A scan of a scene I sketched out and colored to visualize exactly what the final scenes might look like
Planning and Brainstorming:
A lot of the work on this game came from trial and error. I had planned the scene and thought designs but starting out I had no idea of the extent of what I would be able to do in the actual game engine. I used my sketchbook quite a bit when starting out just because I wasn’t sure exactly where the game would end up by the time it was finished.
A scan of my sketchbook as I planned out what I wanted the scenes to look like and how to give information about each thought
A scan of my sketchbook as I tried to figure out how I would push the connection aspect of the game
A scan of my sketchbook as I did research on thoughtography and Kellyann Geurts
A scan of my sketchbook as I tried to figure out what a thought might look like if it could be photographed
In Game Engine:
Once I started working with the game engine, Adventure Maker, I started to see what I would and would not be able to do with my ideas. I realized the engine made it really easy to make bare bones and structures of games but all the planning, mapping and pop out I would have to create myself.
A screenshot while I designed the text panels for each thought photo
So I designed, drew and colored all the images, scenes and photos in the game using GIMP and then imported them into the game. This step took a lot of trial and error to find out what worked and what didn’t, what looked good and fit in frame and what did not.
A screenshot from Adventure Maker with most of the scenes while I was working on stringing them together
There were also many times I had to make duplicate frames to make it seem like the player was really taking photos of the thoughts instead of just moving on. I then added “hit-boxes” (areas to click) to all the frames as well as sound and slight animation to make the movement of the player smoother. After a lot of tweaking and a few test players I finally had a game I was happy with and conveyed my message of connection.
A screenshot of a scene in Adventure Maker while I was creating hit-boxes
A screenshot from Adventure Maker where I was adding animation and connecting screens to a scene
A screenshot where I was adding sound and text to the movement of a scene in Adventure Maker