Description

Bitmap Game: Getting Over It
Code: https://editor.p5js.org/mlinhle617/sketches/e6jG4qgAK
Summary: This walking-sim is about how I processed grief after my dad passed away.

Game Description

Storyboard

Scene 1: Confusion and frustration

Context: I don’t know how to deal with it when it first happened. I couldn’t believe that it was happening. When we returned home, all I did was crying for two days. I tried to appear calm to comfort my family, but really, I just wanted to scream out loud.

Scene: The character is lost in a dark forest at night. There’s no light at first, but once there’s light, you can see a bit of your surroundings.

Interactive Object: A tiny flower on the ground

Interaction: If player screams, light emits from the character and they can see what’s around them. If the player approaches the flower, the avatar will say “Press F to pick up.”

Scene 2: Fake it

Context: There were so many ceremonies and rituals to go through before, during and after the funeral, involving so many people. I felt like I was a spectacle to all the people who came to attend the ceremonies and rituals, and my wound was being shown to everyone. I had no personal space and time to process my grief with everything that was going on. I just wished I could escape from everything, but I can’t show it. I had to stay strong and comfort my mother and grandmother who were devastated.

Scene: It’s still nighttime but there’s more light in this scene. There’s a large pair of eyes watching over the character and the NPC. There’s an NPC sitting alone in the scene.

Interactive objects: A mask on the ground. A creature sitting alone.

Interaction: Player’s speed is slowed down significantly from being watched by the eyes. When player is near the mask, the character will prompt them to pick it up After player pick up the mask, they will see the mask in their inventory. The character will then say, “press F to put on the mask”. As the player approaches the creature, it will not talk to the player if they don’t wear the mask. If player wears the mask, they can talk to the creature and ask if it wants to tag along. The creature will agree and follows the player if the player offers it a flower.

Scene 3: Autopiloting

Context: For the next weeks, I tried to get back to my normal schedule, but I just felt like I was autopiloting all the time. I couldn’t care about anything, not even my schoolwork. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and mother, listening to them and comforting them. That was my way of trying to be productive. Every time I remembered some memory from the past about my dad, I’d cry then tried my best to stop and carry on with my day. At the time, I wondered when I would be able to get back to normal and not just faking it.

Scene: The forest is now a bit brighter. The trees in the background can be seen more clearly. The watchful eyes from the night can no longer be seen. There are light orbs on the road.

Interactive objects: Light orbs

Interaction: Player should be able to progress through this scene fast. As they go, they will touch light orbs on the road and add them to their inventory.

Scene 4 & 5: Acceptance and healing

Context: It took a long time for me to accept my father’s death. It was a horrible time, but I got through it by confiding in my friends and family. We talked about our memories and our feeling and how messed up everything was after my father passed away. It was painful, but we also realized that as more time pass, we slowly came to accept what happened and start to heal

Scene: You reach a riverbank at the end of the forest. You found a boat nearby. It is now much brighter and you can see the scene more clearly. As you sail on the boat, you will see more of the river and less of the wood.

Interactive objects: Boat, mask, orbs

Interaction: As player enter the scene, they will notice the creature has calmed down and think maybe they should take off their mask. Whether they take off their mask or not won’t affect their ability to finish the game. The two board the boat and sail out to the river. In the middle of the river, the boat will stop and the player must get rid of the orbs they collected to keep moving. The orbs will appear around the player. The players can scream out loud to release the orbs. Once all the orbs are released, the player can continue sailing and the game ends.

Reflection

It’s a sad topic but I don’t want to make something more whimsical than gloomy. For the characters design, I’m inspired by old alien shooting games. I wanted the main character to look like an alien, then throw them on an Earth-like scenario, to highlight how this situation is very strange and not easy to get used to. Toward the end of the game, the character gets to see a glimpse of their home planet, so there’s a chance that they may be able to get back to their normal life. It was difficult to tell a story in just 3 scenes, so I cheated a bit and added in scene 4 and 5, which are connected so that they feel like one scene as the player moves. Debugging the game took much longer than I thought, mainly because when I thought I solved one problem, I ended up creating three more problems. In the end, the solution was not as difficult as I thought, but I was careless and missed a lot of details as the code got longer and longer. I think I should do a better job of noting down exactly what does what so there’s no confusion when I need to debug the code.