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Introduction
In a technologically advanced world of the future, remote-visualized-psychological therapy has become the trend. The protagonist is a psychotherapist whose daily job is to access people's mind palaces through neuronal network connections and find out precious memory fragments of trauma from layers of barriers, which should be repaired or even erased depending on the patient's condition. It is a rather dangerous profession, because the memory palace hides people's dark side and the patient's subconscious will interfere with the psychotherapist's treatment, and even cause fatal consequences. On this day, the psychotherapist's online consultation room had a case that was more difficult than anyone in the past.
This game is a project made during College Game Jam.
Contributions
· Designed and developed the core gameplays, including the splitted screen, maze-walking system, and dialogue system.
· Implemented the animations for the main character.
· Participated in level design, creating the final level of the game.
Stories Behind
Core gameplay
The core gameplay consists of dialogue choosing and maze walking. The left side is a maze where an avatar of the player navigates, and the right side will be a black panel where 1 question and 4 options of answers will be displayed. The 4 options represent the 4 directions of Up, Down, Left, and Right. By choosing from the options on the right, the player make their moves in the maze on the left side.
This mechanics is simple yet has narrative potentials. For example, when players only have one way to go in the maze, even though the only dialogue option may feel odd, they have to choose it either way. This can create a feeling that when you don't want to do something, but forced to do so, you'll feel reluctant about it.
Narritive Design
At the beginning of the game, the player is guided to think that they are a psychotherapist who enters a patient’s memory palace through high technology to understand and guide the patient’s emotions and trauma by asking questions and getting answers from the patient.
As the game progresses, the player gradually discovers that the psychologist they represent and the patient they are treating are actually the same person. This person is actually talking to herself.
In the end, the character meets a demon who was generated by her trauma at the end of memory palace. By confronting the demon, the character finally relieves the trauma of his childhood.
