# TWA. Atlas B (Dragonfly) > [!Info] A Level at [[IBU/GAME DESIGN/Toy Worlds Atlas|Toy Worlds Atlas]] ![[DESIGNS/ToyWorldsAtlas/Gameplay/Video/B_Recording.mp4]] ## Design Concept This puzzle explores Chalmers’s ontology of virtual reality. Using logic, the player must distinguish between colourants representing real and virtual objects. #### Why these answers? - **Time** (correct). Time flows through virtual realities. Some game events can be correlated with time. - **Future** (wrong). Future is never actually real -- as long as it is future. - **Death** (wrong). Death in the virtual reality does not kill the player. Furthermore, play is the only way to have some sort of a death experience: real death is not an experience but the end of all experiences. - **Good Chances** (correct). If there are good chances, they are there. - **Gold** (wrong). Gold is a chemical element. Gold in video games is not made of real gold. #### The continuum of the virtual and the real Here're lists of things I considered including in the puzzle. There's a separate list of things I'm uncertain about, and a list of things that seem to be too debatable to expect a universal agreement about them. The goal was to convey an intuition that players would certainly agree with, and avoid cases that would evoke frustration or confusion. - **Real** (exclusively real): death, life, hunger, gold, dirt, fallen tree - **Virtually Real** (virtually inclusive): striking novelty, south, good taste, strong will, mechanisms, beliefs, numbers, time, possessiveness, possession, money, words, fallen virtual tree - **Virtual** (exclusive): spectres, goals, future, fiction, make-believe, earworms, possibility, unmade decisions - **Uncertain**: Meaning, danger, realisations, care, mass, potential, capacities, body without organs, summer, internet, misunderstandings, mistakes, fun - **Debatable**: love, mind, cogito, actions, suffer, intentions, illusions, pareidolia, dreams, subjectivity, spontaneity ![[DESIGNS/ToyWorldsAtlas/Gameplay/Atlas_Gifs/SteamRibbon_Dragonfly.gif]] ## Iterations It was too difficult for some players to understand the philosophical logic of the puzzle. **Solution**: introduced juicy feedback on each button. It makes the puzzle fun to interact with -- even without a comprehension. **Buttons effects** The effects appears after the button is pressed to hint towards the solution in a self-reflexive way (the atlas page is virtual) - [-] TIME: petals slowly rotate with each second (like a clock) - [ ] + clock sound - [-] FUTURE: Question marks pop-up above dragonfly's head - [-] GOOD CHANCES: sparkles or rotating and scaling stars in the dragonflies' eyes - [-] DEATH: "You Died" panel - [-] GOLD: a golden coin image appears where the button's image was - [-] MONEY: crypto-currency symbol appears where the button's image was - [ ] MUSIC: Music plays (very memorable, like an earworm) - [ ] EARWORM: Nothing plays (will players hear an earworm?) - [ ] HOLD: Deactivate cursor for a moment - [-] TREES: Falling Tree Sound - [-] SOUTH: a compass appears and trembles - [-] CHESS: castling (Chess button and Word button switch places) - [-] WORDS: erases (WORD > WOR > WO), and types the whole WORDS again - [ ] WILL: the button runs around? - [ ] CANADA: maple leafs stamp, "Virtually Valid" - [-] MECHANISM: letters ("MECHANISM") rotate in different directions - [x] UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS: ??? - [x] UNWRITTEN RULES: ??? - The latter two buttons may have no effect: it fits conceptually, they are at the last row, and both are true. So player probably wouldn't notice the effect. ## Resource - Chalmers D. (2022) Reality+ // However I digress from his "virtual realism" conception where practically anything virtual is also virtually real. ![[IBU/APPENDIX/(_IB_)/atlas.(_IB_)]]