DEV Community: Veronica Yung

Prototype — HOLLOW

Veronica Yung — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 03:07:00 +0000

Game Summary

Imagine being in a manor where no one tells the truth unless you are in the dead center of it. Here in Hollow, you must play as different characters to unlock what’s actually going on rather than what you’re told is going on. Starting as a child in the manor, you have a strict curfew to avoid the lurking shadowy monsters — do these monsters even exist? While investigating different rooms your character may die, however, this will bring you one step closer to the truth as you revive as a different character from the manor. This being said, you will no longer be a tiptoeing child restricted in your own room but rather you may have some authority in the house…die and you shall see!

Rooms

As players go through different characters in the game, they will discover that with every new character, there is a new room. Since this is a point-and-click game, to navigate around rooms and hallways, you must use your mouse and only your mouse. You may also reveal pop-ups by clicking on items, this helps players understand their environment, character, and relationship with other characters in the manor.

Some interactable components of the game will give players an item that can be examined in the inventory on the top right. These items may be used to unlock hidden doors, create distractions, or kept as contextual clues.

Characters

Here I will show you the initial mock-ups and profiles of the characters in Hollow. Think of it as a short gallery!

Enoch

Like playing with toys, doesn’t know much outside of his own room
has a curfew of 10 PM
very clueless and innocent
has no friends, has never been outdoors
doesn’t even know his own age

Mother

Mother follows instructions and is like a doll
She has to be picture perfect to father and must follow her script
has little to no personality

Father

Protective of Enoch, wants him to be young forever
Secretive and cannot accept the fact that his other child Markel is more so a monster than a child
C R A Z Y.

4, Markel

Mutated, **monster **with little to no control
Has to be restrained because he is a flesh-eating…. thing
features like sloppy limbs and morphed face
cannot really think.

Modeling The Rooms

A major job I had other than the narrative design would be modeling the rooms of each character so that it would fit the aesthetic, support the mechanics and ultimately tell you a bit about each character.

The game engine we used was Godot and I would say it was pretty friendly for someone who has never used it before. It may also be a bit bias because I had an awesome teammate give me a little “live tutorial.”

NOTE: these pictures are from behind the scenes so not in-game photos

Enoch and Father’s Room

Here we will look at my two favorite rooms.

Enoch’s room:

Lot’s of pillows spread out
An abundant amount of treasure chests to store all the gifts from Father
Wall of books to keep Enoch entertained, never wanting to go outside

Father’s room:

Scattered boxes, showing a level of disorganization
Collection of creepy masks
Huge shelf of books — including photo albums

2. Hallway and Basement

Hallway:

Chunks of flesh
Old, grungy furniture with wooden planks
Messy setting

Basement:

Has a very creepy feeling
Isolated room for Markel — no door, you can only go in but not out
Bed and dining set outside of Markel’s room

A Deeper Look At The Narrative:

Now that you got to know about the players and the setting, I think it’s the perfect time to talk more about the story.

When the player experiences the game through the lens of Enoch, Mother, and Father, the picture-perfect family starts to fade away. Playing as Enoch, the player will see that Father is loving, Mother is sweet, and the reason why he has to go to bed at 10 PM is because of monsters.

However, as the story progresses and the player realizes that the family of three was actually a family of four, questions start to erupt and doubts start to form. Luckily, in the role of Father, everything will start to piece together…the player will have to pick up chunks of flesh in the hallway and discover a hidden basement. Then, what was once perceived as a monster is soon revealed to be the brother of Enoch.

The player will learn all about the death and resurrection of Enoch’s brother Markel and they will see how Markel is now a **mutated being **who resembles a monster more than a human. At the end of the game, the prompt, “DAY IS ENDING, would you like to give Markel his needle to keep him alive?” will appear. If the player chooses ‘no,’ the screen will turn black with a pop-up saying: “Markel: FATHER I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME… WHY DID YOU KILL ME?” This is the moment when the player realizes why Father was so crazy. Markel’s spirit still wanted to stay alive even as a monster and Father was trying to satisfy his son’s wishes — even at the expense of others. Contrary, if the player chooses ‘yes’ and gives Markel the needle, the pop-up will say, “Markel: I love you Father, thank you.” This is so that the player could reach the same conclusion with either choice.

The Making: Screamortality Game Jam

This game was made in a team of seven and the time spent working on the game was a whopping ten days! For a majority of our team, it was our first time using Godot so we didn’t quite finish the game but we completed one room and a hallway transition.

I would also like to give credit to my amazing team members:

Lead Programmer/Project Manager: Forest Anderson

Programmers: Sam Haskins, Adrien Gergouil, Jake Diedrich, Evan Maxted

Sound and Character Sprites: Ben Barbeau

**Note: you can play the prototype here: https://vsmiles.itch.io/hollow

This game will be completed, but until then I’ll be signing off!

