We wanted to create an experience that didn’t involve traveling through the wilderness. And although we were inspired by Firewatch, we wanted to build an environment that was familiar, yet disconnected. The story follows an ordinary office worker named Greg. While working in his cubicle, thinking about the last conversation with his wife, Margaret, he gets caught in an explosion. After this, the player is sent into a dreamscape, in which they escape from with the encouraging voices of his lover. Greg wakes up from the coma, representing by the exiting of the dreamscape, seeing Margaret the hospital bed he awoke in. Our team comprised of Analisse, Fu and Michelle. In respective order, mainly doing asset modeling, audio, and mapping along with the narrative. And of course, we all dabbled in code, helping each other out occasionally.

We had planned a lot for this game, which led the eventual “killing your baby”, as we couldn’t make create that idea with the allotted time. Still, we had plenty of successes. For starters, the game was a good review for all us and a great way to learn new ways to code, which Michelle in particular, is very proud of as she worked on the lights in the maze. Secondly, we really got our narrative through, something we were striving to achieve, especially with Margaret being the one leading the player throughout the maze. Thirdly, Analisse brought the office to life with her assets from Maya and, I quote, “was a really good refresher ‘cos I forgot everything.” Fourthly, Fu gained experience editing audio clips on Adobe Audition, which surprisingly required lots of editing despite being short clips, but that’s what made it all the more important. And Lastly, Michelle was able to find fitting ambiance and music for the game.

One thing we had struggled with was showing the narrative of our game. We solved this with the adding of Margret’s voices in the red section of the maze to lead the player through it and the narrative text at the end and beginning, but, as we talked about it after our presentation, the meaning for the game and reason for it was still kind of left undone. Even after the ending where the player would fall off the map was something that was left alone without any thought.

Another challenge we encountered was actually having everyone working on the project. Michelle tried her best to lead the group, wanting to have everyone input on some matters but learned that in some cases it’s better to just push through with your ideas. We had a discord set up where I’d post messages of what needed to be done, things we should probably take away since there was insufficient time to finish, which is why a lot of the ideas were thrown away, but we still did our best to show our narrative through text, which would have been much better being voiced aloud. Even though we also added Margret’s voices for clarity, it would have been good if there were more of a smooth entry from the beginning so the player could recognize more clearly that Greg and Margret were two characters. This must be why giving voices to your characters is important.

Initially, from brainstorming, we wanted to create an office environment and a broken down building for the maze section. This was one of the goals that we didn’t achieve and left the map with a lackluster appearance. We did like leaving the office section blank because it left an eerie atmosphere, but as for the rest of the sections, there could have obviously been more texturing and modeling so the spaces weren’t so rectangular, but following more of a wonky line down a dreamscape.

On one of the office desks, the one that was more humanized than the others, there is a picture of a family. We hoped to have signified some sort of idea that that desk was the character the player was playing as. However, we don’t believe to have accomplished that and should have something that would have triggered like a memory perhaps or Margret’s voice and the laughter of their children to connect the player to that other character.

We had larger plans for the office environment actually and the whole layout of the map Instead of making it a single square place, we had wanted to make it a building where the player would travel through, guided by the ceiling lights. The only shared aspect from that first concept is the immaculate white walls and floor. They would then travel into a darker, destruction-filled environment with signs of the aftermath of an explosion. The space wasn’t supposed to be fully red like what we had in the final game, but the red within it was to be red in order to suggest danger or an emergency. After the player escaped, they would walk out of this building and see it from the outside and discover they were in a void the whole time and soon light would overtake them, leading them back to the real world. This was something we kept with the added falling down the space. It may have worked better if we had a model wake up in shock back in the real world to still have that connection from the dreamscape.

One of our biggest takeaways from this project is to stop thinking so big before we even have the basis of our game set up. Even then, it would be good to have each person focus on a big chunk of what we planned since a lot of that was all over the place, which led to a lot of our concept to be left in the dust. Another takeaway is to think more about the reason for the game when creating a narrative instead of just thinking it because it’s something common. This was one of the downfalls of our game, leaving the narrative flat.

Following the narrative I’m writing in my novel workshop class, my game lies in a world of superheroes, where people have supernatural powers due to life-threatening situations or those powers being inherent. This world isn’t exactly just black and white, especially when people with these powers are most of the time are observed with extreme scrutiny by the government – even if they are on the “good” side, wanting to help others with their powers through whatever motive they have. Because these superhumans hold so much power and, as a result, hold much potential to become a dangerous individual, a Villain, they are viewed with disdain and most of all fear. With progressive government officials holding power and a new wave of superhumans wanting change, the global Organization of Heroes, Aegis, was established. However, not everyone was pleased. In the shadows, a group of individuals who wanted a more radical change with their newly found powers gradually grew in power and soon came out as a powerful group of Villains. Of course, there were other sorts of devious individuals that rode this wave, although not with the same intentions, but for their own desires – most seeing themselves as a superior breed of human.

