Industry Practice: Meeting and Next Steps

Group Meeting and Next Steps

After the presentation, we had a meeting to discuss our next steps going ahead in the project. We all attended this meeting and gave one another an equal voice in discussing our project and the next steps we will take in its production. When we created these targets we made sure they were attainable; specific and understandable, with a strong deadline appropriate to the amount of work we are going to create.

My tasks are as follows:
-Create foundational research relating to the idea of Self-Forgiveness. This is the mental health aspect that my character is based around. This is due in to my group for the 8th of November.
-Create 25 character thumbnails based off the research I have produced. This is due in for the 15th of November.
-Create the "Contract of Engagement" legal document. This is to be presented to the group for the 15th of November.

Narrative Considerations

Additionally, we spoke about the next steps we will take in the creation of our game. This discussion both included practical element sin the game's creation - such as how we will integrate artistic assets and use text boxes to show dialogue - as well as the game's more narrative aspects. This discussion allowed us to pin down more ideas relating to the game's story and themes. These decisions will, alongside our research, inform the visual style of our game.
For instance, we spoke about the nature of the "Manifestation" characters in our game. These characters, including the therapist-like character that is continuously seen throughout the game, are driving forces that show how the main character is feeling in the game, representing an aspect of anxiety that they are struggling with. 
We spoke that these characters - which we now refer to as "Spirits" - are not physical beings representative of a mental condition on the whole, instead perhaps showing how the condition makes the main character feel, or showing how the character views said condition; how they put a face on something that is without an innate look.

Anxiety in the game may be shown by the prominence of a Spirit in a scene: the more prominent they are, the more main character is feeling the negative emotional response associated with them.
We have also decided upon a story structure: the game will bear several different "paths" in which different types of anxiety are shown. Currently, there are three planned paths: Intrusive Thoughts/OCD anxiety, Health anxiety and anxiety relating to PTSD. Each of these will begin with a brief narration in which the therapist character (who is the Spirit of Self-Forgiveness and Introspection) speaks to the main character. This leads into the reflection/memory portion of the path, in which the main character remembers an event which caused their relevant anxiety to grow severely. This takes up the bulk of the playtime, and will include a choice in which the main character's anxiety could flourish or wane. The choice the player makes in this influences the ending of the path they see. The path then ends with a brief epilogue from the Spirit of Introspection, after which another path can be selected or replayed.

This was useful to decide as, with this structure now chosen, the production of the narrative script can begin. With this underway, we can then work on assets relevant to the script, including environments and more developed character designs.

We also discussed the idea of a journal: a pause menu or sidebar that shows the different paths and the progress that has been made towards their completion. We also spoke about how - after all paths have been fully completed - there may be another, a "secret ending" so to speak that would conclude the game. Whilst we all liked this idea, we believe that it is beyond our scope; if we were making a longer game we would definitely consider this possibility, but as is we do not have the time budget to produce it. We spoke about how we could wedge this idea into the game, however, speaking about how - on the game's Itch.Io page - there may be an attached file that acts to be the script of this final sequence, locked behind a code. Every path, when completed, would bear a letter next to it in the journal: these letters would spell out the pass code to the file. It is unlikely we would go through with this idea, as it would broaden our game beyond the ten-minute mark of the brief, though it is something we have considered nonetheless.