Role: Game Developer
Project: Senior Thesis
Platform: Web Game
Engine: Godot
Language: GD Script
Tools used: Godot, Clip Studio Paint,
Muse, Photoshop, Live2D, Dialogic
Muse, Photoshop, Live2D, Dialogic
Duration: Two weeks
Completion: June 1st, 2023
Team or Solo: Solo
Summary
In A Walk Back Home you play as a girl walking back from getting groceries for her mother and she experiences the community around her. As you walk you encounter people that need help of some sort, groups just talking about the world and the community or a cat you can pet.
Creating two systems that work as the backbone of the game you're able to interact with different situations and people with each new gameplay.
Idea: Create a video game that uses characters to move the story along.
Themes: Experiences and Interactions using characters as the focal main point.
Inspirations
Using inspirations as the catapult of creating A Walk back home the idea came to me through my journey of community to and from school. Since I live rather far away from my college at the time I was able to walk around a
One comes from me just traveling to and from my college. Since I live close to riverside which isn't that close to santa monica I use the train to travel and I see a lot of different people, events and much more.
Another inspiration came from an old Sesame Street cartoon short called I can Remeber which is about a small girl going out to get a gallon of milk, a stick of butter and a loaf of bread for her mother and she has to remember those things as she walks to the store.
With these inspirations I found that I wanted to paint a story using the characters that you come across and how it can expand how you understand and enjoy this world before you.
Planning
The whole game was planned out within Muse an iPad app where I can write down everything from character design to system design.
System Designs
The game features two main systems:
1. Moral system
which collects and stores the outcomes of help situations you did or didn't take apart from.
These help situations can be:
- giving someone your carton of eggs since they dropped their own
- donating some money or food to someone in need
and much more
- giving someone your carton of eggs since they dropped their own
- donating some money or food to someone in need
and much more
There are multiple help situations within a single walk which effect the moral system.
What you do within your walk is reflected in the ending with your mother and the groceries you do or do not have when you're finally at home. There are three different endings.
What you do within your walk is reflected in the ending with your mother and the groceries you do or do not have when you're finally at home. There are three different endings.
2. randomize generator
for the passive interactions and help situations.
With each new game there are different passive interactions you can listen to, observe or even pet a cat.
These are there to build more of a story and experience of the community around you. Helping you form what type of world this is and how you can enjoy it.
These are there to build more of a story and experience of the community around you. Helping you form what type of world this is and how you can enjoy it.
Using procedural generation for this system I'm able to let the computer pick what will be present within each new play. It picks from a large group of different help situations and passive interactions.
So you never know what you get for each new game.
So you never know what you get for each new game.
Both systems work together to give you as much of an experience as possible.
Engine
To bring everything together the engine used was Godot which uses GD Script as it's main language. I've heard it's similar to python and I was able to learn the language within two weeks.
I was also able to write out the two systems in simple syntax before being able to translate it into the GD Script within Godot which was really fun and easier to manage.
I also used a plugin for Godot called Dialogic which made programing the dialogue a breeze.
Art
As for the art and art assets they were drawn in Clip Studio Paint by me.
The animation for the main character was done in live 2d which is able to rig 2d characters that you can then animate and place into the game.
I used a 2D style for the art and visuals. I enjoy games that are in a 2D style since they remind me of old games I use to play back in the day.
If you would like to see a super in depth exploration of this game then please visit my game dev blog to see the code and more BTS stuff.
Reflection
I enjoyed creating A walk Back Home and I feel proud of what I was able to create within two weeks. I find the systems to be the hardest part but once I started to code them that difficulty melted away. I plan to make more games with organization and planning to help me through it.