Kitfox Games
Company
Documents about Kitfox Games
Whitepaper5 pages
Mythic Alternatives: Mythological Mechanics Beyond Violence
The document, "Mythic Alternatives: Mythological Mechanics Beyond Violence," explores how mythological video games can incorporate non-violent mechanics to represent mythic narratives, challenging the prevalent reliance on combat in the genre.
- Violence is the default mechanic in mythological video games, a pattern the authors tie both to mainstream gaming trends and to the violent episodes found in many myths themselves.
- The paper argues that games can move beyond combat by translating mythic motifs into core mechanics, and it surveys five categories: metamorphosis, heroism, extraordinary movement, dying and rising, and interactions between gods and mortals.
- Heroism is modeled through systems such as the kleos meter in Warriors: Legends of Troy and the aristeiai in A Total War Saga: Troy, which represent the exceptional, exemplary hero.
DiGRAJun 2026
Report35 pages
Understanding the Value of Game Jams
The white paper That's My Jam: Understanding the Value of Game Jams, published June 2025 and authored by Michael Iantorno, examines game jams in the Canadian game industry.
- Survey respondents overwhelmingly felt that game jams helped them develop game design skills, with no participant answering no.
- Most participants who attempted commercial releases said jams did not give them enough advice on commercialising their game.
- Most survey respondents shared their jam projects online for free after the event, while over half continued developing them into commercial releases.
Ontario CreatesJun 2025
Whitepaper3 pages
Love and Other Terrors: Intimacy and Vulnerability in English-Language Dating Simulators and Romance Games
The document explores how English-language dating simulators and romance games construct and manipulate experiences of intimacy and vulnerability.
- The paper analyzes English-language dating simulators and romance games, a genre that originated in Japan and remains underrepresented in English-language scholarship despite romantic choice appearing in major franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Hades, and Baldur's Gate 3.
- Drawing on McGlotten's definition of intimacy as an affective experience of connection and belonging, the authors tie intimacy closely to fantasy, longing, failure, and vulnerability.
- Emotional vulnerability is often created by altering or inverting the player's agency through gameplay mechanics, making player control itself a source of affect.
DiGRASep 2024