This week, our team sat down and continued brainstorming ideas for the project. We got some valuable feedback from the Monday Composition Box presentation. We decided on some main mechanics for the game and made a pitch deck to present to our client on Tuesday.
The main mechanics would be the room building feature, the dairy function, and the pet system.
Room Building System:
Players will be able to use the coins they earn in game to purchase the furniture and decorate their room. Also have a storage system to store all furniture they have. Change the room setting anytime.
- Dim lighting in general but can change lighting color based on players’ preferences.
- Chill music – lo-fi music, classical music, country music, ambient noise, etc.
Artist has a room concept art for preview. We chose to use 2D art that has a Ghibli art style.
Diary System:
Players can first choose from 5 emojis to represent their feeling of the day, which is based on the thermometer in the Chill Room in reality.
Players then can write a one sentence diary to record their day. Moreover, there is no need to worry if they have no idea what to write, different prompts will be shown randomly every day based on the emoji the player chooses. Such as:
- Someone you want to say ‘Thank you’ to today?
- What is making you stressed out today?
- What is on your mind right now?
Then there will be several small tasks shown on the diary so the player can choose one and try to complete it the next day. It is not mandatory to complete the daily task, but they will be rewarded if they make it. The tasks will incorporate the curriculum, e.g., tell someone that they are amazing, take 15 minutes to do some exercises, drink enough water today. Including both self-care and good acts to others.
Pet System:
To add emotional attachment and to encourage players to come back to game, we will have a pet system. Customization will be added to pets if scope allows.
- Daily interactions with the pet – petting, feeding, etc.
- Increase pet’s happiness will unlock surprise gifts – new furniture, new outfits for avatar, etc.
Challenges:
- Based on the Google survey result we sent to high school students:
- Platform preference: mobile & iOS.
- Maybe Web GL is a better choice? -> But Unity Web GL doesn’t support mobile browsers.
- Questions that still need to be discussed after the Tuesday pitch:
- Visual fidelity:
- Maybe not literal a room? Need to think of other space that might be chill for people, e.g., Forest, Under the sea. Allow for customization.
- Pets:
- Need interaction feedback to give satisfication.
- The interaction should stay in the virtual room, to give a feeling of actually IN the room.
- Fantasy vs. Reality Pets. Need to test and see players’ preferences.
- The need to see myself in the space:
- More emphasis on the relaxing environments/setting/space.
- Avatars need at least 2 eyes & 1 mouth for facial expressions.
- Good to see character moving in room and interacting with furniture.
- Visual fidelity:
Plan For Next Week:
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Engineering:
- Room building system: Try the furniture interaction system.
- Diary system:
- Research the saving function, finish the “write something” and “daily task” functions.
- Blockers: Never did Web GL saving before, need to rework the saving system, research needed.
- Design: Finish the Pet system Game Design Documentation.
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Art:
- Continue and finish the first room with furniture decoration, start working on the sky environment.
- Finish Logo and send to Shirley, finish diary experience flowchart, continue work on poster and half sheet draft.
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Production:
- Website weekly blog, follow up with clients, weekly meeting preparation.