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HAMM-3R

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----------------------------- Description -----------------------------


“To someone holding a hammer,” recites a popular adage, “everything looks like a nail.” This saying highlights the idea that our technical equipment shapes how we relate to the world: a hammer is not just a passive instrument, but a tool for interpreting reality—something structures our sense of possibility and guides our aspirations and intentions. A similar adage, often attributed to Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), claims that “first the man made the hammer, and then the hammer made the man.”

With our latest experimental videogame HAMM-3R, we explore the idea that our equipment influences how we understand the world and act within it. Through playful interactions, the game proposes that our tools—like a hammer, or a plasma gun—do not merely extend our agency but actively transform us, inviting specific interpretations, expectations, and modes of engagement with reality.

Paying hommage to Anton Chekhov, HAMM-3R is the latest in a series of free, experimental games designed to disclose interactive philosophical experiences. As conceptual works, these games have been exhibited in museums and galleries, played at independent game festivals, showcased during public talks, and played in game studies classes.


----------------------------- A Videogame About 'Mediation Theory' -----------------------------


'Mediation theory' is a branch of the philosophy of technology that understands technological artefacts not as neutral tools, but as intermediaries that have a role in shaping human experience, perception, and thought. From the perspective of mediation theory, our equipment mediates and translates our reality, revealing certain possibilities while concealing others. In other words, it frames how we encounter the world (virtual or otherwise) and act upon it.

Videogames are especially interesting sites for this kind of exploration because they operationalize ideas, turning abstract theories into lived, interactive situations. HAMM-3R can thus be understood as a game about mediation theory insofar as it stages, through its mechanics and affordances, the transformative role of our equipment and our technological extensions.


----------------------------- Procedural game design in HAMM-3R -----------------------------


The game uses a real-time two-step procedural generation system to create an abandoned space tanker (i.e., where the second half of the game takes place).

In addition to the space tanker, it also autonomously arranges game elements such as posters sticking to walls and bits of conversations using basic grammar rules and uniform random sampling.

The generation of the tanker is designed to be fast and lightweight. Technically speaking, it follows a fixed structural design divided into two main areas connected by a middle room. In each section of the abandoned tanker there is one main path (leading towards the game's intended destination) and 2–3 dead-end paths for exploration. The latter are either blocked by a broken door or a group of explosive barrels (placed to prompt the player to shoot them).

To ensure this structure is always respected, we use graph grammar techniques inspired by the work of Joris Dormans and Sander Bakkes. A graph defines the layout structure, which is then converted into a level using a template-based system similar to the one used in Spelunky. The template system also helps keep layouts symmetrical and visually distinct between areas randomly distributing objects and doors.


----------------------------- Credits -----------------------------


Stefano Gualeni - Game Design, Game Writing

Ahmed Khalifa - Programming, Additional Design

Daniele Giardini - Concept Art, 2D Art

Irina Tomova - 3D Art

Costantino Oliva - Music, Sound Design

Danielius Degesys - Additional Design


Testers

Nele Van de Mosselaer, Kübra Aksay, Aphrodite Andreou, Eneh Lang, Paul Psaila, Max Johannes Roth, Stefano Max Doojes, Pablo Arango, Amy Grech, Susanna Brambilla, Martina Galea, Christian Paller, Nemanja Rasajski


Made possible thanks to

The Insitute of Digital Games (University of Malta) and MDIA

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So, how do i get a third ending?
So the deep meaning of this thing is "don't shoot explosive barrels in your ship"? Cool, cool.

amidos2006 responds:

There is only two endings :)

Go through the intro. Get my plasma gun. Walk into the tanker. Shoot my gun to test the controls, proceed to blow myself to smithereens.

A+ game design, I'm not being ironic. It caught me off guard and made me laugh.

amidos2006 responds:

i am glad :)

I've done three playthroughs with different endings now, not sure if there's any other endings to find. I did like the experience overall, the game's pretty effective at setting up expectations with the tools it gives you only to subvert those expectations entirely, and I think succeeds in making its point. Maybe it could have done more with the philosophy, but I appreciate that it didn't overreach and become preachy.

I do agree with the criticism other people have given. For an experience as short as this that does invite multiple replays, the credits and intro sequence are far too long and unskippable. I think most people will understand the philosophy by the end of their first playthrough, but for those who want to experience all the game has to say, there's too much waiting involved.
I don't mind that shooting barrels unprompted can lead to a sudden death and early ending, but combined with the long waiting time it makes the player feel more like they're being punished rather than inviting them to think.

