How to Gamify Survival as a Creative
Danielle Evans / WNW Member
I’ll admit when things were far less dire, my friends and I would play Valve’s Left 4 Dead and pretend to stare down the apocalypse at the abandoned amphitheater on the northside of town. Weeds ate the gravel where one of us received a college diploma only five years earlier. The earth turns over so quickly, we’d muse. When The Walking Dead first aired on TV, we watched, transfixed, at the resourcefulness of humanity. Out of this love we created a mutation of Capture the Flag and Hide and Seek and dubbed it Mad Scientist. The scientist wore a lab coat and spent the game converting the other players to zombies with a single tap. At the height of its popularity, we had almost a hundred participants. An actual hoard. It seems we’ve always been gamifying survival.
During a grave time in human history, it’s important to find space for lightness. We humans are built for gamification. We can always find a way to incentivize trivial tasks, make light work of difficult endeavors. Even with the absence of professional sports, we’ve found solace in marble racing and Rube Goldberg videos. It is in our DNA to survive with a laugh.
Assess your Advantages
Everyone has some advantage. In Mario Kart, players select a vehicle based on their preferred method of driving. No car has it all. Some accelerate quickly, others are stabilizing and powerful. We are all inclined to different traits, and some traits thrive better under different pressures. Introverts will weather long quarantine times at home with space. Some thrive with their families and derive support from groups. Others have consistent passive income streams easing the burdens of cancelled work. Some of us think quickly on our feet, processing and adapting faster than most. Before trying to help anyone else, leverage these skills to help yourself.
The personal advantages we have buy us time and help us adjust if we choose to acknowledge and harness them. I have never been so grateful to be a one person household. A month ago I wondered if I was a failure for hitting my mid-30s with no assets. Being nimble and scalable was suddenly the best thing that could happen to me. I came from an upper-lower class home, so I learned how to cook for myself. I am a bread machine and a gourmet chef. For the first time in our history, every non-essential worker is at home, totally shocked. Suddenly many of us are in the same position, and we can no longer deny we need each other.
Assemble Your Support System
Any good team requires balance. Every Pokémon Master knows this. Every RPG game demands this. Achieving balance is critical to community-building and maintenance, and games teach us the importance of skill diversity from an early age. Not everyone can be a wizard because someone has to be a soldier. A bunch of sages can theorize all day, but who’s going to execute on their strategy?
Can you keep your cool? Share that with the anxious world. Are you an idea machine? Brands are trying to pivot with humanity and generosity, and they need your quick mind. Are you great with money during lean times? Individuals are slimming down their budgets during uncertain times, and they want your pro-tips.
In my creative support system, I function as the mage. I can accurately forecast big picture events and strategize pragmatic next steps in times of stress. I have the ability to produce work even while traumatized. I love to heal people. I have strong, stable friends, the tanks, that I look to for workout routines, articles on survival skills, and encouragement. I have a handful of minstrels that keep the mood light and silly, who send me distracting memes and great ideas for projects.
“While a beautiful thought, a room full of designers nullifies the shared skill. If everyone is a logo designer, who will make logos when the need arises? Everyone, and therefore no one. Keeping like-minded company is critical to being seen, but diversity will help us survive.”
At every design conference, someone inevitably sighs and asks, “Why can’t it be like this all the time, all of us designers hanging together? I feel so understood and valued.” While a beautiful thought, a room full of designers nullifies the shared skill. If everyone is a logo designer, who will make logos when the need arises? Everyone, and therefore no one. Keeping like-minded company is critical to being seen, but diversity will help us survive. Are you on an in-house team? Hire that long time WFH independent to make what you can dream, especially if you’ve got the budget. Do you prefer to pass your retouching off to someone else under normal shoot conditions? Bring on post-production help if budget allows. Is pivoting your strategy for the next month of utmost importance? There are so many consultants wanting to serve you. Look for the gaping holes in your teams and fill them with like-spirited people with varying skills. There are suddenly many problems to solve.
Life as a Puzzle Platformer
The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite franchises of all time. The world unfolds slowly before you, presenting challenges through puzzle-solving. The objective isn’t just a piece of armor or a key but a learned skill. At the end of the game, you are navigating the world with different eyes, a little wiser with hella drip, of course.
When it comes to day-to-day survival, I consider how to transform something in my fridge to fit a recipe. During my first pandemic trip to stock up on groceries, I noticed butter was gone everywhere. People panic-hoarded supplies to make comfort foods, and therefore raided every store near my home. What was available was heavy cream. I bought a reasonable amount and proceeded to whip my own; given the inflation costs, this proved the cheaper option as well.
“People that love your work may look at the end product and only see one answer. Show them multiple equations, and you might be able to answer one of their looming questions...There’s an opportunity to challenge ourselves to stretch and come out better on the other side.”
While my creative output is specific (I make tactile typography), I consider myself a generalist. It takes styling, art direction, design, illustration, photography, stop motion, and video skills to bring my work to life. I have all of them to professional grade at varying levels. During this time, I’m pitching people and highlighting my range. Yes, I can make you this very clever image out of food and other household objects, and I can supplement those skills with more photography, brand strategy, design. People that love your work may look at the end product and only see one answer. Show them multiple equations, and you might be able to answer one of their looming questions. I also see myself more broadly as a communicator; I also write and speak, which I’m leveraging into virtual events and written pieces on coping during this wild, historic time. There's an opportunity to challenge ourselves to stretch and come out better on the other side.
Right now, things feel immensely uncertain, with good cause. But if humans know how to do anything, it’s endure. Even confined to our homes we’re hosting virtual dance parties, connecting over streaming video games, and making the world smirk through platforms like TikTok. Regardless of why, we are pressing forward as best we can. Collectively, we have the opportunity for a level up if we have the strength to grab it.
WNW Member Danielle Evans is an art director, lettering artist, speaker, and dimensional typographer. She’s worked with the likes of Disney, Target, the Guardian, PWC, (RED), McDonald’s, Aria, Condé Nast, Cadillac, and would love to work with you. Subscribe to her newsletter here.
Header Illustration by WNW Member Veronyka Jelinek