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Passage

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My role in the project:

  • Narrative Designer

    • Prior research on the topics covered

    • Design of the narrative schema

    • Writing dialogues

  • Level Design

    • Concevoir the levels on paper

    • Blocking and dressing the space

    • Making sure the pacing of the levels works with the narrative

  • Programmer

    • Integration of the dialogue system

    • Programming the system conditions for interactionss

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Challenges:

  • Create a project that aims to raise awareness

    • ​Include the perspectives of queer people from gender diversity​

    • See with a public less able to know the issues the information retained

  • Go from level plans to their creation in the game engine

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Narrative

LGBTQ+

Walking simulator

2.5D

https://thewood.itch.io/passage

Passage is a project carried out in the Unity engine during the 4th semester of the BAC in Video Game Creation. As part of Spécialisation : ateliers dirigés, the designer had to choose a specialization that they wanted to explore in more depth and carry out a project or research on the subject. The game was carried out alone over a period of one university term.

Description

Passage is a project aiming to address trans-femininity in a narrative video game. With the aim of inclusiveness and LGBTQ2+ representation, the project's aim is to raise awareness and also allow a space for the exploration of trans issues.

 

The game is a narrative walking simulator where the player plays Valda, a trans woman. The story takes us through different scenes from his life in situations related to his gender, positive or negative.

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Process

Narration

To design the story, I went through four main stages:

  1. Research

  2. Schematic planning

  3. Developing changes

  4. Playtests with queer people to ask their opinions

 

With the awareness-raising aim of the project, I:

  • Conducted readings on queer studies in video games

  • Focused my attention on using the medium to educate

  • Learn more about serious games

  • Concept map bringing together the central points

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The story of Passage is divided into three acts represented by situations spaced over time: childhood, adolescence and the beginning of adult life. In the first scene, our character is young and still has a male name. For the moment, our protagonist feels discomfort related to his body without being able to pinpoint the reason.​

Scene 1
Scene 2

Later in the story, she is a teenager in a supportive family environment. However, she is bullied at school. The panic attack section was significantly more difficult to translate into the game as it was more stage-managed than intended. Fortunately, friends are there to support her emotionally here too.

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Eventually, we can see Valda in her twenties becoming a support for others around her. She experiences her gender in a much more positive way.

 

Scene 3
Level Design

Given the very nature of a walking simulator, the setting and the environment were elements to take into consideration. The use of 2.5D was chosen to facilitate player guidance. Wanting to present credible places, I spent a good portion of the design finding references to “dress the space”:

  • Plans of buildings

  • Type of materials/colors

  • Objects present in these places

 

In addition, the level design is closely linked to the narration in Passage since the layouts produced my rhythm by governing the interactions. The latter, in addition to creating the navigation, were the way of delivering the character's dialogues or internal monologues as well as the actions.

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Below, you will see my paper sketches representing the different levels and then their result in the editor:

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LD - Pool
 
LD - School
LD - Family home
LD - Town and apartment
Programming

The first challenge in developing the project in Unity was to think of a method to have “programmable” dialogs. For this, the choice fell on the Yarn Spinner tool which allowed the text to be written in its own file (therefore easier to modify than navigating to each object concerned). Then, a portion of my time was allocated to adjusting the package so that the dialogue was positioned according to the interlocutor.

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Finally, I coded the following scripts to match the planned gameplay and narrative changes:

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  • Interactable

    • Dialog​

      • DialogTrigger​

      • DialogInput

    • Door

    • ObjectiveChanger

    • Obstacle

    • PlayAnim​​

  • Visibility

  • SceneChanger

  • Condition

  • ChangeMusic

  • CamBoundsChanger

  • AlterPlayerSpeed

Narration
LD
Prog
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