The design of The End of Us encourages to approach the gameplay with what Koster would describe a “grokked” internalization of how to master action games. With no overt narrative or goal, the player has no understanding of the correct way to master the game. The game is then an experiment on the mediation of the player over the purposely, undefined rules. The sudden emergence of the orange comet colliding into the player’s purple comet unwarranted suggests the onset of an enemy. The orange comet is a non-playable, unidentified, questionable player. The initial bash or thump brings forth the game-like concern with maintaining health and lives. However, if the purple comet pursues the orange and manages to collide into it, nothing is gained on …show more content…
A common trope in action games is to collect pick-ups, which are usually beneficial to the character. However, these stars prove later to be nothing more than an affordance- the orange comet’s behaviors swindle us into a competition with no stated or guaranteed benefits of collecting those items. This behavior by the player may be mediated by the gaming aspect of scoring and collecting to store for future use in the game and by instinct to aggressively desire something the other comet seems to want. By design theory and architecture, that the material world of the game is encouraging the player to aimlessly chase and collect. The second experimental play of the game reveals the machine operations are programmed to cause the orange comet to pursue the stars first, resulting in blocking or challenging the purple comet, however recedes to the back as if to share the opportunity with the player without hindrance. The ending of the game is pre-programmed to maneuver the orange comet in front of the player’s avatar so that it is destroyed and the player emerges as the single, last