Finished Game — Grape Juice Robot

Veronica Yung — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 06:44:00 +0000

Game Summary

Grape Juice Robot features a boy named Tilson and his robot friend who has a fatal juice addiction. Unfortunately, Tilson gives his robot friend juice and this causes a deathly malfunction. The robot friend has been disassembled and his parts have been scattered around a realm with slime creatures, goblins, and chickens. Tilson must explore the realm and find his robot friend’s remains to rebuild him.

Juice Box

Tilson uses the same juice box that killed his robot friend as a weapon. With the deadly droplets of juice, Tilson uses his juice box to fend off slimes and goblins.

Enemies

Slimes

They may be fun to watch as they bounce around, and look rather harmless, however, they are a little more interesting than you think. Just like the ghosts in Pac-man, there are a few slime variants that make each one behave differently.

Green: High jump, moderate speed

Blue: High speed, Moderate jump

Red: Light speed

White: Jumping into the stratosphere

Goblins

The goblins carry a variety of items that can be thrown at you. These items are mostly junk, however, players BEWARE because goblins can throw explosive bombs that do quite some damage!

Players also have the ability to shoot junk items in mid-air.

Junk Items:

They all take a different form yet in Grape Juice Robot, a rock does the same damage as an apple, cat, grape, etc.

Chickens

Chickens are absolutely harmless and novel, yet they add so much to the game.

Explore what you can do with chickens — ask questions such as:

Can they be abolished? If so… HOW?
Do they talk?
How many chickens exist in the game?

Be creative and enjoy a game with chickens!

Obstacles

Lasers

They don’t kill you immediately but they can definitely kill Tilson, lasers are quite the challenge when they appear in a series.

Lasers may also act as a barrier when slimes/bombs/junk try to deal damage. This is also true for juice droplets.

Acidic Slime Pools

The pools of acidic slime are quite deadly and can be detrimental when there are no platforms nearby. Despite so, once you have landed in a pool, there’s still a chance to survive— jump out.

Crates

Crates can be beneficial when there are multiple enemies bunched together. Slimes must jump over crates to hit you, and goblins cannot pass the crates.

Tilson however, is tall enough where he can fire juice droplets from behind the crate.

The Story

Unfortunately, because this game was made during a game jam, we did not have enough time to have a coherent ending. The original idea was to have Tilson collect and rebuild his robot friend, however, due to his fatal juice addiction, he reverts back to his juice-loathing self and only seeks self-destruction.

The game currently loops as described, however, there isn’t a solid narrative to show the devasted Tilson as well as the rush of frustration.

Global Game Jam

The theme of the 2021 Global Game Jam was “Lost and Found.” The core message behind Grape Juice Robot was replacement. Things that once had great use, performed excellently, and looked awesome will eventually wear out. When people lose these things, there might be a feeling of “ nothing will ever match up to the one I had before”. As much as I want to believe this, this isn’t always the case.

Personally, I always had a favorite toothbrush that I just couldn’t throw away. It was battery-operated, had nice bristles, and a large minion was printed on the front. One day after coming back from camping, I forgot to bring it home and I wanted it back so bad. Fortunately for me, I realized how gross and worn out it was and not to mention very unhygienic! Bottom line is, sometimes losing things and being forced to replace them is actually a great thing and can even lead to new favorites.

Check It Out!

I usually only write about games, however this time there is one to play as well! Feel free to play Grape Juice Robot.

**note: I was not a programmer on this project, however, I wanted to write about this amazing game that I was part of.

Global Game Jam:

Grape Juice Robot
*Installation Instructions: Download the files and unzip. Then double click the .exe file in the release folder to run…*globalgamejam.org

Download Link:

Grape Juice Robot Game.zip
*Edit description*drive.google.com

Game Credits:

Programmers: Tom Tiisler, Dawson Kelly, Thomas Almbanis, Darren Mai, Benjamin Barbeau

Art Design: Benjamin Barbeau, Veronica Yung

Music :Benjamin Barbeau

Project Manager: Veronica Yung

Future Game — Uncanny Resemblance

Veronica Yung — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 23:33:31 +0000

Game Summary

Uncanny Resemblance begins in an unusual maze. You and four other players discover keys imprinted on your arm and are given a task to collect five keys hidden inside the walls of the maze. As you begin to find keys in the maze, you come across the spitting image of people who** look identical** to your teammates. The only difference would be, while you and your teammates are finding keys inside the walls of the maze, these look-alikes are looking for the ones embedded inside your arm. This is a fearful race of finding keys, do not be fooled by your humanoid self, and be sure to never stay in the same place for too long.

Keys

Each player will have access to a map with key locations, 1–2 players are required to unlock and retrieve a key. To unlock a key, there will be trivial tasks that you must complete. These tasks may range from typing your userID into the system, or simply having two people hold down a lever at the same time.