So far I had written an opening chapter of Belisama, an ex-villain, hero working under the Aegis branch in Old York and wanted to tie in Reina’s story before she met Bel. This was the initial thought I had before further planning on what narrative game I was bringing to my IF project. In such a distinct world with rules that don’t concede with ours, anything is bound to happen. Reina, for example, is not human, but a homunculus, a man-made human. After being given a new life and identity when the organization that was running immoral experiments in secrecy was caught and arrested, with Dr. Marth’s instructions, the only person that she trusted, Reina escaped to a furtive location in Old York and spent her days deteriorating in a rundown apartment while doing her best to care for a smaller life, a Pomeranian named Muffins. At first, I wanted to create a loop at the beginning of the game in which the player had to get out of in order to proceed to the next part, which was meeting Belisama. But after finishing the World Bible and additional playtesting, I decided to treat the game more as an introduction to the characters, giving hints to the world and to Reina’s character.

The main part of my goal wasn’t successful then, but I had found inspiration brainstorming about Reina and, in turn, more about the world these characters reside in. I found my writing successful in being humorous, although a bit dark, so it was good writing practice for the kind of vibe I wanted the story and the world to be. And I think I had done well in the smaller things like choosing a visual for the background and a soundtrack that would set the mood of the narrative. As for the branches and choices, I had done a pretty good job setting up hints for the world by displaying ordinary cereal advertisements that featured a particular hero and even the news from the television.

However, with many good things come with its own share of bad things. Because the game was viewed more as an introduction, the characters don’t feel as fleshed out as they would’ve been and; therefore, the game fell a bit flat as there was no big connection or motive to the characters that the player could’ve connected with. Although I liked my writing, it was too much text in a game and the question of “Would the player even read this?” comes forth. Not going through with the loop variable was a mistake, but that was because I didn’t have enough time left to work with what kind of story that would build, so instead I stuck to branching choices and endings. On the topic of these branching choices and endings, I shouldn’t have made them cut short so quickly and then send the player back to the beginning because of the sense of loss that brings. There were also tense issues where I didn’t stick to one tense which even confused myself at times. Writing in the third person for the narrative game was also an apparent difficulty as I was building the narrative.

If I were to build this game again, I’d most definitely work on not having chunks of text crowding the screen and maybe even start with changing the tense to the first person to see how that goes. In addition, I would also like to stretch out the branches more and making the ending have more impact. And although this game was more of an introduction, perhaps I’d merge the two next time, the other half being the encounter with Belisama. I spoke a lot of the negatives for this project, but really that signified how much I could improve on for future games I create or even a remake. It’s important to playtest your game in order to understand how they feel when playing it. Where endings cut off oddly or when there are huge walls of text – it’s all part of the process of creating a game.

I really love Bellyache by the amazing artist Billie Eilish so much, so I drew a sketch of her freely smiling (one of the shots in the music video) even though it’s a song about bittersweet revenge. I remember when my brother and I would get back at each other whenever we fought, but the revenge Eilish pulled in her story is something a psychopath would do.

I choose to wake up and dress up everyday for myself, but for what do I wake up for?

My body shakes and stirs, but my mind; where is it exactly?

Oh right, my phone. My mind is always one step ahead in these matters.

So much so that this has become less of a habit and more like an everyday ritual.

I chat with my friends for awhile, laughing around and teasing each other until I finally get myself up to care for my hygiene.

For what do I wake up for exactly?

Some would say simply to live, others would comment, in a silly manner, for food! or, seriously, to reach their goals and dreams.

But before all of that, I live for the happy days with my precious friends.

#squadfam

Artifact(s) number 1 (literally, well they aren’t that old, around ten years)

So these two pals right here were my first friends as a child and I still kept them ’til this very day. I don’t think it’s wrong to like huggable, cute things; but it might be a little bit worrisome if this habit still continues on as I mature into adulthood ?… nah ?. So that’s why I got more buds without a ounce of hesitation. Here’s the fam – extended Artifact(s) number 1.

All of them were gifts by the way, so that just makes them even more precious, yanno?

I think this goes to show that I don’t let go of things easily (this could be a bad and good trait ?) and that I also cherish things from my friends and family. Thank you mom and dad for blessing me with those two buds ?, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have grown a passion for kermits and penguins (Mom, Dad? Why are you looking at your daughter like that? ??)