Beginning this project as an iThrive sponsored game jam, my team and I were tasked to create a game around kindness that went deeper than just random acts. We continued this project into the summer and it was my first real experience working with a game design team. I also had to juggle a very demanding food service job, less than helpful team members, and art block. Ultimately we have a running game, but we also came out of it having learned lessons about working independently, setting our own deadlines, and being on a team with members that have clashing personalities. We also had members that were living in different places outside of Rochester and a few of them dropped out in the middle of development. It only taught us more about the industry and what it means to have an independently run project, so although we faced a lot of hardships, I considered this project one of the best learning experiences in college so far.
We did not implement every feature we wanted, but our core game satisfied us enough to call it finished as we all graduated or returned to the school in the fall. As I got more into 3D work, Neighbor was too much like a hobby for me to dedicate time to it and didn't further my 3D studies.
Neighbor is about an average man working an average job, leaving his top floor apartment and returning to it every day for a week. In order for him to get to and from his apartment, he has to pass all of his neighbors, who all were dealing with personal problems they struggled to handle by themselves. The player can choose to interact with these neighbors or not, and depending on that choice, the game changes narrative and color as you play. We really wanted to stay away from surface level "random acts of kindness" and use neighbor to answer the question of what kindness towards others looked and felt like. We decided to balance the game by giving the player a certain amount of time/energy to devote to his fellow residents. The more time/energy he put into his neighbors, the slower and greyer he and his world becomes. The game finishes after simulating a week of this mans life and throwing the player a party - the outcome of the party is based on the decisions you made during gameplay. The world may be grey and drab, but if you helped your neighbors they show up to the party and bring color and life with them. If you refuse to help them, then no one comes to your party and you end up alone. This gives incentive for the player to decide how to spend their time and what they will do with it.
We created a background happiness system to give more meaning to the player's choices. In order to avoid that random act of surface level kindness, the player is able to make four choices and end up with four different happiness points for that neighbor after the interaction. You can: ignore them, talk to them, do something for them, or help them do something that will allow them to learn a new skill and take better care of themselves. Each of these awards an increasing amount of happiness points to go towards the outcome of the game at the end of the week, but also takes increasing amounts of time/energy to do it.
Our game had four neighbors and four subsequent minigames to play. They also have environment assets and door iteration that change and appear to make the area look more interesting and put together the more you increase their happiness.
Striving artist: A neighbor who is a painter but currently experiencing art block and you can choose to help her get out of her funk by reading and writing poetry for inspiration. This minigame involves the player picking from four lines of a poem four times. Once you choose the first line, you can then try to determine the next lines of the poem and with that the artist ends up with a certain iteration of a finished painting. The more lines you choose correctly, the more complete the painting is. If her happiness points reach a high enough level, she will bring decorations to the party.
Hoarder: A neighbor who has an apartment bursting with stuff that it's starting to come out of the door. You can chose to help him by sorting his things into categories like trash/recycling/clothes/papers/etc. He will try to take things out of the baskets periodically, and you need to sort all of his things within the given time limit. If his happiness points reach a high enough level, he brings music to the party.
Starving student: A neighbor who is living off of microwavable meals and cup noodles, making him depressed and sluggish from improper nutrition. You can help him by teaching him to cook meals in a minigame that involves choosing and preparing various ingredients based on a random recipe. If his happiness points reach a high enough level, he brings food to the party.
Crazy cat lady: A neighbor who owns a lot of cats who tend to escape a lot. Because she is old, she is not able to find her cats and you can help her by clicking on the provided cat while other cats run across screen in the minigame. You can teach her to feed her cats and set out toys for them so they run away less often, and if her happiness points reach a high enough level, she brings party games at the end of the week.
I'm happy with the product we made and I will look back to neighbor fondly as one of my first professional-level video game.
Github link: https://github.com/TadeoM/TBAStudios
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