Week two – Bitsy Jam brief FOL
This week we had to make a bitsy game from a selected emotion with only three rules in 4 days. We began talking about what emotion we wanted to explore in the game, we quickly got to discussing Fear of Loss (list the emotions from the mind map), more specifically about losing someone important to you.
Ex. metaphor – the feeling of anticipating somethings that will for certain happen in a far future but could also happen anytime in between.
You sit in a field of flowers but the storm in the distance that seems to be approaching is all you can focus on
Volcano metaphor, it’s always there and could erupt one day, you just don’t know when (think more later).
Rules/components
Rule 1 – can’t leave the house
Rule 2 – takes place in X days max
Rule 3 – player should be stuck in a cycle of anxiety to symbolise the fear of loss
Step 4
We came up with a storyline about a kid and their mother and the anxiety coming over them once finding out their mum could be dead. The mum finally gets a new job thanks to the support of her child. This job requires her to fly out sometimes. On the way back from the job, an announcement on the news tells the child there was a plane crash, and the flight seemed to be the one the mum took. The mum then comes back anyways because she took a different flight.
I wrote a script for the characters to get an understanding of how we were going to space out the events and days.
- Day one
Mum is working on her laptop. When you talk to her, she complains about wanting to do something more exciting (she wants a new job).
- Mum: *she is working on her laptop* *sigh*
- You: what’s a wrong?
- Mum: I feel like I just don’t go out much anymore. I have no reason to.
- You: Just get a new job then mum.
- Mum: hm…
- Day two
Mum is just watching tv series.
- Mum: omg no way! Love isn’t real/ why would they do that?!/ or she’s just chilling idk
- You: mum! How’s the search going?
- Mum: oh, it’s okay! I think I found something it sounds really promising~
- Day three
Mum finds a new job she is excited; it requires her to fly out sometimes.
- Mum: success! I got the job! It requires a few work trips sometimes. Certainly, a breath of fresh air.
- Day four
- Mum is gone on work trip, you watch mums tv show casually.
- Day five
Mum has to come back today; she calls but no one replies. You watch tv and it says the flight your mum was taking to come back crashed. You call mum and she doesn’t pick up. She comes back home later because she missed that flight and took the next one. Her phone died because she lost her charger and refused to buy a new one so she couldn’t pick up. You hug and cry.
- TV: And now viewers may find this next report unsettling and shocking. Today at approximately 8:50 in the morning, A (Airline name) AC150Boewing aircraft has crashed at (highway location) highway killing approximately 80 people and 20 injured. Authorities are still searching the wreckage in search for more survivors.
- You: Huh… it can’t be… *checks phone* *missed phone call from mum*
- You: *panics and calls mum* *mum doesn’t reply*
- You: … nonono
- *Hours pass??*
- *Mum is back*
- You: MUM YOURE ALIVE!!!! WTF
- Mum: um yeah..?
- Mum: my phone died, sorry if you tried calling me
After reviewing the script, we concluded that the game would too long if we kept all the dialogue, so we decided to simplify it by having the dialogue be in 3rd person. This decision made the game come off as more serious since it gave the players the ability to experience their own emotions without being told by the characters how they’re supposed to feel. I also couldn’t figure out how to effectively write dialogue for someone that thinks their mother just passed away.
Reflection
Even though I came up with the narrative, I didn’t do any of the technical stuff or art which is what makes a game. I don’t feel like I did anything relevant especially since we worked in twos, I should have done more, but I felt like since my teammate was much more well versed at pixel art that I was, I chose to sit back, however we then realised we wouldn’t be able to work on the game separately, and since he already had all the pixel art on bitsty done, he chose to do the “coding” (im not sure how else to refer to it) as well. The decition to cut the dilague as well, even though it was definitly for the best, it meant my work was kind of useless.
However, to end on a positive note, it was a 3 day project, so it is what it is, we were on a time limit and through it I was able to familiarise myself with writing dialogue between different characters, which I’ve never done before.