I like the idea and I think the execution is well made. However I don't understand how to control what is happening or what should happen and how much control the player has?
How does time pass? Is it an internal clock or based on player actions?
I see some notifications pop up - sometimes they are empty. They seem to be triggered at random...
Please advise.
Thank you for playing and for your feedback
The game is primarily controlled by placing the dolls. Choose a family, place the rooms, and manually end the day. At night, the placement of the dolls is evaluated in terms of distance, isolation or tension. This influences the events during the day, some are very obvious, while others are more subtle. The lighting, sounds and text in the room change accordingly. The game is meant to show what a child perceives, how memories of certain objects can change, and how a child “feels” therefore, the decisions do not directly affect the family, but rather the emotional state of the house, depending on how and where you place the dolls.
The empty notifications are not intended and have not been reported before; I’ll look into it. Could you perhaps tell me when the boxes remain empty? During the day, or when you open the dollhouse at night?
Right, I ran the game again - I just placed the dolls and left the tab open. I assumed correctly that there is some internal clock which moves time forward, it is not based on player input. Looking at the console log I guess that clock would be the PhaseManager.
I was wondering before your comment whether or not the parent and the child being in the same room would matter. It is actually much more - you keep track of how close the figures are, if they move or not. Additionally there are two other factors which I can't make out what they represent: externalisation and tension.
The mask at the end may be a bit too abstract - it would help to label the top/middle/bottom sections and let the player know why they are the way they are. I didn't even think that the mask is not a single piece of art but a combination.
Now that I uncovered these I'm even more intrigued by the psychology behind the system! Excellent ideas. I think this can be a fantastic tool for child psychotherapy. Have you considered such a use?
This game has a unique environmental narrative system. I don't think there is much in terms of story progression (plot) and character development. The design obviates the need for those - instead the system reflects the player's current psychosocial state.
For me this game has a lot of potential. You should keep working on it! Good luck!
I saw the empty notifications again - they happen in the morning. Maybe the DayEventTextDisplay - I'll paste the log here:
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_Please...just be Silent optionalText='Please... just be quiet already!' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] Show text='Please... just be quiet already!' | activeInHierarchy: True | canvasGroup.alpha before fade: 0.00 | canvas: UIOverlayCanvas order: 20 | sizeDelta: (100.00, 100.00) | path: UIOverlayCanvas[self=True,hier=True] / DayEventTextDisplay[self=True,hier=True]
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_NewScreaming ahh optionalText='' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] no text, sound-only event (eventName=DayEventData_NewScreaming ahh)
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_Allone optionalText='Because I am all alone.' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] Show text='Because I am all alone.' | activeInHierarchy: True | canvasGroup.alpha before fade: 0.00 | canvas: UIOverlayCanvas order: 20 | sizeDelta: (100.00, 100.00) | path: UIOverlayCanvas[self=True,hier=True] / DayEventTextDisplay[self=True,hier=True]
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_Eat optionalText='Let's eat... together.' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] Show text='Let's eat... together.' | activeInHierarchy: True | canvasGroup.alpha before fade: 0.00 | canvas: UIOverlayCanvas order: 20 | sizeDelta: (100.00, 100.00) | path: UIOverlayCanvas[self=True,hier=True] / DayEventTextDisplay[self=True,hier=True]
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_Newglass optionalText='' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] no text, sound-only event (eventName=DayEventData_Newglass)
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_NewScreaming ahh optionalText='' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] no text, sound-only event (eventName=DayEventData_NewScreaming ahh)
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_Silence optionalText='' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] no text, sound-only event (eventName=DayEventData_Silence)
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_cookies optionalText='Come, let's bake some cookies.' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] Show text='Come, let's bake some cookies.' | activeInHierarchy: True | canvasGroup.alpha before fade: 0.00 | canvas: UIOverlayCanvas order: 20 | sizeDelta: (100.00, 100.00) | path: UIOverlayCanvas[self=True,hier=True] / DayEventTextDisplay[self=True,hier=True]
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_talktosomeone optionalText='Maybe... we should talk with someone.' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] Show text='Maybe... we should talk with someone.' | activeInHierarchy: True | canvasGroup.alpha before fade: 0.00 | canvas: UIOverlayCanvas order: 20 | sizeDelta: (100.00, 100.00) | path: UIOverlayCanvas[self=True,hier=True] / DayEventTextDisplay[self=True,hier=True]
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] OnEventFired eventName=DayEventData_NewKitchencrying optionalText='' | activeInHierarchy: True
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
[DayEventTextDisplay] no text, sound-only event (eventName=DayEventData_NewKitchencrying)
webbuild.framework.js.br:10:37699
Ah yes, now i have a better picture of it. Thank you for that. There are some DayEvents that dont have a Text, only Sound, Silence or Light differences mostly followed by a different Text in one of the Enviroment furnishings. They should not display a Text Notification and i see, if the textbox appears how that can appear like a missing message, i will keep that in mind for a future update.
For the Mask at the end, well that is how the player should interpretend it for himselfe. Like the Text in the beginning say, No matter what we sow, the seed always remains the same. But it is our decisions that influence the harvest. You can also say: Some things never heal completly even if we grown up.
Thank you again for playing and the kind words about the System. I wantet to use the emotional state of the house rather than a traditional plot progression, that was the direction i wantet to explore, though a Child’s Perception.
