Car Smash
Created by Ryan Cordero, Jianghao Li, and Kyra Fradenburg
My Roles:
- Art Director and Character Designer
- Animations and Cutscene Director
- Narrative Designer
My Roles:
- Art Director and Character Designer
- Animations and Cutscene Director
- Narrative Designer
For 5 weeks, our class paired up in groups of 2 or 3 to create a game that would evoke a targeted emotion. The first two weeks were used to make 2 different prototypes, while the last 3 weeks were used for iteration and fine-tuning based on the feedback we received during playtests in class. My team decided to go for the emotions of Melancholy and Nostalgia with a focus on growing up and growing out of playing with old toys from our past.
The first prototype iteration was a single-player point-and-click adventure game with diverging narratives based on what toys you picked out at the supermarket. There were 3 stages where you could choose what toy to buy: Child, Teenager, and Adult. Your choices would affect the outcome by showing the social consequences of either buying or saving money. The purpose of the game was to try to evoke melancholy by emphasizing the need, as an adult, to buy and play with a toy that was out of reach during childhood.
Unfortunately, due to miscommunication and a mix-up of project files, the prototype seemed to lack the emotional drive that we were hoping for. One thing I learned from this prototype was to scale back on the detail of art assets. Drawing humans, 9 different outcomes, and 3 different game backgrounds, and then plugging them into the game engine resulted in an overload of work that I struggled to complete on time. I felt stressed, and so for the next prototype, we decided to cut down on the detail and implement more engaging mechanics.
Unfortunately, due to miscommunication and a mix-up of project files, the prototype seemed to lack the emotional drive that we were hoping for. One thing I learned from this prototype was to scale back on the detail of art assets. Drawing humans, 9 different outcomes, and 3 different game backgrounds, and then plugging them into the game engine resulted in an overload of work that I struggled to complete on time. I felt stressed, and so for the next prototype, we decided to cut down on the detail and implement more engaging mechanics.
The second prototype iteration was a multiplayer button mash with a linear narrative, focusing more on the actual experience of playing with toys as a child versus playing with the same toys as an adult. There were 2 stages where the two characters could play with their toy: Child and Adult. The players must button mash their set of keys to wind up the toy cars, to then release them in the arena. The purpose of the game was to focus more on interactive mechanics with the wind-up toys and build up the melancholic emotions because of the separation of arenas. The children would wind up their toys and release them at each other, and the adults would wind up their toys, but the adults would be playing by themselves. That separation was a representation of growing up and growing apart.
This prototype was much kinder to me as I got to draw stick figures instead of full humans, and backgrounds were reused in both cutscenes and gameplay, and the assets were drawn earlier so that implementation would be completed on time. My team also used a different version control system that allowed us to work on the same scene simultaneously, though we still worked on different game scenes to prevent version clashes. Because of the scale-back on complexity and detail, we managed to produce a more effective prototype that captured the desired emotion and received critical feedback for further iterations.
This prototype was much kinder to me as I got to draw stick figures instead of full humans, and backgrounds were reused in both cutscenes and gameplay, and the assets were drawn earlier so that implementation would be completed on time. My team also used a different version control system that allowed us to work on the same scene simultaneously, though we still worked on different game scenes to prevent version clashes. Because of the scale-back on complexity and detail, we managed to produce a more effective prototype that captured the desired emotion and received critical feedback for further iterations.
Because of the positive reception of our second prototype, we decided to do further iterations on the prototype with a continuation of the game with a "secret" second ending, as well as improved cutscenes, audio cues, and music. Luckily, we could reuse the assets from the child and adult gameplay scenes as well as mechanics for the second ending, so most of my work was with creating the narrative around the second ending, as well as the necessary cutscenes to transition to gameplay.
The story goes that two childhood friends used to play together with their wind-up toy cars, crashing them into each other. Eventually, the two grew up and slowly drifted apart, too busy with work and adult responsibilities to play with their old toys. Eventually, the two found their old cars and wished to play, but they were too far away to play together like they used to. After some time, it was only inevitable that the adults would return to work. That is where the players encounter the first ending and are given the option to replay the game, quit the game, or... a new option? Wanting to actually play again together, the two arrange a time and day to meet up to play once more, bringing their cars with them to wind up and crash again like they used to as children. Eventually, the two will have to part once more, but this time, they can always reach out again to play.
The new option after the first ending was implemented using a "False Menu" of sorts. The Main Menu had two options of Play and Quit, and the False Menu was just a replica of the main menu, but with the addition of Call, creating a feeling that something new was unlocked after the game had supposedly ended. The cutscenes were lengthened to accommodate the extension of narrative detail, and after learning about Timelines, I was able to create this fade animation that created a cool transition effect with each cutscene image.
Overall, the project kept the Melancholic and Nostalgic emotion we envisioned and impressed everyone in class, including the Professor. It was a long journey to create an engaging game that could evoke such a complex emotion as Melancholy, but I learned a lot about my aesthetic capabilities as a designer, as well as learning about self-scoping and project management.
The story goes that two childhood friends used to play together with their wind-up toy cars, crashing them into each other. Eventually, the two grew up and slowly drifted apart, too busy with work and adult responsibilities to play with their old toys. Eventually, the two found their old cars and wished to play, but they were too far away to play together like they used to. After some time, it was only inevitable that the adults would return to work. That is where the players encounter the first ending and are given the option to replay the game, quit the game, or... a new option? Wanting to actually play again together, the two arrange a time and day to meet up to play once more, bringing their cars with them to wind up and crash again like they used to as children. Eventually, the two will have to part once more, but this time, they can always reach out again to play.
The new option after the first ending was implemented using a "False Menu" of sorts. The Main Menu had two options of Play and Quit, and the False Menu was just a replica of the main menu, but with the addition of Call, creating a feeling that something new was unlocked after the game had supposedly ended. The cutscenes were lengthened to accommodate the extension of narrative detail, and after learning about Timelines, I was able to create this fade animation that created a cool transition effect with each cutscene image.
Overall, the project kept the Melancholic and Nostalgic emotion we envisioned and impressed everyone in class, including the Professor. It was a long journey to create an engaging game that could evoke such a complex emotion as Melancholy, but I learned a lot about my aesthetic capabilities as a designer, as well as learning about self-scoping and project management.
Copyright © 2023. The Folder of Many Things by Kyra Fradenburg.