through organic material in this genre.
This article briefly touches on how body horror can sometimes veer into ableism. I had a similar concern with mine that with the wrong execution, this game could very easily be interpreted as transphobic – I had toyed with the idea of playing as the mechanic rather than the robot, but having a character you created change themselves to do what makes them happy and for it to be presented as grotesque… you can see how it could be interpreted horribly. This thought was why I decided the robot should be the protagonist. This makes it easier to explicitly show that the robot does not want to transform themselves, and explore the complex dilemma of whether they really want to be accepted into the program if it means having to meet all these requirements. I think this should help dispel most of that potential misinterpretation.
Gender, body horror and robots
https://youtu.be/yLxNN3_0Rxc?si=UA2VOJslWStOzafb (“I Saw the TV Glow and Gender as Body Horror”)
I already spoke about avoiding misinterpretation. The first video I watched talked about how body-horror as an allegory for the trans experience is often used to represent puberty and the dysphoria it can cause for trans people. It is a forced, imposed transformation.
My game’s idea hinges on the fact that the transformation of the main character’s body is a choice they feel they have no other choice but to make. It is a price they feel they have to pay, not the thing they want. I want to make this distinction clear through the visual novel segments to avoid misinterpretation and support the horror of the transformation.
The second video helped me understand why I gravitated to using a robot as an allegory for gender identity (as a genderfluid individual myself). Robots are seen as artificial/less than human and are reliant on others to appear real/legitimate – both in the sense of gender affirming care (surgeries, binding, etc) and the need for validation from others to feel secure that others see you the way you do (use of desired pronouns and name).
Robots are often “othered” in media in a way which resonates with me, and there are plenty of examples of media where robots act with the goal of wanting to be taken seriously/seen as equal. I feel this links to my game and the main character – the transformation of their body fundamentally changes who they are, as the desire to be seriously considered for the program (taken seriously, seen as equal to others) takes precedent over preserving their true self. It is a metaphor of the pain and horror of changing oneself to conform and appease others.
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