Ticha-Final Project Idea

For my final project, I am interested in making a game about personal insecurity and social anxiety.

Description

About Today is a simulation game that follows a girl as she goes through various social situations. As the girl interacts with another individual, the player is responsible for determining how she behaves and responds to the other person. Responses are controlled on a TouchOSC interface containing various sliders and dials that adjust an array of behavioral characteristics, such as ‘friendliness’, ‘sarcasm’, ‘compassion’, and ‘wit’. However, the player must be able to react quickly to each scenario as there is a time limit for how long they can take to adjust the controls. At the end of the day, she would have a conversation with her father about the day’s events. If all the controls are adjusted to the levels appropriate for the social situation within the time limit, the girl would go home feeling refreshed and self-assured. Otherwise, she would sulk and mull over what she could have said or done.

This project is very personal to me as it draws from my own insecurities and is modeled after the way I reflect on my previous actions. I hope that those who play this will either consider the game relatable or find solicitude for those with social anxiety.

This is the interface as of now:

Inspirations

dys4ia

dys4ia is a really interesting autobiographical game that chronicles a transgender person’s life as they underwent hormone replacement therapy. I thought the gameplay was charming and found the narrative to be both heartbreaking and touching. (Shout-out to Melanie for showing this game to me!)

The Sims

The iconic life simulation game in which the player controls virtual people and makes them perform actions that affect their mental/physical wellbeing. While in The Sims, players have some control over the characters’ behavior and actions, my game delves deeper into the finer aspects of social interaction.