Keys embedded inside your arm have trackers on them, humanoids released into the maze can detect your location. For them to collect the keys, they must tear apart your body and rip it out.

Humanoids

Upon collecting a key and seeing it appear in a player’s inventory, a humanoid is released into the center of the maze. For every player, there will be a corresponding humanoid, they will be released in random order.

humanoid-player sketch

Difference between Players and Humanoids

they cannot speak to you, but you may hear them make deep breathing sounds
immortal
night vision
cannot enter tunnels

Humanoids may only rip out one key at a time, it takes them 10 seconds to retrieve a key. While a humanoid is fixed on a player, you may sneak past them and escape.

Players

Humans start in the middle of the maze and are given torches, however, torches are unreliable and must be relit every 5-minutes. You may find flashlights hidden inside the maze, however, there are only four.

Players have access to a voice chat and all players can communicate with one another throughout the whole map. Beware, the voice chat is disabled for 30-seconds every time a humanoid collects a key.

When players die, they will reappear in the maze as invisible ghosts and may maneuver objects around the maze to slow down humanoids or to scare fellow players.

Tunnels

There won’t be many of these, however, once you stumble upon one, you may use it to relocate yourself around the map. The relocation is random and once a tunnel is used, it will disappear.

Items

Weapons: these items may be used to stun the humanoids

Potions: grants you special powers that may make you invisible to humanoids, have night vision, or super speed. The duration of the potion’s effect will range from 10 to 30 seconds.

Equipable:

shield: grants you an extra life if you are caught by a humanoid. You will immediately be relocated somewhere randomly on the map.
green card: you will have a floating green indicator above your character, and other players can easily detect that you are not a humanoid.
GPS blocker: you will not appear on all humanoid radars for 20-seconds.

The Maze

Instead of having a collection of maze maps, each time the game is initialized, a new maze is generated. As players walk through the maze, there will be random objects that act as obstacles that cannot be broken or looted.

Inspiration

This game was inspired by the horror movie Us and the game Dead by Daylight. Personally, the movie didn’t seem scary when I watched it in theatres, however, as I went home and dreamt that I was in the movie and saw a mirror image of myself, I was truly afraid. As well, in Dead by Daylight, I liked the concept of “cat and mouse,” it brought back the nostalgic feeling you get when you played hide and seek as a kid, and so I wanted to integrate this aspect into a game. Combining both ideas together became something frighteningly entertaining, and so it became Uncanny Resemblance.

That’s a Wrap

As another stinky disclaimer, I am a first-year computer science student who has yet to take her first game development course. Any feedback on whether these games are a nay or yay would be wonderful, if not, I hope you enjoyed reading. More ideas are to come so keep posted!

Find me on:

Github: https://github.com/veronicaYung

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-yung/

Future Game — Freed.

Veronica Yung — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 21:57:36 +0000

Game Summary

Freed embarks the human desire to grow powerful and stimulates the growth of an empire. Everyone in this game starts at $1000 and individuals must invest, purchase, and make decisions that will lead to the creation of the greatest empire. > Empire:** **a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority

In Freed, this definition translates into the amount of revenue you make and the number of crucial assets you own. You must accomplish this goal within your lifespan which is confidential, thus time is precious. Upon completing the game, you will receive the true meaning behind Freed and you may have come in to build your empire, but you will leave never wanting to play again.

Live Screen

The game is structured as if you are monitoring a world with things that you own. You will see your assets displayed on the live screen, as well as people entering or interacting with your locations. You cannot contact anyone on the live screen, however, you may maneuver your assets.

game visualization, made on Canva

Assets

Each player starts with two available slots to hold their assets. These assets may be buildings, locations, family members, etc. As one may grow in wealth, the capacity of assets that can be owned at once will expand. When there is a conflict of needs, you may sell one of the assets in an occupied slot and buy a new one.

Buying/Selling

Buying: visit the shop and you will see what is available for purchase. If you have sufficient funds and space, your purchase will appear in one of your available slots
Selling: To sell assets, visit the auction house and you will be granted more space to attain new assets while also receiving the resale price.

The Shop

When purchasing buildings and locations, there will be a purchasing price, resale value, and your return value per visitor. On your live screen, you will have a view of your assets inside a simulated world — your empire. For each person who interacts with your assets, you will receive the indicated return value

Aside from buildings and locations, you may think it’s wise to invest in family members, friends, or pets. These investments count as an asset and naturally, it takes up an available slot. It’s not guaranteed that these investments result in high returns, they may even be considered an expense. Despite so, if it’s a chance you would like to take, do as you wish.

How do I Initially Make Money?

