Projects

In his thesis project, Barfly, MFA candidate Josh Green meditates on a real-world theme rarely addressed on in digital games; the search for love. Barfly is an original PC role-playing game where the player engages in conversation with a variety of potential partners; their dialogue choices will determine whether they finds romance or get the cold shoulder.

Barfly uses a simple, accessible mouse-based interface and stylized 2-D graphics to help its players navigate the difficult task of finding a soulmate. Each session of the game begins with character generation; by picking from a set of personality characteristics, players can determine what sort of person they are, which in turn defines the sort of patrons that will be good matches for them.

Once the newly formed character enters the bar, he or she has until the bar's closing to find a suitable romantic partner. By engaging the bar's randomly generated patrons in conversation and choosing from a variety of humorous, pop-culture-inspired response options, the player can determine if each patron is the right fit for them; their responses will, in turn, either repulse or attract their potential mate.

Through Barfly, Josh Green uses an impressive conversational database to highlight the romantic and comedic possibilities of adventure and role-playing games, possibilities that, in most recent games, have been largely forgotten. To learn more about Barfly, you can access Green's thesis paper by clicking here.