My WarioWare Life: Four years of video game snapshots ⊟
Duncan Robson’s journal documents the most interesting events in his life (attending conferences, moving across the Atlantic Ocean) as well as his day-to-day existence (going to the dentist, walking a dog). Here’s an entry from January 2013, about finding money on the street, for example.
Events in his life are rendered as interactive microgames, in which the player actively takes part in a representation of Robson’s own life events – or part of a movie he saw, a game he played, etc. Each microgame is then recorded and archived on the site as a video. “I think it’s a good supplement to a diary,” Robson mused. “Not that I keep a diary. I kind of wanted it to be like a diary comic, but I would have had to be more prolific for that to work (and more comfortable sharing personal stuff).”
Four years after starting the effort, Microcartridge has concluded, with no grand finale but no lack of finality: “A few weeks ago I lost my DS somewhere in North Berkeley,” he said on the site’s final update. “I think it slipped out of my broken coat pocket while I was running for a bus. I was probably listening to a podcast and didn’t hear it hit the ground.”
Sofa Surfer
Having already replaced his DS and game once, and already remade undocumented games on the replacements, Robson opted not to go through that again and ended the project, stopping before his goal of a totally full cartridge.
“I’m still sad about losing the DS and the unfinished games,” Robson told me in an interview. “I wish I could have filled all the space on the cartridge, but on the whole I’m glad I stuck with it for four years."
Robson was originally inspired by an article from researcher Ian Bogost, about personal video game "snapshots" – and further inspired by a Tiny Cartridge article tying that concept to the simplistic game creation potential of WarioWare DIY. The name "Microcartridge” is a deliberate play on our own site’s name. Full disclosure, I guess?
The project began a year after Robson’s move from the UK, where he worked on motion capture, to the U.S. (documented in the Pond Crosser series, a group of two games Robson names as favorites.). He saw WarioWare DIY at GDC that year. Since then:
“I went back to London for a while to work on a movie, started making supercut videos, moved back to San Francisco, got married, and finished an online animation course,” Robson said. “I recently started getting involved in local volunteer stuff, like artwork for this little video game museum in Oakland.”
By the way, with the exception of the last, all the links in that paragraph are Microcartridge games corresponding to the linked word. “I look back on them sometimes,” he noted. “It’s a pretty weird record of my first four years in the US.”
iPad Resistance
In turning his life into games, Robson has gained a micro-education in designing them. “I’m not sure any of them would be fun to play for more than six seconds, but I definitely want to keep making games,” Robson said. “My pixel art skills have improved, and I’ve maybe learnt some tricks for squeezing more out of limited resources. I’ve learnt that the idea for a game often comes after you start working on it.
"Also, make regular backups and don’t leave your DS on a plane.”
Nothing on a handheld game platform has matched the ease of use of WarioWare DIY, as far as Robson knows. “Most people tell me to just learn Gamemaker or Unity. I find they get overwhelming very quickly. I can use Maya and other complex 3d software but I chose WarioWare DIY because the restrictions make it fun and possible to finish 50+ games.”
A new version for 3DS or Wii U would be welcome, “but I wonder if what happened with Swapnote makes a newer version of DIY even less likely.” Swapnote, Nintendo’s animated messaging software, was recently taken offline purportedly after Nintendo discovered young users were being sent inappropriate messages.
“I feel like there is huge potential for more short expressive games. Dys4ia is a good example. There should be more games like that and more accessible, fun, handheld ways to make them.”
