Kintsukuroi

Kintsukuroi Development There are many things I like about games, which I think must be obvious to anyone who’s interacted with me on even a basic level. Before starting Kintsukuroi I made a short list of the key components of games that I enjoy the most, with the aim of picking one and building an idea around it. The list I ended up with included creativity, relaxation, exploration, narrative and productivity. Several ideas were developed from these core elements with the one that I felt would fit a mobile device best being Kintsukuroi, an idea built around relaxation. Kintsukuroi’s main goal is to center someone who’s anxious - to provide them something to focus on in a calming environment while also giving them a sense of progression and accomplishment. Having the game be developed for a mobile device would mean it’d be quickly and easily accessible, and having it be touch based would add that tactile sense that would help to ground a person all the more. As someone who regularly deals with anxiety I often find myself picturing returning to a calm state in stages, or waves, or pieces of something broken realigning. Which is where the link with Kintsukuroi was made. To use the definition found in-game: Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of fixing broken ceramics with lacquer mixed with precious metals. It aims to create a new piece that celebrates the object’s broken history rather than trying to hide it, making it beautiful in a new way. The imagery of piecing together these broken pieces has stuck with me since learning of this process a few years ago, so it felt pretty natural to connect the dots and arrive at the idea of Kintsukuroi as a calming game. For more information about the development process for Kintsukuroi, visit my site: http://www.chelseasaunders.com/kintsukuroi