I developed Kurt – A Real Life Simulator as a part of my M.A. thesis in Game Design and designed to be exhibited in public spaces. Kurt – the protagonist – leads a life oscillating between work and sleep; Kurt earns money with their daytime job, and must be fed pills to keep them alive and healthy.
The game mechanics are especially repetitive, fostering collaboration between visitors of the exhibition space to keep Kurt alive as long as possible. If they fail to do so, Kurt dies and the game refuses be played for a some time.
Kurt is an example of a dominant game, a genre which I explore in my thesis. This type of game does not try to please the user, but rather tries to please itself. By doing so, the game makes itself more scarce and therefore more attractive to a certain niche type of player.
It is evident that such games are not geared towards the mainstream, but even mainstream games such as Pokemon or Zelda and the genre of incremental games emply mechanics such as the ones used in Kurt.
