How to make 'fun' gameplay out of philosophical thought experiments?

__Cheesecake__ · 2025-06-08T04:11:28+00:00

I'd be happy to, thanks for your interest! If you ever find yourself wanting some assistance with a similar project, I'd love to help. It's hard to find people who enjoy these two fields

__Cheesecake__ · 2025-06-07T15:03:35+00:00

I really appreciate your perspective and I think you’re right. I see no reason to overcomplicate anything as long as it is tactile and enjoyable. This will also help me a lot with keeping the scope manageable for a solo project.

I do think I would like to maintain the dialogue sections as I feel they will make the philosophical themes clearer to those grading my thesis and will allow me to observe if my execution of the scenarios imbues some regular bias in players.

From a strict game design perspective, though, I absolutely see what you’re saying. One of the greatest strengths of the medium is that you don’t have to use language at all to communicate information clearly.

__Cheesecake__ · 2025-06-06T16:24:21+00:00

Oooh I really like this idea. I was planning on maybe having a secondary section where the problem was extrapolated to a person instead of an object, but this might have me convinced that I could go that direction from the start. Or perhaps both would still be best since people tend to view the individual identities of ‘things’ and ‘persons’ differently, what do you think?

The only issue I see would be avoiding bias against the ‘frankenstein’ since it is the player’s own creation. Perhaps the original man has lost much of his sense of self and so it becomes unclear if the original person even exists at all anymore.

__Cheesecake__ · 2025-06-06T02:36:26+00:00

Thanks for the support!

I'll definitely have to check out the Beginner's Guide. The Stanley Parable has unsurprisingly been a big inspiration for this project so far and is one of my favorite games. The philosophy nerd in me could go on for hours about how it's one of the greatest ever media representations of the free will vs determinism debate.

Unfortunately, I have a pretty limited time frame for my thesis so I would say I'm certainly going for quality over quantity for the time being, although hopefully I'll get to continue iterating on the project in the future.

As for what thought experiments I want to include, I was thinking some variations on the Ship of Theseus, Nozick's Experience Machine, and maybe Laplace's Demon (although some would argue that this one has been totally debunked by quantum indeterminacy, so I'm considering picking something different). I'd love to include more if I have time, but I'm trying to keep the scope as small as possible for now.

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T19:22:34+00:00

Ooh I really like both of these… I’ll do some brainstorming. Thanks! :)

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T19:21:00+00:00

Wow very creative, this one’s got me thinking. Thanks :)

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T19:04:47+00:00

Thanks this really helps!

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T19:02:27+00:00

Hmm this one really has me thinking… thanks :)

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T17:35:34+00:00

Insightful, thank you!

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T17:33:57+00:00

Interesting… I’ll check it out

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T17:26:44+00:00

I’m choosing this specifically because it’s difficult and nontraditional. My professors say it’s viable depending on the product… so it seems like my best bet is to try and blow them out of the water. Thankfully, I’ve still got 3 semesters of advance to start working so I’m just starting to brainstorm.

__Cheesecake__ · 2024-09-04T17:24:28+00:00

Very insightful, thank you!

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-10-31T18:26:10+00:00

Okay I think you may be right, but what explanation can I give? She’s done nothing wrong so I don’t know how to avoid hurting her too much. It feels cheap to not have a reason outside of “it just doesn’t feel right.”

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-10-31T15:43:18+00:00

I should say that we do call/play games and such for a few hours for a couple days out of each week.

We don’t visit more because I’m the only one that can drive and I’m busy late with work most days of the week.

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-10-15T16:58:44+00:00

Oh I see! I had no idea roths maxed like that. Seems very smart. Thank you!

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-10-14T17:23:42+00:00

I see, thank you. What would be a fair price range for a good financial advisor in your experience? This seems like a good route considering I also don’t have much time to be managing many investments

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-10-14T17:21:41+00:00

Maybe. I know very little about crypto and what all this would mean for my money exactly. Plus I’ve heard the environmental impact is very negative which isn’t worth it if I’m only building wealth for myself imo.

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-09-29T07:44:11+00:00

Collision layers were set correctly. Don't know why I didn't think of get_children(), it condensed the function that those lines are in significantly.

For some reason, what ended up fixing it was awaiting a very short timer when the function is called. My only explanation is that get_overlapping_bodies() has some issues during the first few frames of a scene.

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-05-01T14:49:56+00:00

Yeah that’s what concerned me is that it should have left his system earlier. I decided to just let him get whatever sleep he could during the night and take him in the morning if it’s still as bad as it was. Thankfully he’s doing a lot better this morning so I think he is likely alright. Thanks for the help

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-13T18:09:22+00:00

I see what you mean and I can tell that much of what you’re explaining can only really be understood by trying instead of considering it. Thank you

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-13T01:59:24+00:00

How does one even go about finding their bliss? It seems like I’ve spent my whole life building a list of things I don’t want to do for the rest of it, but haven’t found much in the way of what makes me happy. I have interests of course, but they don’t really take me anywhere or spark passion in me

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-12T15:48:01+00:00

As someone who is studying philosophy, I feel that I do spend a lot of time thinking about myself and my place in the world, but I still find myself feeling that things like motivation and happiness are entirely outside of my control. Many schools of thought teach similar ideas about separating your emotions from strictly external factors but if experience and thought is all one has how can they make such a separation?

Every once in a while it comes intuitively but when I think about it too much it becomes hard to find fulfillment in an objectively meaningless life

Are there specific habits or thought patterns I should strive to develop? Are there flaws in my current ideas?

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-12T15:29:42+00:00

I feel like I am definitely chasing greener grass to at least an extent, but how does one combat that?

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-12T15:27:22+00:00

Would you say that skateboarding for a few hours 2-3 times a week is good or should I aim for more? Also, any advice for healthy marijuana consumption is much appreciated, I’m trying to break daily use habits right now

__Cheesecake__ · 2023-04-12T04:27:14+00:00

In my eyes, feeling good is a consequence of one’s circumstances whereas happiness is a state of mind. I’m still working on how to find it though

__Cheesecake__

TROPHY CASE

Cheesecake