Fátima Postmortem

Abstract

In this paper we report on the game design and evaluation process of a religious themed videogame: Fátima, available at http://playfatima.net. Fátima is a videogame that places the sightings of Our Lady of Fátima (Portugal, 1917) in a playful context. The overarching aim was to enable a play experience around the Fátima phenomenon by confronting players with a dilemma between a materialistic dimension (herding sheep) and a spiritual one (praying to the Virgin Mary). The player takes the role of a young shepherdess (Sister Lúcia) represented by an avatar that moves around discreetly in the game world, represented by a green meadow. At the start of the game there are six sheep in the meadow; they move randomly and may leave the game scenario altogether. By moving the avatar, the player is able to influence the movement of the sheep, herding them within the game scenario. In line with the original accounts of the phenomenon, there are a total of six sightings throughout the game. These sightings come up approximately every minute. In each appearance it is possible to pray to the Virgin Mary for 10 seconds. In addition to the reporting of the game design process, we describe the evaluation of the gameplay experience. This evaluation is based on gameplay metrics and allows us to analyse how players acted facing the meaningful possibilities existing in the videogame.