Critical Jostling

Pippin Barr's essay examines how videogames can function as critical objects by reconfiguring the design elements of existing games, arguing that this approach offers a distinctive form of critique within videogame criticism. Drawing on critical design theory from Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, and on Carl DiSalvo's concept of adversarial design, the essay proposes "reconfiguring the remainder" as a method: shifting conventional design standards to expose what they omit or take for granted, while preserving the functional, playable nature of the work.

The core case studies are two games Barr created, Jostle Bastard and Jostle Parent, each a direct response to an earlier title. Jostle Bastard reworks the violent core of Hotline Miami by replacing killing with non-fatal "jostling," and by introducing social consequences such as arrest, job loss, eviction, and revenge from victims, alongside a mundane, non-violent life option that makes violence feel unnecessary. Jostle Parent takes the comic parenting scenario of Octodad: Dadliest Catch and makes it emotionally serious by allowing the player's children to die permanently, with deaths recorded through gravestones and named children, removing the linear, consequence-free narrative of the source.

The essay argues that both reconfigurations expose design omissions in their sources, namely the absence of meaningful consequence in Hotline Miami and of emotional stakes in Octodad. Barr also reports an emergent moment in Jostle Bastard, in which a tester who chose nonviolence was still jailed because the game's rules did not distinguish aggressor from victim, which the author cites as evidence of the system generating unplanned critical experience. The paper presents its contribution as a grounded, design-led illustration of how interactive reconfiguration can critique and extend existing games.