Making money is simple. To make money with what you have, no occupations or stocks are available. Once the player enters the game, you will only be able to do one of three things:

Buy a lemonade stand: bring in revenue a dollar at a time and have a legendary story. Lemonade stands can be upgraded.
Sell all your clothes: receive an instant reward of $100, just enough to buy your own hut!
Buy a vending machine: You never know how much you may receive

Meaning Behind The Game SPOILERS

|The Inevitable Death|

Death scenario A: GREED > “You’ve won! You’ve built up all your wealth and you have nothing left but death. The goal was to build the greatest empire . . . but at what cost?”
Death Scenario B: FREED > “Unfortunately you were unable to build the greatest empire, however, don’t be upset! Sometimes life isn’t about building the greatest empire, but the greatest, most fulfilling life. “

Endings Explained

A: Here in Freed, you are tasked to build the greatest empire, and to do so, investing in anything other than buildings and locations are not ideal. This game likes to put into perspective how an individual who’s only goal is to reign with supreme authority perceives the world. Because of this, the title you receive once you lose is no longer freed, but greed. You kept everything to yourself and the money you made would re-enter the continuous loop of investment and spending. Some may say that money is freedom, yet this is not true when money is the one thing that controls you — how you think, the way you live, what you desire, etc. This path reveals the individual transition from having the freedom to do as they wish to the epitome of greed. > greed: an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

B: Losing the game is actually an indication of winning. When we can view family, friends, or pets as more than mere assets and investments, it’s easy to have them take up a slot. Although this is not ideal in the game, once you die and lose, you are finally free of having to view everything as a cycle of investing and spending. You have successfully seen the benefits of the unknown, the things that do not have a guaranteed return value. I congratulate you if you manage to get this result!

C: If you lost the game without investing in anything other than buildings and locations, I would recommend refining your skills. This game is not meant to be challenging more than it is meaningful.

Inspiration

I’m not sure. Sometimes ideas just come in and out, however, this was the first game idea I had that was a quick, somewhat well-thought-out game that had some meaning behind it. Although the origin of the idea is undefined, I’m sure that ideas can form because of the awesome computer science community I am part of.

This is us enjoying a holiday game night and secret Santa. haha.

That’s a Wrap

Just a stinky disclaimer, I have yet to complete my first course in my game dev stream and so any feedback would be great. More ideas are to come so keep posted!

Find me on:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-yung/

GitHub: https://github.com/veronicaYung

Future Game — Ransom

Veronica Yung — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 06:07:57 +0000

Game Summary

Ransom is a fun yet fearful multiplayer game that becomes a free-for-all. The game begins as the personified game master holds players hostage and to escape, each player is trying to pay off their own ransom which starts off with a value of $25,000. To do this, all players will be given a secret and a situation card. Work together by guessing each other’s situation without revealing the secret and your ransom will be lowered. Beware, if you can’t manage to communicate your situation without using the secret, your ransom will be raised and you will not be set free.

Secret and Situation

Secret: words and actions will be displayed on your secret card
Situation: scenarios that you must be able to express will appear here

Each player will be given 2 options to communicate their situation:

three-word sentence: you may use three words to communicate your situation, however, be sure that none of the words you use appear on your secret
drawing: you will be granted 15 seconds each turn to draw parts or all of your situation and the same rule applies to any drawing, you may not draw any word on your secret

You may be wondering, “how will anyone know if I violate a secret?” Well, at the beginning of each game, you will be assigned a partner and this person will be held accountable each round and they may not guess during your turn.

How do Turns work?

On the bottom left corner of each situation card, there will be a certain amount of question marks that indicate how many turns you will be given to have your fellow players guess your card. This will not be proctored by your partner who monitors your secret cards.

note: the maximum number of turns a situation may require is five.

Example situation card

Money

On your situation card, the amount of money that will either be deducted or added to your ransom will be indicated in the bottom right corner.

note: the range of a situation card’s worth is $500-$8,000

Play as a Team, Win as One.

Although this game seems highly co-operative and team building, I did mention that it becomes a free-for-all. The game ends when 20-minutes is up, and those who have successfully paid off their ransom will be selected to participate in a little sun-or-death situation — only one person may leave…

The sun-or-death matches are an assortment of mini-games. These games are yet to be determined and I’m open to any suggestions. Some mini-game ideas I had were 5-question trivia, word search, what are the odds, etc.

Inspiration

During quarantine, the best way I found to spend time with friends was through online games such as Jackbox, Skribble.io, and Spyfall. Like all these games, Ransom is meant to be inclusive and played among a group of people, it’s objective was to incorporate the main components that drew me into each game — an interesting scenario, drawing, and guessing. Mushing everything together into one game is what became Ransom.

This is us… game night was CHESS.

That’s a Wrap.

Once again, I am a first-year game development student who has yet to complete her first course that specializes in this stream. This game might sound ridiculous or whatnot and maybe it is, whatever it is, let me know what you think. I know what I like, but I certainly do not know about anyone else. That’s the end of ransom and I hope I kept you captivated!