Illustrated Dining (Cycle Game)

This short game was based on a cycle I, as a young woman with a history of body dysmorphia and unhealthy eating patterns, find myself struggling with daily. In the context of my background and experience (that is arguably quite universal!), the trivial process of food consumption — from planning to eating my meal — is the most stressful part of any day. Illustrated Dining argues that every meal can be an extremely emotional, embodied, and even social experience, where the body and mind travel through uncountable metamorphic sensations and visual associations. Fear and anxiety enter the unconscious mind, where one is stuck in a loop of self-distortion on both the physical and psychological levels.  

The original cycle describes the experience very literally. Through playtesting, I was pointed at the importance of creating a text applicable to each player, engaging them not just in the process, but the embodied experience of the cycle and my thematic argument. As a result, Illustrated Dining was extended beyond a simple narrative story. The game recycles the original loop into a fabulist story, where dreams, imaginative words and visual associations assist in creating immersion. 

While the body of the game is reminiscent of the literalness of the initial cycle, Illustrated Dining brings in associative keywords as passage titles to open a meaning gap that is then filled with arbitrary connections and communal fantasies when the game invites you to participate in artwork interpretation (personally curated by almond_daughter!).