Let’s not play

Speculative and critical design practices have found broad interest in the academic design world, and yet have not been widely taken up by game designers. This chapter argues that a reason for this lack of engagement is that the non-real, imaginative status of speculative objects can be difficult to reconcile with the need for the playful interactivity particular to games. In response to this dilemma, this chapter presents the creation of main menus for games that do not exist (menuization) as a way of reconciling these speculative and interactive requirements. The exploration of menuization as a method for bringing the tools and insights of speculative design into game design involves a design case study of MENU NEW GAME PLUS, a video game consisting of a series of main menus for games that do not exist. This chapter presents the development of the four existing MENU NEW GAME PLUS prototypes before going on to identify insights for those wishing to explore speculative game design through menuization.