A UCLA alumnus’ MFA thesis project trades saving kingdoms and defeating fire-breathing dragons for a far more introspective mission: confronting the systems that shape our identities and the world around us.
In 2024, UCLA alumnus and media game artist Vinny Roca released “Slot Waste,” the thesis project he created while pursing a Master of Fine Arts at UCLA’s design media arts department. Earlier this year, the assistant professor of media studies at Scripps College was recognized at the Independent Games Festival, which celebrates innovation from independent game developers. Unlike many critically acclaimed titles, “Slot Waste” intentionally resists conventional gameplay and instead positions itself as an interactive work of art, Roca said.
“It was exciting to see the festival choose to highlight a work that was maybe less about the systems of the game itself, but more about the direct visual, audio and conceptual levels of play,” Roca said.
“Slot Waste” depicts an absurdist factory production in which players take on the role of a disillusioned worker, Roca said. Rather than receiving explicit instructions, players move through a series of increasingly bizarre vignettes of labor, intuiting their next task from the objects and creatures surrounding them. What initially appears to be a collection of strange activities slowly reveals a much more nefarious production process, Roca added.
Aidan Strong, a graduate student in design media arts, said the game balances playfulness and seriousness. Strong first encountered Roca as a UCLA teaching assistant in a theory-focused course on critical game culture, where they became familiar with Roca’s philosophical and artistic approach to games. They later became classmates in the MFA program.
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“(‘Slot Waste’ is) creating this very interesting Rube Goldberg machine out of all these different small interactions,” Strong said.
Roca said the goal of the game is not to deliver a definitive message. He designed the game to immerse players in an experience that prompts them to reconsider how they think, perceive the world and function within it, he added.
Although “Slot Waste” has become Roca’s highest-profile project, the exploration of labor present in the game has long been a defining theme of Roca’s work. He said his 2023 creation for the Solo Exhibition at the EDA Broad Art Center, “ALL THERE IS,” centered on the task of stacking countless digital objects into a towering structure. He added that the game touches on the accumulation of virtual assets and the labor behind them.
“I have a strong political commitment and an engagement with conditions of labor,” Roca said.
Sagan Yee, also one of Roca’s MFA classmates, said part of what makes “Slot Waste” compelling is how it alienates the player, making their role clear while leaving the purpose of their labor ambiguous.
Roca’s ability to combine his interest in labor politics with his long-developing technical craftsmanship has distinguished him from other designers, Strong said. Roca’s background in 3D modeling shows in the intricate environments and creatures populating his games, Strong added. Despite this artistic skill, Strong said Roca never lets visuals overshadow the interactive experience for players, putting equal emphasis on gameplay and design.
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Roca said much of his artistic philosophy developed during his time at UCLA. The developer added that the Design Media Arts Department and the UCLA Game Lab created an environment where conversations with professors and classmates fundamentally shaped his work.
Strong explained that projects like Roca’s are essential in the gaming industry because innovation rarely begins with major studios, and instead with small-scale experimental projects like “Slot Waste.”
For Roca, games are more than just entertainment or products to be consumed, but spaces where players can participate, question and reconsider the systems that shape the world around them.
“I’m much more interested in games that have the ability to create the small, limited experience in which you can engage with and see things differently,” Roca said.
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