Words by David C. Obenour
Time is a hard thing to comprehend. The limited amount of it we have in a lifetime is even harder. Which is probably why – along with the busyness of day-to-day existence – we don’t often attempt it. We exist within the confines of our cluttered calendars – not making it much further than a few weeks or months out. Beyond that for us? Beyond that for what exists after us? The Bonsai Diary is a welcoming and intentional invitation to reflect about these things. As a journaling RPG, your experience is guided around the existence of a bonsai tree – capable (with the proper care) of surviving for hundreds of years. A prompt gives you insight to write your thoughts about how things change over time around your tree, and turning the page – another prompt helps you grow your tree by tracing it and drawing new growth.
Off Shelf: Your website describes your mission as making “games that spark imagination and empathy” – how do you find games to be an effective medium for both? Why do you value those as core aspects of play in the games you create?
Gene Koo: Games offer players opportunities to act and not just consume, which is their unique quality as a medium.
In the case of creativity, a game just makes creation part of the rules. For example, Joe Kell, a co-designer and I have a game coming out on KickStarter where the main activity to is to color a picture. The only way to play is to create, and the idea we really want to convey in that game is the aspect of creativity where you have to adapt to the limited choices you have available.
As for empathy, whereas film can foster empathy through experiencing a situation directly, games can help you better understand the forces that operate on and shape people’s beliefs and choices and actions. One game series I’m working on is BeTween which puts you in the role of an 11-year-old kid. Each player embodies one personality trait of that person, much like Pixar’s Inside Out, and in my ultimate vision of the game, you’d experience how those traits push and pull in different situations. In other words, the rules of the game, if designed with this purpose, already teach you about how others experience the world.
OS: You’ve created several journaling games, what appeals to you about this style of play? How is it different from the other ways we engage our thinking with games?
GK: To be honest, journaling games are just easier for me to design. They are a direct conversation between me and a player, so even when I’m playtesting there’s just a lot fewer variables to manage. But also I tend to like more introspective, thinky games and that’s a hard thing to pull off in other formats. Journaling is already something most people associate with reflection – for better or worse – so it’s a smaller leap for players to make.
OS: Is it safe to say that journaling games thrive on the prompts provided? What makes for evocative prompts and questions?
GK: It is an important component, yes, although it doesn’t have to be! The game itself could create compelling situations where the prompt is just affirming the strength of the core loop. That said, I personally craft my prompts very carefully. To me, it’s really important that prompts connect with the player’s inner life to a truth that they feel inside. On the surface, prompts split into those that look inwards, as in most journaling games, and those that push outwards, as in world-building games. But if done well, both pull on the player’s deepest beliefs and feelings.
OS: When did you first make the connection between caring bonsai and the concept for The Bonsai Diary?
GK: The Bonsai Diary came to me in a flash – it felt truly inspired! Like something that wanted to exist and simply chose me as a channel. I read a tweet about how great it would be to make games about generational passage and instantly bonsai just sprung to my mind – as did the core mechanic of tracing. Bonsai, if well-tended, can survive far longer than people, so it became a natural embodiment of generational legacy. I joke that you might not believe The Bonsai Diary is a tabletop role playing game, but you have to at least accept it’s “fantasy,” because so many people cannot keep a bonsai alive for a year! [laughs]
OS: What is your personal connection to bonsai? Had you cared for or known someone who cared for a tree before creating this game?
GK: My dad was a botany major who kept plants everywhere in the house. As a teenager I tried my hand at a bonsai, but looking back, I did everything wrong – especially keeping it indoors – and it died. My son has one ficus bonsai which he’s had for many years, and I have a close friend who’s a bonsai fanatic, and another whose family bonsai was lost within her lifetime.
I’ve also talked to more casual bonsai enthusiasts and hung around the Reddit forums long enough to see that there’s two common fantasies among bonsai trainers: that you can raise a bonsai from a seedling – it takes decades before it even looks like a tree – and that you’ll pass them on to your kids, and they to your grandkids. Most bonsai clubs end up inheriting these plants. I hope The Bonsai Diary can supply some of that fantasy.
OS: Following a tree through decades of growth and different caretaking growers, how did you choose the instances and prompts you provided?
GK: A lot of the early prompts were designed to put you into yourself and your situation, you can watch this video for more. You can call this CharGen or world-building. But just as you get comfortable, I keep shaking the story! Part of it is simply keeping it interesting – I wanted to avoid looping through sameness. Part of it is the reality that the world changes – in our times, very dramatically. Think back on what the world looked like a mere 15 years ago. Now imagine jumping forward 30. Can you even? I can’t. So making change a little uncomfortable is tied up with the idea of change itself.
OS: The Bonsai Diary deals with reflections on the seasons that come and go in life, mortality, and existence that extends beyond you. Why do you think it’s important for us to think on these subjects? How has doing so been insightful for you?
GK: I was 48 when I started working on The Bonsai Diary, so I was moving through the whole “midlife crisis” thing. In some ways, it can be very liberating to realize that it’s unlikely anyone will remember you in three generations. Maybe if you achieve worldly greatness, some building will be named after you, but regardless, no one will remember you. That could free you up to do terrible or wonderful things – but I believe in the fundamental goodness of people, so I think most people would use that freedom to do more good today.
OS: At the end of the journal you share a way to play again with a randomized system that uses a deck of cards to provide prompts. It’s very clever! How did you come up with this idea and at what point in the game’s development?
GK: Thanks! This was actually a late addition and originally I designed it after seeing how other journaling games relied much more on randomized prompts. I really could not figure out how to do that while keeping the core simplicity of the game – I did not want players to need anything more than the game itself or it’s likely never to be played. So in some ways the book is the “tutorial” for that version of the game but candidly I’ve never heard of anyone actually wanting to use it. The game is pretty self-contained, and I’m happy about that.
I did end up using this system for running group games. I’m a big believer in playing journaling games in groups, which is why I don’t call them “solo” games. It let me give players the core experience of the game without any spoilers!
OS: As we mentioned before, The Bonsai Diary also involves the tracing and drawn ongoing growth of a tree – how do you think incorporating art affects the journal game experience?
GK: The tracing mechanic predated anything else in this game, including journaling. The very first idea that popped into my head was just the tracing. The journaling part actually came second. The function that the drawing ends up playing is like an oracle, but one springing from inside. Drawing can quiet your verbal mind, the part that wants to make rational sense of the world and put everything into a tidy narrative. By contrast, when you’re drawing, you’re present now, in your own body. That is how I hope players approach the game. As a way to connect back to themselves, even before they invite words in.
OS: How have you been pleased or surprised by how gamers have responded to The Bonsai Diary? Are there stories or adaptations that have resonated with you?
GK Absolutely! I have so many deep and profound experiences, from the playtester who had to stop because he was getting overwhelmed with feelings about his family – an early clue that this game was hitting something really deep – to the couple who apparently had never discussed their mutual mortality before playing, to more recently someone like Zach of Tales From the Unknown, whose review of the game just blew me away in how deeply he both understood and connected with the game. As a small indie creator, I’m not making real money putting out games like this – for me, seeing people just connect with the work and maybe experience something real is all I can ask for.