For some developers, making a game is all about ensuring it has exciting, innovative gameplay and an original story that stays with players long after the credits roll. For others, it revolves around sending a message that invites players into a virtual reality that is more a reflection of their own thana fantasy worldthat could never be real. The latter seems to be the case withMindsEye, which draws its inspiration from real-world progress, to the point that it might offer one of gaming’s most sobering looks at reality.
Game Rant recently spoke withMindsEyedeveloper Build a Rocket Boy, during which they went into detail about their process throughout the game’s development and what inspired it in the first place. As it turns out,MindsEyeaims to hit close enough to home that it may end up being quite the grounding and eye-opening experience.
MindsEye’s Aim Is Close to Home
Build a Rocket Boy seems to value clarity in message over many other aspects of game development. What began as an ambitious concept born out of scattered ideas,experimental gameplay systems, and differing visions — all held together by a string on the proverbial corkboard — eventually became a more focused identity that would guide every other aspect ofMindsEye’s development. However, that clarity didn’t arrive overnight, as the developer explained when asked about the moment the team “found the fun” forMindsEye:
“In MindsEye, specifically, we saw a clear change a year ago, when everything started to “gel” together very well in the game. At this time, we used a subset of benchmark missions as a test bed for our processes, our design philosophy, and we saw feedback getting better and better in those missions. This triggered a change in us too: we knew then what the game was really about and what it needed to be, and we could focus on that and nothing else. It can be painful to let go of certain ideas you’ve dreamed of for years, but it’s also liberating to feel that you have found what works and where your strength lies, and that you can let certain things aside to focus on making the core of your experience the best you can make it.”
This strategic restructuring of priorities ultimately drew the rain out of the clouds forMindsEye, bringing what was initially something a bit more uncontrolled and ambitious than Build a Rocket Boy preferred down to a more finite expression of their creativity. At this point, everything aboutMindsEyebecame a much clearer articulation of the developer’s intent, allowing the team toexplore a more introspective sidewith questions revolving around what kind of world they truly wanted to build.
As it turns out, the answer to that question would hit closer to home than they or anyone else might have expected.MindsEyevery well could have been justanother sci-fi shooterwith abstract themes, but Build a Rocket Boy eventually composed something more reflective of the real world. With that, the game would become both a commentary on real-world society and a sort of thought experiment for players.
When asked what drew the team to themes of artificial intelligence, greed, and corruption inMindsEye, the developer replied,
“Our own, present world! It is defined more and more by these notions, and since at least 2008, this trend has been accelerated by technological progress and social networks, and even the most powerful people are starting to get the feeling that this wave is bigger than them. Everyone is waiting for the Singularity to finally topple things over, thinking they’ll be better off afterward, and many of us are living as if we were followers or spectators of an end-of-times cult. MindsEye reflects and anticipates the current course of humanity. Our goal is to make a game and a world that resonates with current times, that makes you think, without being judgmental.”
That last point may be what setsMindsEyeapart in the genre it calls home. Othergames might reach for social commentarythrough blatant satire and dystopian worlds, butMindsEyeappears to take a quieter, more observational stance on it all.
