A Design Toolkit of Ludic Contentious Politics: The Case of Protest in Videogames

Protests, riots, or demonstrations have been common scenarios in strategy and simulation videogames. In this article, I propose a design toolkit of ludic contentious politics when developing videogames for protesters. To do so, I outline four central game systems that can distort the game narrative: the camera, the reward system, the NPCs faction system, and the game engine. This toolkit addresses the question: How can game makers critically engage players with protest narratives by eliminating policing mechanics or, at the very least, minimizing their presence on the player's screen? After laying out the design guidelines, I will discuss how they informed the design of a videogame titled Return to Sender, created as part of a research-creation project. Eventually, this toolkit aims to challenge the underlying policing ideologies embedded in videogames mechanics depicting protest.