Godzilla comes to Tauranga
Online version of Kiwi city helps spread creativity and message about global warming – as well as the danger of mutant jellyfish. Matt Shand reports.
A dystopian Tauranga’s beaches are walled off and artillery is trained at Mauao ready to shoot mutant blue bottles in a Kiwidesigned video game.
Ngai Te Rangi’s Naphtali Faulkner, originally from Katikati but who moved as a young child to Australia, channelled the loss of his mother’s house in the recent Australian bush fires into a creative game which acts as a metaphor for climate change effects.
In Umurangi Generation, released on May 20, you play the role of a courier taking photographs during a Kaiju (Japanese for ‘a strange creature’ like Godzilla) attack.
Players explore a cyberpunk version of Tauranga and surrounding towns including Otu¯ moetai, The Strand and Katikati. The player must capture ‘‘picture bounties’’ to advance through the levels.
These levels tell the story of a mutant invasion under an ominous red sky and backed by black horizons which Faulkner says represent an upside down tino rangatiratanga flag showing the country is in a state of distress.
Photography, and the creative process behind it, take centre stage. The player has realistic camera controls at their disposal including lens, focus, exposure settings, and colour balance to allow players to manipulate images and learn photo editing.
‘‘The idea came about when I was trying to teach my little cousin about taking photographs,’’ Faulkner said. ‘‘When I was explaining to him . 0 .. it read like a video game tutorial.’’
Photographs are loosely scored with the objective to explore each level to find the best vantage points.
‘‘I was very careful not to make the game punish creativity and determine what is a good photo or bad,’’ Faulkner said. ‘‘How does a computer know the intention of the photographer?’’
This approach makes the game a blank canvas for the player to interact with. Hours can be lost framing up the perfect composition or fine-tuning edits.
As time goes on, the scenes and music become more dramatic as the story unfolds and you change from lifestyle photographer to war correspondent.
Faulkner says he wanted the game to mirror climate change, and the Kaiju attacks, coupled with their widespread acceptance, is a metaphor for inaction.
The player is unable to shape the events or change the outcome, but can watch it unfold through the lens.
‘‘In Australia, we joke about the bush fires being unprecedented, but unprecedented every year. I feel there is something in the generation having to sit by and watch these things happen when the time to act was 20 years ago.’’
The dystopian trope of tragedy and crisis being used for profit is also present, something which Faulkner says strikes close to home during the Covid-19 crisis.
‘‘In the game, there are signs people have ‘normalised’ the invasion and people profiting from it,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re seeing that now with Covid, and you see ads saying, ‘It’s important to stay connected more than ever, buy this now’.’’
It took Faulkner eight months to complete the game on his own except for the music, which was composed by ThorHighHeels. Faulkner set the game in Tauranga to reconnect with his iwi and family history.
‘‘This game helped me solidify the identity of my own history and the broader issues of colonisation. My grandparents live in the area and we visit. The game takes place in areas where our iwi shares a relationship.’’
Faulkner says the release on the gaming platform Steam has gone very well.
‘‘It’s sold well,’’ he said. ‘‘It is interesting to see how players take their own meaning from the events. American players feel a connection to the game’s overall themes based on how their countries are handling Covid-19 and the greater threat of global warming.
‘‘I’m going to keep making games. I am looking forward to more Ma¯ori designers creating works in this space.’’
‘‘This game helped me solidify the identity of my own history and the broader issues of colonisation.’’ Naphtali Faulkner