As of this week, I have finished up the majority of the character portraits in Aseprite (2016). In line with my initial artwork for Ego, I have employed a grayscale aesthetic. I also took great care to have their design be reflective of their what they represent. For instance, Emotion (fig.1) is represented here as large, imposing renditions of the comedy and tragedy masks of theatre, reflecting the dramatic impact our leading emotional responses have over our lives, as well as the multi-sided nature they exhibit. Similarly, Memory (fig. 2) is a CRT TV with amorphous on-screen static. A product of a bygone era, with unclear, fuzzy picture, much like our recollections of the past. Id (fig.3) is the slovenly counterpart to Ego’s thoroughly kempt look. In psychology, the Id is theorised to be our ‘unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires,’ (Cherry, 2020), hence his sluggish, hedonistic design.

(Above, left) Figure 1: Screenshot. Emotion’s portrait. (Above, middle) Figure 2: Screenshot. Memory’s portrait. (Above, right) Figure 3: Screenshot. Id’s portrait. 

Another big addition to the project this week has been the inclusion of a functional ‘stats’ box on-screen (fig. 4). I titled the box ‘baggage’ as a reference to the weight that our emotions and characteristics have on our daily life, and as an effort to make more of the UI feed into the narrative, as touched on in a previous lecture. I have also changed the dialogue sections to take place against a black backdrop now, to draw more attention to the characters (fig. 5). This was done by using the ‘fade to view’ command, and fading the camera view into a blank screen. Initially, I was concerned about how I would be able to present the statistics to the player, as I am not particularly fluent with programming. Luckily, thanks to the online forums, I learnt that by using the ‘Set Variable’ and ‘Set Text’ commands, I am able to update the text component of this panel through Fungus (fig. 6). This means that I will be able to be update the stats easily on the fly, while the player is engaged in dialogue. I have plans for certain dialogue options to be available depending on your stats, so this is a great foundation to work on and means that the player will always be aware of what their current stats look like. As you can see in the command box, I have also utilised the ‘Wait’ command at the top of the block. This is in attempt to slow the pacing a little, as it seemed easy to accidentally click through text too quickly. I have also used the colour tag to accentuate the text denoting a stat increase or decrease. Hopefully this will signpost its significance to the player, as well as differentiate it from the character’s spoken dialogue – letting the player know that this piece of text is not being spoken by the character.

(Above, top left) Figure 4: Screenshot. The look of the stat box, with some example statistics. (Above, top right) Figure 5: Screenshot. The new aesthetic of the dialogue sections, this feels much cleaner, and somewhat breaks up the navigational sections. (Above, bottom) Figure 6: Screenshot. My use of the ‘Set Variable’ and ‘Set Text commands to change the stat box through Fungus.

This week’s GAM140 lecture on the laws of UX presented some interesting theories. I particularly enjoyed checking out the ‘Laws of UX’ website (Yablonski, 2021), and reading up on the different ways in which player experience can be streamlined with these different models. Of particular relevance to my Fungus project, I zoned in on Jakob’s Law and Hick’s Law. I feel that my UI design is already quite evocative of other choice-based narrative games, however if I make any updates or additions, I will remember to keep in mind that players will subconsciously be expecting a certain presentation and layout. I also am making effort to ensure that the player does not get overwhelmed with choices while they play. Currently, none of the choice intervals exceed three options at any given time, but I can easily see this increasing as the game progresses, so I will make sure to carefully consider these at each stage. I think that in general, I want the difficulty of choice to come from the choices themselves, rather than choice-paralysis due to overwhelm.

References:

Aseprite. 2016. David Capello, Igara Studios.