Major Project I - Final Compilation

20.04.26- 24.07.26

Celine Christabelle Patricia / 0374872 

Major Project / Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / The Design School

Major Project I 

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Table Contents

1. Instructions

2. Project

3. Feedback

4. Reflection

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Instructions

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Project

For this Module, I decided to team up with my classmates with the same specialization to create a game. 

Game Ideation

It took us a while to reach to this specific topic of game, Children Grief. The idea was there, but it took us several weeks on making the story flow. At first, we wanted to make it a choice game, but then it's too generic for that. Ms. Noranis told us to explore on certain indie games around, like Raven Monologue and And Roger, where they use a metaphorical way on story telling and yet users interpret it themselves. 

We took the exploration and discussed on how our game would be. We also had a in-depth research on how Children actually view grief. Children's grief is correlated more to puddle jumping. Adults constantly feel grief during their loss, metaphorically river of grief, while children's grief is on and off, they can feel it at some moment, at some moment they don't. The process is not linear. By that, we decided to integrate puddle jumping as one of the metaphorical mechanism to symbolize children grief. 

Resources:

https://childmind.org/guide/helping-children-cope-with-grief/ 

https://mcadamsfh.com/136/Loss-from-a-Child-s-Perspective.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmkbTnWSZ_U

We had several initial ideas, and it was revised several times to make it more enjoyable. Our initial flow was a Play- care - play - care flow, where the protagonist in the game would play while remember their loss, and care to show growth. Playing is symbolized as the children's playing world, Caring is symbolized as the absence of the beloved one, and the child must show themselves being helpful. However this story flow was a bit too complicated, especially in a short game play as well as showing the different stages of grief. 

We consulted to Ms. Noranis, and so we go for a whole play mechanism, while introducing the cultural essence from Indonesia to make the game more interesting. We discussed quite a long time on what games to put in as it must relate with the stages of grief as well.

Game Proposal

Game Assets

After finalizing our story flow, we proceed to wireframe and a Lofi prototype. We divide our task, where my teammates focus on the sound design and game prototype, I make the environmental design. 

Here are some of my timelapse progress on drawing the assets: 

The environmental drawings here are still quite rushed, and I wish to refine it later on during Major Project II. 

Game Prototype

GamePlay

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Feedback

Refer to the Project Management Document below:

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Reflections

Major project I is one of the most challenging modules I have gone through this semester. Aside from the project itself, since I am making a game for the project, I also had high expectations for my own project since it's for my Final Year. Due to that, sometimes I'd be too an over-thinker when doing my projects, keep refining and refining it. I am very grateful with my teammates, because without their help this project won't be conducted very well, their ideas and contribution has make the game into a beautiful masterpiece. From great ideas and great discussions, although sometimes things clash with one another, sometimes stress also drift us apart, I am really grateful to have my wonderful teammates still being able to work together despite the problems we face. It was pretty challenging for me as a UI/UX student to make the game assets since I actually have really basic illustration skills, I am so thankful that my friends never really push me, thankful for their cooperations and insights as well. Thank you so much for the sleepless nights we have gone through together, for the crash outs together, for the supports as well, I really hope we are all still okay until Major Project II, do not die. 

This semester is really hard for me, and Major Project somewhat pressures me as well.  However, I am very grateful for the feedbacks from my lecturers. They have given very insightful feedbacks that improves our Major Project. Every feedbacks creates significant growth. From the first week to the last week here, they are A LOT of changes made, even the least expected one. These feedbacks does not make me feel frustrated (well sometimes it does), instead it makes my project grow, from a mediocre into something more extraordinary. I really want to execute this Major Project by pushing myself beyond my limits, I hope through out my next semester, I will be able to get time to execute my Major Project II properly, by making a fully functional game, not just aesthetically pleasing, but also having an amazing story flow that touches players emotion.