Echoes of Home
Some memories fade. Some never leave.
Synopsis
Our game is a cozy exploration game about memories, reunion, and the connections that can last beyond one lifetime.
Players would play as a stray dog who has just arrived in a small town. Although you have no home in this life, you still remember pieces of your previous life. You remember running through the streets with someone you loved. You remember playing frisbee with a person who really loves you. You remember the feeling of being together. Those memories are incomplete, but they are enough to convince you that your owner from your previous life is somewhere in this town.
Following the few memories and familiar scents you still have, you begin exploring the town and meeting its residents. Everyone has their own story, and many of them unknowingly hold small pieces of your past. By helping them with everyday tasks, visiting familiar places, and discovering meaningful objects, you slowly recover more memories. At first, you’re only trying to answer one question:
Who am I looking for? Who is my owner in my previous life?
As more memories return, you discover that your owner is still alive. However, after a serious car accident, they lost part of their memory and no longer remember you or the time you spent together in your previous life. From this point on, the journey is no longer just about finding your owner—it becomes a journey to help them remember you.
Hidden beneath this story is another mystery. The accident was never solved, and the driver disappeared without leaving any evidence. As you continue exploring the town, you slowly uncover what really happened that day. In the end, you can choose to focus on helping your owner recover their memories, search for the truth behind the accident, or even decide whether revenge is worth pursuing.
Our game is not about rushing toward an ending. It is about slowing down, meeting people, and discovering that sometimes the smallest memories can carry the strongest emotions.
Tone
We want our game to feel warm and peaceful, but also a little bittersweet.
At first, players should simply enjoy exploring the town. There is no time limit, no pressure, and no need to rush. Players can walk around, meet different people and animals, help them with small everyday tasks, and slowly become part of the town. We hope the world feels alive, comfortable, and worth spending time in.
As players continue exploring, they slowly discover more memories from the dog’s previous life. These memories are not always complete. Sometimes they are only a short conversation, a familiar smell, or a place the dog has been to before. We want players to feel curious about every new memory because each one helps them understand a little more about the past.
The mood also changes naturally as the story moves forward. Finding the owner is exciting, but learning that the owner can no longer remember you is heartbreaking. We don’t want this moment to feel dramatic because of a long cutscene. Instead, we hope it comes from everything the player has experienced before. By that point, players have already spent a long time searching for the owner together with the dog, so the truth feels personal instead of surprising.
Even when the hidden story begins to appear, we don’t want the game to become dark or frightening. The mystery should make players want to keep exploring, not make them feel nervous. Our goal is to let cozy exploration and emotional storytelling exist together, so players can enjoy both the relaxing atmosphere and the deeper story at their own pace.
In the end, we hope players leave the game with one feeling: some memories may disappear, but the people we truly love can always leave something behind.
The Town
The town is more than just the place where the story happens. It is where the dog slowly rebuilds its memories.
At first, the town feels like an ordinary place. There are small houses, parks, shops, cafés, and quiet streets. People greet each other, animals play together, and everyone seems to be living a normal life. Players are free to explore wherever they want, and there is no “correct” order to visit different places.
As players spend more time in the town, they begin to notice that some places feel strangely familiar. A tree by the river, an old bench, a flower shop, or even the smell of fresh bread may trigger a memory from the dog’s previous life. Every corner of the town has the chance to become part of the story.
The residents are also an important part of exploration. Every character has their own daily routine, personality, and small problems. Some people may have met the owner before. Some may remember the accident. Others may simply remind the dog of a happy moment from its previous life without realizing it. Even a simple conversation can become an important clue later in the game.
We don’t want players to explore the town because there are rewards waiting everywhere. Instead, we want them to explore because they become curious about the people, the places, and the stories hidden behind everyday life. Every new discovery should feel like another small piece of a much larger picture.
As the story moves forward, the town also changes in the player’s eyes. Places that once felt peaceful may become emotional after new memories are unlocked. Players are encouraged to revisit familiar locations, because the meaning of a place can change after learning something new.
Our goal is to make the town feel like a place that remembers the past, even when the people living in it have forgotten.
Memories
Memories are the center of our game. Instead of using levels or experience points to measure progress, players move forward by recovering memories from the dog’s previous life.
Every memory is connected to something in the town. It might be a familiar place, a person, a smell, or an object that once meant something to the dog. Sometimes players discover a memory after helping a resident. Sometimes it appears while exploring somewhere they have never noticed before. We want every memory to feel natural, as if it has been waiting for the player to find it.
Not every memory tells an important part of the main story. Some memories are simple moments, like playing in the park, waiting outside a school, or falling asleep beside the owner on a rainy afternoon. These memories may not provide clues, but they help players understand the relationship between the dog and its owner. We want players to care about the characters before learning what happened to them.
As more memories are recovered, players begin to connect them together. They slowly realize that some memories do not make sense on their own, but become meaningful when another memory is found later. Instead of telling the whole story in order, we want players to build the story themselves, one memory at a time.
The owner is also recovering memories during the game. At first, the owner feels that the dog is strangely familiar but cannot explain why. As the dog uncovers more memories, the owner also begins to remember small details from before the accident. In this way, both characters are slowly walking toward the same truth, even though they do not realize it at first.
We hope every recovered memory feels like a small reward. Some memories answer old questions, while others create new ones. By the end of the game, players are not simply collecting memories—they are rebuilding a life that was almost forgotten.
Gameplay
Our gameplay is built around one simple idea: every action should help players get closer to the dog’s previous life.