It's also a really unfortunate decision to put the key for interaction, moving through dialogue, and shooting, all on the same button. This makes it really easy to fire your gun by accident. In a game where this can lead to an early death and several minutes of waiting, this becomes incredibly tedious and punishing, and invites the player to disengage with the philosophical topic at hand.

The random layout of the tanker also is kind of neat, but doesn't really add much for the player. Exploring it doesn't fundamentally change and there aren't any new things to discover on subsequent playthroughs, so if anything it just feels like another tedious obstacle in the way of getting to another ending.

I did love the art design and writing, by the way. Those were really strong points that held the experience together, and felt really enjoyable for what little there was of them.

amidos2006 responds:

thanks a lot for the review :) totally understandable and thanks a lot

it's really odd that i shot some barrels and now apparently i need to go through everything again to play it differently.

amidos2006 responds:

It was a design decision to make people understand the philosophical argument but I can understand the issue of repeating everything again. Sorry about that

How do you fuck up like that such a cool game? How do you commit such a capital sin of game design?

Let's start this review with the good, because oh god if this game has potential.
The 2d art is fucking amazing, the 3d enviroment is really, really good and just the whole look of the game is fresh and polished.
The music is nice overall, nothing crazy but sells the vibe.
The doom-esque aiming sacrifices looking up and down for simplicity and I think it's great and way better than if the game had just used the mouse.
The concept kicks ass, a multiple-ending choice game in a randomly generated spaceship that attempts to tackle philosophical theories, it really has a lot of potential.

Okay, with the good out of the way, I can finally talk about the thing that weighs this game down to the point of making it unplayable.
RESTARTING TAKES TOO FUCKING LONG.
Everytime you get an ending, the credits pop up for some good 3 to 4 minutes that you CAN'T SKIP, so you are just forced to sit through them EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. but it doesn't end there, every time you start again, you have to sit THROUGH THE WHOLE INTRO TOO, about THREE MORE MINUTES, and what seemed like a cool fresh intro the first time (Parking your ship, waking up, grabbing your gun, basically the whole part before entering the tanker.) quickly turns into a tedious parade of doing the same OVER and OVER again.
This are 6 WHOLE MINUTES you have to go through before you get to the real gameplay every time you restart the game, a game that is supposed to be a mltiple choice game makes you wait 6 fucking minutes to try and get another ending, and worst, ending are like two to three minutes each, so you got a cycle of THREE MINUTES GAMEPLAY - 6 MINUTES UNSKIPPABLE INTRO over and over again. This is the capital sin that kills this game and makes it a tedious experience, and it really fucks with my mind how none of the testers have realized such an obvious and fatal design flaw.
This wait time kills any curiosity the player might have for exploring and interacting with the ship, and, if the player doesn't want to interact with the experience, the whole philosophical point the game is triyng to convey gets irremediably lost.

And it's so fucking easy to fix this flaw it's almost sad... Just add a skip button!
Let me skip the intro, don't play the tutorial again, let me run straight to the gun cabinet from the cryogenic pod and head to the tanker without having to talk to the computer, let me skip the credits!
Just by doing this, the 6 minuted per restart are reduced to 1 or 2 MAX, and I am way more incentivized to experiment and look for every ending.

There are also minor flaws here and there, like the lack of any indication that the walls explode too (Not even some "Watch out where you aim that thing" dialogue.) or the really stupid decision of mapping the shooting, action and dialogue to the same fucking key, which leads to accidental misfires when you try to continue the dialogue or open doors.
But again, all these are minor mistakes, and could easily be looked over if it wasn't for the restart problem.

I don't know if you guys are planing to update the game, but in the case you were, I really hope you get to read this so you can fix what would otherwise be a wonderful game.

amidos2006 responds:

Sorry about that, I agree to have a skip button which I will try to add soon :) The reason we didn't add it because the short ending is the intended ending, it is the main philosophical thing :)

Fair points, I will try to discuss with the designer about adding a way to skip

Credits & Info

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Faves:
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Score
3.61 / 5.00

Uploaded
Apr 1, 2026
3:11 AM EDT
Software
  • Godot Engine
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