Final Deliverable: Picking Up The Pieces
Overview
The prompt for the second project was “Influence”. I knew right away that I wanted a design that displayed the subtle influences one person can have over another, specifically when a person has left your life but left behind small influences on your habits. If I were to create original art for this game, I would design a space where, when certain objects were touched, the rest of the objects in the room would shift in a sort of flashback; this would also include a shift in colors and lighting to clearly mark the differences between the two states.
I briefly examined this possibility but it would be difficult to achieve without original art. I decided to build around the idea of memories related to objects. The game requires the player to clean a room by picking up objects and placing them where they belong. These objects seemingly depict the living space of a single person. When the object is set down, it changes in some way to give the appearance of a second person living there, and a sound clip that serves as an audio memory plays. For example, there is a wine glass on the floor. When picked up and placed next to the wine bottle on the table, a second glass appears and a sound clip of two people toasting plays.
As the player cleans the room, it shifts from the living space of a single person to a couple. The audio clips are all positive sounds to build the idea of a happy relationship. Once all the objects are correctly placed, there is a pause. Then the objects disappear one by one until the living space is for a single person again. During this time, an audio clip of a person crying plays in the background, ad eventually the screen fades to black.
Analysis
The first thing I would change about this project is the crying clip at the end. It’s too forward and cliche. It sounded fine when I originally put it in but later I didn’t like it at all.
In general, I think this project came pretty close to what I wanted it to feel like. I realized I was designing for an emotion often displayed in the artwork of Pascal Campion; I then used one of his works as the background image. His style and use of color contrasted sharply with the simple black and white images from The Noun Project. The room looked like it was pulled from one of the apartment buildings in the background, as though the viewer was being given a look into the private life of one of many inhabitants in the city.
I ran into an issue where the room looked odd floating in the sky. I added the curtains to soften the edges, and this gave an entirely new aspect to the game that I had not originally intended. The player was now viewing the room from the perspective of another apartment. From a 4th person perspective, the influence of one person on another is often subtle. The neighbor wouldn’t be privy to your feeling of loss, or wince when a certain song came on the radio. But they could see that the second wine glass is gone, that the picture in the frame had changed. The player now did not experience the influence of another first-hand, but saw it from afar- all from the addition of curtains that changed the viewing perspective.
This idea, the 4th person view, is something I would like to explore more. Many games are about the first person experience, or third person as the main character explains things to you. But what about someone disconnected, who is only experiencing these things from a distance? Their emotional reaction will be much different.
Methodology
My approach to this project went much better than my first. I was more in practice with Unity and Fungus, so I spent much less time solving technical issues. I mentally mapped out the technical requirements, and built a working example of each before building the entire game. I also made lists of priorities and stretch goals, which organized my approach to each task. As with the first project, I mapped out a design based on specific game feel rather than a certain mechanic.
My significant technical challenge with this game involved working with the rain prefab from the Unity asset store. I wanted to rain to only fall on specific layers of the scene, but could not find instructions on how to do so in a 2D environment. It took quite a bit of experimenting to figure it out and I count it as a skill learned.
A somewhat unexpected constraint of this project was my own emotional state. I felt as though this design could have been furthered if I had approached it from a personal perspective, and really put my heart into it. But I was experiencing a personal loss at the same time this prompt was assigned, one that fell along the lines of the influence of someone no longer there. At one point, I had to stop working to further the emotional aspects as it had the potential to push my own emotions too far. This left out a layer of depth and meaning that could have been experienced by an outside player, but was and is very present for me; the absence of a certain level of emotion in the game is a permanent reminder of my emotional state at the time.
Next steps
As I mentioned, the 4th person perspective is something I would like to explore more in future designs. I would also like to try more designs with sharply contrasting visual elements. I’m considering piecing together several of my games from this project into one experience as an extended narrative. That will depend on the prompts.
Next prompt: Dial