HUA Award 華艺数奖 Winner 2023

How Deep Is the Dark Water? - Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao CAI) (China)

Artwork description

How Deep Is the Dark Water? is an experimental game that imagines a cross-strait war. The player, guided by a fleeing man, slowly wanders through memories and visions constructed by the context of the war and individual experiences.

From historic dwellings to steam trains carrying displaced people, from bomb shelters filled with fear and violence to burned cultural traditions, from confrontations with the ghosts of refugees under the water to the emotional orgy of social media, what is always present in this game is the back of the fleeing man who represents a helpless individual and an object that cannot be possessed or perceived clearly. As a response to the tensions in the world, this work does not directly portray war, but tries to let the player feel the separation, fear, violence and trauma of war in the process of chasing the fleeing man.

How Deep Is the Dark Water? creates an interactive scenario that allows the player to read text (or short poems) hidden in the game space, by using the right mouse button to zoom in on an object, look away, and in some cases, to see the text superimposed on the object. The texts are the weak repercussions that lurk beneath the surface of historical events.

How Deep Is the Dark Water? explores the ability of video games to mediate reading and affect, guiding the player with cinematic interactivity and connecting the act of “wandering” in video games with the individual feelings in the time of war.

Partners and collaborators

Credits

Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao Cai) > Director / 3D Artist / Programmer / Sound Artist

Yuri Kuzmin > Proofreading

Mofan Zhai > Title Font Design

Special Thanks

Chia-Lin Lee

Dongting Fu

Guangli Liu

Jiahui Wang

Lauren Moffatt

Lihao Shao

Wenjing Shen

Zhan Gao

Zhipeng Wang

Full sounds and assets credits inside the game.