THESIS :

Like Father, Like Son is a game about the responsibilities of parenthood and its effect on people. It is about the sacrifice that parents make for the sake of their children. The game lasts exactly 5 minutes - You have to live your life and make your choices within that time. You are a butterfly who has the choice to explore the world, woo a mate and make babies.

This game is my perspective as an almost 30 year old single male looking at my father’s sacrifices and what is expected of me in the future. The viewpoint of the game from my perspective is an inherently cynical one. I’m not fond of the loss of freedom that comes from having kids. This may be offensive to some but that is my personal viewpoint at this point in my life.

The game is gender neutral. There is no explicit gender coding of the main playable character and the NPCs.

Inspiration: I’m a huge fan of the mechanics as metaphor movement. This game is my love letter to Jason Rohrer’s seminal work - Passage. Other inspirations are: Loneliness, One Hour One Life and Everything.

Here is a list of intentional mechanics in the game and their corresponding meanings: 1. Strict time limit - inspired by “Passage” -the time we have on this earth is finite 2. Being bound in the nest for the first 18 years - sheltered life Choice in mating - You can choose to explore the world instead of settling 3. Earning points is slower once you leave the nest because it gets a lot harder to work in the real world. 4. Providing for the family deducts score from self.

Here are a list of mechanics I couldn’t implement because of a lack of time : 1. If you choose to explore the world, you’ll find different flowers and the music will change based on how far you travel away from the center. 2. There will be a visual feedback on the butterfly’s wings signifying the energy of the butterfly - higher the self/family ratio - more brighter the colors 3. There should be something to say about the joy of raising a family too. I don’t understand yet how I’ll express that. 4. As the character grows older, moving about should be harder and there should be a visual feedback in the world. 5. Sometimes you can have siblings that you have to compete with. 6. You can be born with a single parent or no parents at all. 7. You can choose to leave behind your family after marrying - signifying a betrayal. 8. You can choose to have multiple children or even remarry. 9. Probabilities of above features could be pulled from real world divorce, single parenthood and children birth rates. 10. Need to add music 11. Could be a io type game

I’m always learning new things of this amazing art form. Follow me on twitter for more of my experiments. https://twitter.com/OmeySalvi