It's Simulations All The Way Down!

Length: Approx. 50 mins

Game Description

"It's Simulations All The Way Down!" is a game which discusses Simulation Theory, Consciousness, AI, and other related philosophical concepts. Manage your very own 'Matrix' and control the lives of the conscious AI people who live there!

Your new role as an intern at the sketchy tech company 'AdvancingAI' has you managing a new simulated reality full of conscious AI. The simulation is full of bugs and glitches, so it is your job to make this new software look better than it is for an upcoming press release. As there is no time to fix these bugs, you are forced to kill - or "delete" - the conscious inhabitants who realise they are living in a digital world.

Explore a broken digital world, solve ethical dilemmas, ponder philosophical concepts, and kill helpless sims in this narrative-driven simulation puzzle game!

Info

The aim of this game is to introduce people to ideas and concepts surrounding the 'Simulation Argument', which is a theory that states why we should believe we  are currently living inside a computer simulation, and why this possibility could be considered highly probable. If you consider yourself not very philosophical in the slightest, then this game will help you to start thinking in new ways about ideas you may never have considered before!

If you are also interested in the recent developments in AI, then this game will help you consider a lot of the ethics and problems that come with future AI development, and what the future of AI could potentially hold.

If you are already familiar with some of these concepts, then I have tried to introduce my own ideas and new schools of thought to consider.

My aim is not to convince you that you are currently an AI living inside a simulation, but just to propose interesting ideas and allow you to come to your own conclusions. Philosophy is all about thinking through ideas and figuring things out for yourself, so the game includes multiple viewpoints and concepts to consider. I myself do not believe we are currently simulated, but I think the ideas presented are very interesting.

This game serves as a brief introduction to these philosophies, so if you wish to find out more, please visit https://simulation-argument.com/ which contains many articles, videos, and philosophical papers talking about the simulation hypothesis. Furthermore, I would highly recommend David Chalmers book "Reality+" which I used as a lot of inspiration for this game. A link to Chalmers website can be found here: https://consc.net/reality/

About the Development

This game was originally created for a game design university project. Although the original was just a prototype, this was the first time I had ever created a video game. Since then, I have taught myself a lot more about game development, and decided to flesh the game out more for a full release.

Before I pursued game design as a career path, I studied philosophy for my Batchelors Degree, and wrote my dissertation on the very topic of simulation theory. I wanted to combine my design skills with my knowledge of philosophy to create a game that teaches you complex philosophical concepts in an easy to digest way.

I have used a few asset packs to help create this (which have been listed below) as I am making this solo and art is not my strong suit. Rather than focusing on creating nice visuals for this project, I am purely focusing on game design. As this is my first game, I would appreciate lots of feedback as I always aim to improve my design craft.

Future Plans

If there is interest in this project, there are a lot more features and content I wish to add. Let me know if you enjoy the game, or want to see further enhancements, as I would very much love to add these for you! 

• More puzzles and secrets! - Although the mechanics are fairly simple, this leaves room for a lot more to be built from this. Secret codes to find that unlock more story and content, more puzzles and interactions between sims, there is a lot I would like to add if there is significant interest in the game!
• More endings! - So far, the game features a two endings depending on whether you fully completed the tasks set by your boss. But, I have plans for more story content and puzzles, which would unlock even more pathways and potential endings.
  
• Multiple screen resolution support - The original prototype was created before I even knew what UI scaling was. As there is a lot of UI, I will need to overhaul the whole thing before I can add additional options. However, if you are having problems with the screen size, please let me know and I will happily add support for this!
• Save system - The game is fairly short and sweet, so can be finished in one sitting fairly easily, so I opted to not add this feature. However, if I add more content, this will be required! Along with this, I will add milestones which track the multiple endings you have seen, and what philosophical dialogue you have discovered.

Assets Used

• City Tilemap: https://adamatomic.itch.io/gallet-city
• Code rain particle effect: https://github.com/keijiro/ProcCharVfx
• All icons were from: https://game-icons.net/
• Fungus Dialog: https://github.com/snozbot/fungus
• UI Objects: https://kenney.nl/assets/ui-pack
• Sound effects: https://freesound.org/
• Julien Matthey
• MATRIXXX_
• guitarguy1985
• TheAtomicBrain
• ironcross32
• sunart
• elgamer
• OnlyTheGhosts
• Stock videos: Adobe Stock Video, Pexels
• Stock music: Pixabay

Also a big thank you to Abbie Walkden, my sister, for providing the voice overs used in the game!