An Insight Into Game Development:
Sticking To A Theme
Many, if not all, games have themes. Themes and genres are sometimes considered to be the same thing, so first it’s important to clarify what theme means in this context. For Emotions: A Day In A Life, the theme is emotions. The genre, on the other hand, is in a mechanical sense a 2D-sidescrolling game with a focus on visual novel-like dialogue, or in an aesthetic sense a modern, everyday life drama portrayed with a semi-realistic, flat-colored art style.
In some games, the theme isn’t the center of focus and can only be seen in the background – if it can be seen at all without deep analysis. In Emotions: A Day In A Life, the theme is pretty clear from the get-go. It is also emphasized by certain aspects of the game by changing them depending on which emotion is currently in focus.
The aspects that change are foremost the dialogue boxes. Each emotion has a color in the game and these colors are used on dialogue boxes that change from one color to another when one specific emotion is in focus. The same colors are also used for the icons that you use to pick an emotion to act with. These icons are also visible in the pause menu, where you can see which emotions you have in your inventory. The following picture shows the icons as they look in game when you pick an emotion, though not positioned exactly as such.
Another important aspect for keeping with the theme of emotions is the music. Like the dialogue boxes, the music changes depending on which emotion is in focus. The music also entirely consists of live-recorded piano music, which can often be very emotional.
Besides the previously mentioned aspects, all characters have character portraits where they convey each of the six emotions present in the game. Depending on each character’s personality, the way they express each feeling visually differs from the other characters to some extent.
To summarize, the most central aspects of the game are affected by the emotions. Therefore, the theme of emotions is strong throughout the game.
We hope you look forward to experiencing these aspects and the theme yourself next month!