Darren Grey, Andrew Doull and Rob Parker discuss the role of "jank" in games.
You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.
Synopsis & Useful Links
- What jank means, and why we find it charming
- Jank arising at the intersection of complex systems, simulation and procedural generation
- Designed jank and happy little accidents
- Dwarf Fortress as the king of jank
- How jank makes memorable and amusing incidents
- How roguelikes are perfectly set up to produce jank
- How to design for jank
- Examples from Nethack, Brogue, Dungeons of Dredmor, Caves of Qud
- Indies and amateurs embracing jank more
- Is jank art?
- Community provided examples of jank in their favourite games
- Are we jank?
- Boatmurdered
- Eggplant ep on UFO 50
- Eggplant ep on All Systems Brough
- Jason Grinblat talk on "Before you Fix a Leak, Ask if it's a Fountain"
- Emergent Narrative and Reparative Play
Kind of sad that no one has posted here yet. This topic 'screams' to me that examples of jank should be posted it.
ReplyDeleteI'll note that recently the developer of Overworld noted some 'jank' in his game. https://discord.com/channels/765981522963595375/765981523551584277/1446729541090283641
In the video above, the developer was riding a goat that he mounted. When a mount rides over a food it likes, it will consume the item. However, newspapers are reusable items, so this ended up creating a situation where the goat would just 'eat' the newspaper repeatedly. This ended up soft-locking his game.
Here’s a great example of jank from Qud.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reddit.com/r/cavesofqud/s/K5jqxvhzwW
Players are always trying to find ways to duplicate rare items, and there are several bugs layered in the various methods of cloning yourself. This one uses the defect evil twin and the late game mechanic where crystal walls shatter to create anti copies of you. Turns out the anti-evil twin is good and will trade with you, having copies of all your stuff.