P3rs0n4

My midterm assignment  for my Intermediate Game Development class 
This was made within the span of 4 weeks.

Controls / Instructions
Note: The battle dialogue can't be skipped
You can use WASD or Arrow Keys to move.
Space to jump/interact
Mouse to make choices in the battle sequences


So P34rs0n4 is a weird 'dumb' game about figuring yourself out and dealing with parts of yourself you don't like. Oh! And anxiety, there's that that too.
The way that players experience this is through "battles". Someone strikes up a conversation and it could be someone familiar or someone entirely knew. Based on the prompts given in the game the player must either make or break a bond with them. It's more like, making friendships and ending friendships really. The thing is, to act on these given prompts you must do 'things' and the 'things' you can do depends on the persona you're currently presenting. It's a lot of stuff and there's two reasons I decided to make this. One reason being that I thought making an RPG would be enjoyable and fortunately it was! The other reason is that I kind of just wanted to project what I was feeling at the moment when brainstorming for this project. I wanted to somehow express how I feel like I switch into different 'personas' depending on who I'm talking to and how confusing it can feel to not be scared talking one day, but freaking out another day. I definitely don't think that feelings comes across in this project, but hey - I made an RPG and that was fun!

The funny part of this assignment was mistaking the project's due date. I originally thought it was due two weeks ago so within the first week I made the bare systems for battling, having moving, switch personas etc. It wasn't that hard to do which I found very relieving, but then after that I had to balance actually polishing the game and giving it meaning as the next few weeks went by. I kept juggling with ideas and half committing to them because I guess I just really wanted to avoid making a really sad game. A lot of my first ideas were way more personal than this and I guess I went this weird quirky route for designing the game to distance myself from the narrative a bit. I wanted to try making something maybe a little sad but kinda goofy I guess? I still don't feel satisfied though. My game design choices weren't the best, especially when it came to balancing 'things' in the 'battle system'. The battles aren't even interesting, but I guess what makes me happy is that they exist and that they're functioning. I feel like maybe it was just a time thing that made the quality of this lack so much because this of course wasn't the only thing I had to deal with for the past four weeks, but I'm proud it was able to be completed. Oh!! And also the way the music changes based on your persona...Very proud of that!!!