Moodboard centered around feelings, emotions, and memories I would like to convey through the game elements and narrative:
Playlist evoking the emotions I want to emerge from players through gameplay. Titles you may listen to while looking at photos of a younger version of yourself and feel a sense of love, nostalgia, and an inexplainable loss — the bittersweet feeling that the little girl you used to be is still within you although her face isn’t as soft and her scarred knee has healed. The sound of children innocently laughing and creating stories the adult mind couldn’t possibly conjure.
In terms of narrative approach, I would like to center the game on concepts of childhood, play, and imagination. Some ideas for narrative are:
- The game begins through the perspective of a small child who is playing pretend. As the game goes on, players are given prompts entailing how the child is telling the story (e.g. “The little ladybug adventures through the grass but now she’s lost”). With this, the imaginative aspect shines through dialogue that mimics the speaking patterns of a child, reminding the player that the direction of the story is based on this child’s ideation.
- Alternatively, the story could progress through a parent telling their child a bedtime story, guiding the majority of the narrative but allowing the child some agency. For example, the parent may ask the child (now, the player): “What does the ladybug do next?”. Then, the player may be presented with a number of options to choose from (e.g. “The ladybug travels up the tree”, “The ladybug looks a leaf to eat”, etc.) which guides the story.
- Lastly, a different direction could be a more solemn narrative, where the story is told from the perspective of a child who is hospitalized in a coma. The narrative is whimsical in nature, and the player plays as a ladybug who is trying to escape the “wonderland”-like world — that is, the child is subconsciously trying to escape this coma. However, the player does not unlock this understanding until they’ve progressed through the game, and is hinted at the current state of events through dialogue the child can seemingly hear through this coma. Think a black screen with a dialogue option from a person labelled “???” or “mom” who says “I love you sweetie. We miss you so much.” after a cutscene.
Mechanically, I think this game should feel very whimsical and childlike while still feeling appropriate for older ages — perhaps the latter can be implemented through a more mature storyline or uncovering of the narrative. The idea I had for this was for the game to progress in scenes, where the player must pass certain “levels” to progress and meet their end goal — whether it be reuniting with their bug family or escaping the dream-like state all together. This will add mechanical mystery to the game through puzzles and escape-room-like levels, and narrative mystery as the player uncovers what the underlying narrative is through a series of prompts or hinting.
