At first I wasn’t very inspired by the theme. I had voted it down. At first just because I wasn’t inspired by it, but with the recent school shooting, anything where you would play a villain with guns was unthinkable. Not that I’m afraid of a controversial subject. In my opinion, games as a cultural expression has every right to bring up sensitive subjects, just like books and movies can. But this time we had gathered over 10 people at our office for a Ludum Dare gathering. It wouldn’t be appropriate to cry by the computer, I thought.

My first ideas not involving crazy people with handguns were pretty boring: just reversing classic game ideas like Pacman or Donkey Kong. The funniest idea I had was one where you would play one of the aliens in Space Invaders. (“Keep the formation, soldier!”) But that’s more fun as an idea than when executed.

In the end I came up with a concept  that was controversial, but perhaps a bit more subtle. It seems nobody that has played the game hasn’t even noticed. Was I too subtle, or have we gotten so numb that we don’t even react when men, women, children and goats are slaughtered in a way similar to what’s been happening recently in the real world?

Play My First Ping Pong Massacre