Playable Quotes for Game Boy Games
Joël Franušić, Kathleen Tuite, Adam M. Smith · 2023
When discussing a work of literature, text quotes can provide access to specific pieces of content and allow them to be placed in a larger context. However, we have no obvious analog for this notion of quotes in the medium of videogames. In this paper, we introduce the concept of playable quotes. To support the needs of developers, educators, streamers, and other stakeholders, playable quotes should be playable (directly interactive), partitioned (small slices of larger works), permanent (able to outlive the original work), and performative (able to demonstrate specific styles of play). Focusing on the Game Boy hand-held game console, we describe Tenmile, a deployed prototype for creating and sharing self-contained playable quotes of Game Boy games that satisfy our key requirements. Using Tenmile’s technical design as a template, we lay out a strategy for implementing similar notions of playable quotes across other computing platforms and raise issues that should be considered before continuing beyond Game Boy.