Players are free to explore the town at their own pace. There is no fixed route and no required order for completing objectives. Some players may spend hours talking to residents, while others may prefer searching every corner of the town. Both play styles should naturally lead to new discoveries.
Helping the residents is one of the main ways players progress. Most quests are based on small everyday problems instead of dangerous missions. Finding a lost item, delivering a letter, taking care of another animal, or helping someone prepare for a festival may all seem unrelated to the main story at first. However, these moments often create opportunities to meet new characters, visit new places, or unlock memories that would otherwise remain hidden.
Exploration is encouraged through curiosity rather than rewards. Instead of placing valuable items everywhere, we want players to feel excited because they notice something unusual. A familiar smell, a broken fence, a forgotten toy, or a path that was easy to miss may all lead to another piece of the story. We hope players pay attention to the world itself, not just the objectives on the screen.
As players recover more memories, new interactions become available. Some residents begin to trust the dog more, new conversations appear, and certain locations take on completely different meanings. Progress does not only unlock new areas; it also changes how players understand places they have already visited.
Near the end of the game, players decide how they want to finish the journey. They may focus on helping the owner recover more memories, continue investigating the accident, or choose how to respond after discovering the truth. We want the ending to reflect the choices players make throughout the game, while staying true to the themes of memory, reunion, and forgiveness.
Overall, our gameplay is slow, relaxed, and driven by curiosity. We hope players keep exploring because they genuinely care about the world, not because the game tells them to.
Narrative
Our story is built around discovery instead of explanation.
Instead of telling players everything through long cutscenes, we want them to slowly understand the story through exploration. Every conversation, memory, location, and object gives players another small piece of the past. At first, these pieces may not seem connected, but they gradually come together as players continue exploring.
There are two stories happening at the same time.
The first is the story that players can easily see. The dog is looking for its owner from its previous life. This is the main goal from the beginning of the game, and it gives players a clear reason to keep exploring the town.
The second story is hidden beneath the first one. As players recover more memories, they discover that the owner survived a car accident but lost part of their memory. They also learn that the accident was never solved, and the driver disappeared without taking responsibility. These discoveries do not appear all at once. Instead, players slowly connect different clues until they understand what really happened.
The story is also shared by two characters. The dog is trying to remember its previous life, while the owner is trying to recover memories that disappeared after the accident. Although they are searching in different ways, both of them are moving toward the same answer. We hope players can feel that this reunion is something both characters have been waiting for, even if neither of them realizes it at first.
Near the end of the game, players decide what kind of ending they want to create. They may choose to spend more time helping the owner remember the past, continue searching for the truth behind the accident, or decide how to face the person responsible for it. We do not want to tell players which choice is correct. Instead, we hope every ending reflects how each player understands memory, justice, and forgiveness.
Our goal is not to tell players a story. Our goal is to let players slowly discover a story that has always been there.
Inspirations
Our game is inspired by several games that create emotional experiences through exploration, relationships, and environmental storytelling. Instead of copying their mechanics, we focus on understanding why these experiences work and how we can build something new from them.
A Short Hike inspired the way players explore the world. We like how the game gives players freedom to choose where to go without making them feel lost. Exploration feels natural because players are driven by curiosity instead of objectives. We want to create the same feeling in our town, where players explore because every place might hide another memory.
Stardew Valley inspired how we design the town and its residents. Every character has their own personality, daily routine, and story. Players slowly become part of the community by helping others instead of simply completing quests. We want our town to feel like a real place where relationships become more meaningful over time.
Spiritfarer inspired the emotional side of our game. It shows that simple everyday interactions can carry strong emotions without relying on dramatic storytelling. We hope our game can create similar feelings through memories, companionship, and quiet moments between the dog and its owner.
While these games inspire different parts of our design, our main idea comes from combining them in a new way. We want exploration to uncover memories, relationships to reveal the story, and player choices to shape how that story ends. Our goal is not to tell players what to feel, but to create a world where those feelings can grow naturally.
Design Challenges
One of our biggest challenges is balancing freedom and storytelling.
We want players to explore the town freely instead of following a fixed route. However, we also need to make sure they can understand the story naturally. If players unlock important memories in a random order, some moments may lose their emotional impact. Our goal is to let players feel that they are discovering the story by themselves, while still making sure the overall narrative remains clear.
Another challenge is balancing the cozy atmosphere with the mystery. Most of the game is about helping others, exploring the town, and enjoying everyday life. At the same time, there is a hidden story about memory loss, a car accident, and an unsolved hit-and-run case. We want these two parts to support each other instead of feeling like two different games. The mystery should make players more curious about the town, not make the town feel unsafe.
Designing the dog as the main character is also an interesting challenge. We do not want the dog to behave like a human. Instead, we want players to understand the world through a dog’s perspective. Smells, familiar sounds, body language, and everyday routines become much more important than written information. This affects not only the gameplay, but also how players discover clues and understand the story.
Finally, we hope players become emotionally attached to the owner before learning the full truth. If players only care about solving the mystery, they may not feel the emotional weight of the reunion. We therefore need to make sure that small everyday memories are meaningful enough for players to build a real connection with the characters.
Although these challenges make the project more difficult, they also define what makes our game unique. We believe the emotional experience will come not from a single dramatic moment, but from many small moments that slowly come together throughout the journey.
Individual Team Member Deliverables
Vivian Ru: https://mechanicsofmagic.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=59744&action=edit&classic-editor
Yunming Huang:
Yan Chen:
Lebriz Bal Clayton:
Rohan James Gonzalez:
