Fall break gave us time to reflect, recharge, and refocus, and this week we’ve made great strides in narrative, gameplay, and art.
Narrative Development
Before the break, we honed our focus on the business and community impacts of gentrification. Over the break, Kesha expanded this by tying Bernie’s relationships to specific effects on Lawrencefield:
- Peggy (wife): Represents the community garden for neighborhood engagement.
- Sammy (friend): Reflects the jazz scene central to Lawrencefield’s culture.
- Sukhvinder (friend): Symbolizes the changing neighborhood due to gentrification.
These connections deepen the emotional impact of the story.
Game Design and Art
We finalized the player journey across three levels and a concluding interactive level, with each day of packing uncovering memories tied to Bernie’s life. We’ve also outlined the art assets needed to reflect the cultural richness of the neighborhood, ensuring every detail adds to the story.
- Bernie and Sammy
- Relationship surrounds Jazz and a soul food live music joint -> Sammy’s Corner
- Art Assets ->
- Iron Skillet -> When his restaurant closed down he gave his iron skillets to Peggy
- Take out menu -> Take out menu from Sammy’s corner
- Guitar and sheet music in case -> Bernard’s guitar he used to use when he performed with Sammy, as part of their band’s gigs at Sammy’s corner
- Bernie and Peggy
- Bernie and Peggy are spouses. Through exploring their friendship we learn more about the community garden that gets closed in present day of the game.
- Art Assets ->
- Gardening Gloves -> owned by Peggy. gifted to her by Bernie early on in their friendship
- Letters between Bernie and Peggy -> letters sent between Peggy and Bernie talking about how they met and became friends in the community garden
- Gardening Gloves -> owned by Peggy. gifted to her by Bernie early on in their friendship
- Bernie and Sukhvinder
- Relationship between them explores the changing neighborhood and general community engagement
- Art Asstes ->
- Steel Bowl – Steel bowl that belongs to the Singhs, that Sukhi used to return food to Bernie
A big decision we made during Week 7 was we were going to include more 2D art so we came up with some character designs.
Next Steps
Our focus is now on finalizing assets, refining gameplay mechanics, and conducting playtests to align the player experience with our transformational goals.
With this momentum, we’re excited to bring Lawrencefield’s story to life.