{"id":2526,"date":"2024-09-19T22:07:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T22:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anewchallengerawaits.com\/general\/?p=2526"},"modified":"2024-10-06T02:47:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T02:47:06","slug":"2526-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuchallenger.com\/general\/2526-2","title":{"rendered":"Hip-Hop Game Design: Reflecting on Corporate Vandals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In 2014, coming off of successully funding Treachery in Beatdown City on Kickstarter, I was tapped to make a game for No Quarter<\/a>, a free social gallery event held (mostly) annually by the NYU Game Center. I immediately said \u201cYES!\u201d even though I didn\u2019t know what to make, or even what I could<\/em> make. I knew I didn\u2019t want to make another video game, as I was knee deep in Treachery in Beatdown City at that point. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Eventually what I made was Corporate Vandals<\/a>, a 4+ player sticker bombing turf warfare game played across five 30×30 inch boards. Corporate Vandals<\/strong> would be a continuation of my game design praxis (and overall thesis for NuChallenger) of infusing Hip-Hop\u2019s play centric fundamentals into game design. Corporate Vandals would go on to be shown at NYU\u2019s No Quarter that year, as well as the Museum of the Moving Image before disappearing from the game world altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below I want to talk about how and why it was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspirations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I was first thinking about game mechanics, I quickly landed on \u201ctic-tac-toe, but you can cheat\u201d. I was inspired by the constant real world battles for space with graffiti and sticker bombing, as well as this one time a live chicken cheated in a game of digital tic-tac-toe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Credit Gabe K<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I remembered vividly this one mural near where I lived that was dope. It was the Joker (pictured above), in such a clean, and entirely ominous manner. Eventually it saw some disrespectful tagging over elements<\/a> of the piece, thus damaging the overall quality of the picture. Later, Chico, the artist, would go in and paint over those areas again, but now it looked funny with new, bright paint over paint previously caked over with the dirt of the streets. Then there was a vivid scene of cave men (and women, seen below) that was painted over with Coca Cola messaging<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sticker bombing was all the rage in the 2000s, and I became hyper aware of it when working at Rockstar Games. On my way to work I’d see areas, like phone booths, where tons of random stickers would pile up, and eventually a Rockstar sticker would be placed smack dab in the middle by their street team, because of course<\/strong><\/em> the house that GTA3 built needed street cred. A day or two later, more indie stickers would be thrown up over the Rockstar sticker, and a day or two after that, a new Rockstar sticker would appear. Once, I saw something new – a sticker that said Say No to Corporate Vandalism over a Red Dead Redemption sticker, and I couldn\u2019t help but laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Credit Walt Jabsco<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had also come across a story how, in 1999,<\/a> an amazing mural (and fully sanctioned piece) painted by ACharlesNYC<\/a> (who is my ex-wife’s cousin) of Basquiat, had been painted over by the city. This painting was iconic to the neighborhood, and was covered up with gray paint by the city because it was automatically opted-in for destruction. The city claimed they had sent letters to property owners telling them of their intentions to remove the paintings unless told not to, but the fact that they wanted to do EXTRA WORK to remove these murals on private property speaks loudly of the city governments constant misunderstanding of the value of graffiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, there was a talk at NYU\u2019s Practice by Rob Daviau about Risk Legacy, and I couldn\u2019t get it out of my mind. Concepts in the talk, like forcing players to destroy a card to make players get over the newness of their game, and putting down stickers that affect future play throughs to make people feel connected to the game were perfect for the concepts of sticker bombing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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