As we approach our project launch, things are really coming together! We’ve been finalizing written content for our website and working through some visual glitches. Huge shoutout to Truly for getting to the bottom of the main issue and resolving it. You can check out the site in its current state here. 

The general layout is in place, and we’ll update the website with our final edits this week. Also, a huge shoutout to Michael, who has done a great job finding images for all of our close reads. Those will be implemented in the next website update as well. That being said, this week Truly will handle any remaining website tweaks and update the written content; Michael will start the white paper draft; and I will revise the presentation slides and prep for the rehearsal and final presentation. The team is maintaining continued communication via Discord during these final phases.

Nonetheless, we are happy to say that everything is on track for a hopefully smooth project launch. Throughout the semester, we’ve been taking turns writing these group updates, and I’m just now realizing I am writing the very last one. A bittersweet moment, for me. Thank you all for being a part of our journey, and for sharing yours with us as well. Excited to see it all come together at the GC Digital Showcase!

Our project name finally came to us! We fell in love with A Pretty Terrifying Project, so we thought, why not just keep it? So our official project name is now…*drumroll* A Pretty Terrifying Project: Examining Feminist Theme Co-occurrences Across Horror Video Games. Ultimately, this was easy to come up with once we narrowed the scope of our project.

Everything seems to be on track, and we have a clear plan heading into spring break. The team has some smaller housekeeping things to take care of before spring break. Truly will be annotating some of the code in our current repo so I can navigate the existing code when working on it, and Michael will be updating some of the visualizations. In the next phase, we are focusing on website development, some close reading, and writing. I’m looking forward to working on the website during the break. I enjoy web development, so this is sort of a fun thing to do during my very uneventful spring break.

The team and I have each picked a game that falls into one of our key co-occurrences to do a close read during the spring break. Everyone’s pretty excited to work on these since we all chose areas and games we’re particularly interested in. Michael will be looking into Doki Doki Literature Club (girlhood + captivity), a cute, yet psychologically horrific game, while Truly will be working on Bloodborne (motherhood + violence), a dark, gothic, Lovecraftian-esque game. I, on the other hand, haven’t picked a game yet, but will focus on one that explores the co-occurrence of embodiment and violence. I’m interested to see how this collaborative writing experience pans out for us.

We’re trying to keep it light and enjoy the break, but we also took some time last night to plan ahead for after spring break and the final stretch! We’ve decided that ‘finished’ for us is a well-developed website that displays our visuals that holds important contextual analysis, such as related theoretical frameworks and close readings. We feel that this part may be the bulk of the work going forward, and we want to spend time ensuring we do thorough research and writing at this stage.

I think that the pretty terrifying team has a solid sense of what needs to be done to hit our upcoming milestones. Enjoy the spring break, everyone! Don’t work too hard!

Data Management Plan

What data will you collect or create?

This project produces a curated dataset examining feminist themes within horror video games. The following data will be collected for each title:

• Game Title
• Wikipedia URL
• Developers
• Female Developer Present
• Release Date
• Platforms
• Horror Subgenre
• Player Perspective
• Female Protagonist Playable Character?

Themes and keywords related to:

• Motherhood
• Domestitcity
• Trauma and Mental Illness
• Embodiment
• Captivity
• Violence
• Sexualized Violence
• Girlhood
• LGBTQ+
• Creed Archetypes
• Suggested Supporting Evidence

How will the data be collected or created?

Data was collected through a process that began with a Wikipedia web scrape using Python, BeautifulSoup, and wikipediaapi to gather all pages and subcategories within the Category:
Horror_video_games. Data such as the game’s title, URL, and category were extracted to compile a curated list of games featuring female characters. A classifier was then built using control phrases and/or keywords to identify games featuring female characters and potential feminist themes. Data collection is ongoing and continues to be reviewed using both computational and manual methods.

Documentation and Metadata

Basic documentation and process methodology will be provided.

Documentation will include the following:

• Data_Dictionary
• Methodology
• Basic Software Requirements
• README

Ethics and Legal Compliance

How will you manage any ethical issues?

This project does not contain any personal information of individuals. All materials are publicly
available.

Storage and Backup

How will the data be stored and backed up during the research?

During the research and development stage of this project, all information will be stored in cloudstorage using the following platforms:

• Google Drive
• GitHub

Both will have regular updates by team members and will be automatically stored.

How will you manage access and security?

The final dissemination of this product will be a public-facing digital website accessible to all. All data collected will also be openly available. During the research phase, only team members and the faculty advisor, as needed, will be granted access to the platforms used.

Selection and Preservation

Which data are of long-term value and should be retained, shared, and/or preserved?

• The dataset of horror games and their feminist themes itself
• The data visualizations created from that dataset
• The code for the website presenting those visualizations
• Any accompanying documentation and written material connected to the project

What is the long-term preservation plan for the dataset?

We will store the dataset in a data repository such as Kaggle, and will look into institutional
repositories like CUNY Academic Works for the preservation of other aspects of the project.
Additionally, we plan to keep the website accessible for as long as possible, using free hosting on GitHub Pages.

Data Sharing

How will you share the data?

Final data will be shared via GitHub and openly available to the public for review or research
purposes

Are any restrictions on data sharing required?

Data produced through this project will be available under the Creative Commons License: CC-BY