WIP: A Video Game About the Challenges in Doing Something for the First Time

Abstract

Video games are a form of multimedia that is typically considered for entertainment. However, apart from being a form of leisure, it can also be an opportunity to connect with other people through various meaningful narratives that allows us to explore and understand experiences and situations that acknowledges us or recognizes the circumstances that we have never been in. This Capsule Project aims to illustrate the challenges we face whenever we want to do something for the first time through a functional video game — but without explicit narration. Instead of employing texts to tell the tale, the player will shape their own journey and get a semblance of the experience through the game’s mechanics and systems that mimics what it is like to finally work on something for the first time. In this way, the player can give it their own interpretation, and perhaps it can even be a chance for reflection. Applications and softwares utilized for this project were mainly IbisPaint for the Art and Ren’Py as the game engine. However, other softwares such as image processors, word processors, and online tools like Canva and Milanote were used as needed either to enhance, support, or ease up the game making process. I was able to create a functional video game that relies solely on game mechanics which allowed the testers to play the game based on their own liking. However, the struggle of doing something for the first time was not clearly understood since all the testers were left confused while playing. It is important that I set clear expectations and define how I want them to be achieved. In this way, I can decide if suggestions such as adding more clues and dialogues is something that I should consider or perhaps if I should approach the story in an entirely different way.