Game Jam Session
This week in class, we had a game jam session with our team to set up the basis of our game and plan out all the important information about it.
Storyline - the story of our game
The idea we went for with our game is based around a MC struggling with multiple different mental illness'. As the game progresses, it shows the MC's daily life and experiences, and how different mental illnesses can effect's everyday scenarios. The game presents these mental illnesses (depression, anxiety and PTSD) as personified humanoid versions that only the MC is able to see - similar to imaginary friends.
The MC sees these 'characters' through a rose lense, seeing them as humanoid imaginary friends, but the reality is that they are actually monsters with a much more sinister form. as the game progress', the MC is presented with many dialogue options and choices which depend and change the route of the story. The more negative options the MC chooses and more they listen and follow along these different 'imaginary friends' the darker the game becomes and the more distorted the world beings to present itself.
The story will have multiple endings, most likely with a bad route ending and good ending.
When we were coming up with ideas for our game, we originally wanted to make a dark game that has a MC with a dark shadow that would be the personification of anxiety following them around. We liked that idea and decided to refine it and brainstorm together a bit more, until this is the plot we created. We knew that we wanted to make a game that shows the dark reality of mental illness and how it impacts a person's daily life, and we wanted to go about it in a unique way.
When we came up with this idea, we were worried it would appear as if we were romatizijng different mental illness' by personifying them and making them appear as people with feelings etc. so we spent a lot of time discussing ways we could avoid this. By created these mental illness's to appear as imaginary friends instead of real people was our first idea, which more conveyed them as possibly a coping mechanism or reflection way of our MC. We also decided these illness' will just be presented a negative, they will not have positive connotations in any way and almost appear similar to 'toxic friends' for example. I imagine we will probably constantly work towards this and come back to refine and add more points and ways we can avoid coming across like this, especially as we begin to design things and write scripts etc.
Notes/Ideas from Class:
- friend sim with different mental illnesses personified
- main character sees them as people, friendly and has friendships with
- bad endings where the mc gets too attached and shows the reality of different mental illnesses
- art style gets darker and deterrers through the game
- polaroid that start and end showing change/reality
Characters - main and supporting
Notes from class:
- Main MC: told from the perspective of them, gender neutral looking not showing face to make easy for people to relate to and see themselves in the character
- Friend Character: supporting helps and comforts MC. helps the to comfort and protect the MC from their problems
- Teacher/Parental Figure: a prenatal figure/adult character who looks out for the MC. may notice changes in their behaviour and try to help reach out to them
- Therapist: possibly character for a good ending where MC receives help. helps MC to understand and cope/ deal with their problems
- Depression: 1/3 of the issues MC deals with. they are presented as a negative imaginary like friend. Use of dialogue between MC and Depression to show how it feels to cope with it and the reality of how depression can make a person think and feel
- Anxiety: 2/3 of the issues MC deals with. similar premise to the others
- PTSD: 3/3 of the issues MC deals with. similar premise to the others
Refine Plot - narrator, how story's told
Our story will most likely be a classic type of visual novel story that follows the MC. the story is told from their perspective and covers their daily life dealing with different illnesses. It will show the reality of how these mental illnesses can affects a person by create 'characters' of these illnesses and having the MC have dialogue with them - displaying how issues can affect a person's thoughts feelings and decision making. There will many dialogue options throughout the game, and each choice can affect the story of the game with good and bad endings depending on if the MC chooses to let their issues consume them or if they make choices to learn to cope and process forward despite their issues.
Meeting and Planning - organisation between the team
We created a group Miro board and Notion together a s a group. as well as this, we set up a group discord for us to discuss ideas, plans and work we have done so far. Together, we can plan out our ideas and host meetings there.
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