Paper Pusher

Paper Pusher is a game written by Jon Miller with help from Sarah Scialli, Bo Xian See, and Celestine Lau, featuring some commonly available images of well known people ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ).

Goal

I wanted to make a game that was a crude satire of today's politically correct and culturally sensitive work culture. I wanted also to create a fast paced and relentless game which further mimicked today's workplace.

Method

I decided to take the traditional drag & drop mechanism available on most modern operating systems and turn it into a fast paced game. The player drags images falling from the left and drops them in the box to the right. There are two catches: if they miss too many images, they lose, and if they fail to drop in at least one female and one minority, they also lose.

Novelty

The novelty of the game lies in its attempt to poke fun at political correctness by both simplifying it and making it a fundamental part of the game. I am not sure if the 'speed drag & drop' gameplay mechanism has been attempted before, but I have not seen it.

Results

I think the game accomplishes its goal, however, I feel it would deliver its message more effectively if it were more aesthetically polished. By making the game beautiful, it would contrast it more with the crudeness of its message, that politcal correctness can be acheived simply by including the appropriate amount of minorities into brochures. All in all, I am pleased with my first experience with openGL and game programming in general.