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A Game About a "Mentally ill" Girl.

A topic by BigBadOOF created Sep 12, 2023 Views: 654 Replies: 21

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BigBadOOF1 year ago (1 edit)

Hey there, I had an idea about a 2d game that has it's story revolved around a "Mentally ill" girl who is going to high school for the first time after being home schooled all her life (13-16 years old), This girl gets extremely angry about little things very quickly and would imagine killing anyone around her to "Feel better".

Anyway, The gameplay would be about this girl going to school (for seven weeks), trying to make friends (that annoy her) and... Well I don't want to spoil everything now.

If you are interested in this concept please feel free to post your comments and questions in the replys. Also, if I sould have posted somewhere else then just tell me and I'll be happy to move this Topic to the "Proper" area

Wasabi1 year ago(+1)

I'm very interested! :D I honestly was a little disappointed when I realized this game hasn't been developed yet... I was ready for the experience lol.

So what kind of game would this be... Visual Novel, RPG, Platformer? I can expand on some things from there. If it's a story-driven game, is there a message or two you want to get across to the player? That's another great place to start, building everything off of the morals of the story.

I'm interested in this girl character, and how you put "Mentally ill" in quotes... that's implying something else to me lol. Maybe she's just too sheltered because of her homeschooled life, and she's only acting out because she's misunderstood? And everyone thinks she's just "Mentally ill", but really it's psychological damage and/or trauma? That could lead to constant outbursts (but imagining killing people to "feel better" does actually sound pretty mentally ill)

Maybe the friends annoy her at first, and she even tries to kill some of them, but the way they react and treat her changes her as a person? Or not... maybe according to the player's choices, she just straight up murders them all.

Either way I'm super interested, and I'd be glad to even help out here and there if you'd like. I'm a budding artist and composer for indie games... just putting that out there ;)

BigBadOOF1 year ago

Hello, Thank you very much for your response!

I like the idea of it being a story-driven game. (Not 100% sure on the genra yet)

This "Mentally ill" girl has had a "Tramatic Experiance" involving her
I really don't want to spoil everything here, but I might say what this "Tramatic Experiance" is, in the near future.

Possibly, near the end of the game, Je-
the girl gets slightly more comfortable around some people she spends more time with during the game.

If you want to voulenteer to be an artist and/or composer, then I would be thrilled.
I have made a piece of concept art for, the girl but I made it very swiftly so it probably won't look the best

Thank you for reading :D
(Sorry if I put typos, incorrect punctuation, I went to sleep last night thinking nobody would see the post,
and I just woke up seeing that you had replied)

Wasabi1 year ago (1 edit)

Jessie? Jessica?? Jennifer??? Jeanette????

Very nice ideas here!

I could use a little more insight into her personality and character, so I can think of a theme for her :)

I'm very sure that this traumatic experience will come from her being homeschooled for so long... and maybe because of her strict and/or abusive parents. I wonder how much will the player's choices matter in this game?

Also, mind if I re-sprite her to look a little younger? She looks like an adult, but this design is giving me an idea of how the game would look.

BigBadOOF1 year ago (1 edit)

Of course you can re-sprite Jessica, and please share if you do :D

She is,
Impulsive, Deceitful, Reckless and couldn't care at all about other peoples feelings.
The "Tramatic Experience" did come into play while she was being homeschooled,
and her parents are the reason she has to come to school.

Wasabi1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

After some on and off work, I came up with this:

I tried to make her look a little more like a "teen", maybe with some edge to her. I've never tried this style of pixel art before...

I'm thinking of a gag in the game where she's dressed like this at school, and a teacher is making her put on a uniform instead. She refuses, as this is what she's used to wearing while being homeschooled. After being told she can't wear clothes that way at school, she's just like "Ugh. FINE."

In a split second, the screen goes black and a clothing sound effect plays. All of the sudden she's wearing the school uniform, but in the exact same casual style you see above, instead of wearing it properly. Everyone is mortified, as she has just impulsively changed clothes... right in front of them... without caring how everyone feels about this. (Of course the player doesn't see her changing). Jessica scoffs and is like "...Prudes." The teacher just gives up at that point and walks away lol

BigBadOOF1 year ago (2 edits)

I love the art for her!

I think that the gag of Jessica being used to her normal clothing style is cool,
and love how she just casually just gets dressed into the school uniform.

Also I really like the idea of her having some edge since this game is actually set in the 2000s,
and what type of game would you think would be more fun, RPG, Platformer etc?

Wasabi1 year ago

I think RPGs are naturally a little easier for story-based games, and platformers/metroidvanias are more paired with gameplay-heavy games. I always prefer RPGs because they're the easiest to make in my opinion, but it can also depend on Jessica's skills.

Would you like there to be combat-based gameplay? If she's a fighter, who would she be fighting in an RPG battle system? If not, maybe the gameplay can revolve more around puzzles and interactions with others?

The hardest part about making combat-based RPGs is coming up with a unique battle system that isn't extremely boring...

BigBadOOF1 year ago

It's probably more difficult to make but, I think a kinda mix between Platformer and RPG would be interesting (like at some points you have to do some side srolling and for puzzles you would be in a more top down theme)

Wasabi1 year ago (1 edit)

Yep, I'm all for that :)

So what's the goal of the game? Does she just go around and kill people, or try not to kill people on account of her mental state? How about enemies... monsters, humans? Does she have a weapon, what would that be?

BigBadOOF1 year ago

The goal of the game is to get through 7 weeks at school, trying not to kill anyone that annoys Jessica and to uncover what happened before the beginning of the game.

Her "Mental illness" might cause her to see "enimies" as ugly creatures or humans with their limbs all tangled and contured.
If you manange to not kill anyone during the game's progression you will get a different ending from if you just kill everyone.

If she had a weapon then it would probably be a knife or some other household object.

Wasabi1 year ago (1 edit)

We have similar creative brains... I was pretty much thinking that exact same thing lol.

I'm liking this idea. You may have to let me in on that traumatic experience... it's important to the plot and the design of the enemies. Like, say that the the experience was abuse, or body dysphoria, or something else horrible like r**pe. It's going to affect how she sees these monster humanoids, and how she interacts with other people...

How would her views on friendship, love, happiness, and her general perspective look to someone with this traumatic experience? That's where the characters come in :)

BigBadOOF1 year ago

The "Traumatic experience" is that, after being yelled at by her parents for Jessica snapped, found a knife and... Well, she "used" the knife on her parents...

To Jessica her feelings towards friendship, love, happiness, and general perspectives seem normal, after the "Traumatic ecperience"
but to others she seems weird, arrogant and not someone you want to be around

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Deleted post1 year ago

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BigBadOOF1 year ago

Depending how you look at it, it could seem like a horror game

Wasabi1 year ago

Ehh... it's a gray area so far. There might be some horror elements.

Wasabi1 year ago (1 edit) (+2)

(Ninja get in on this, the game is coming along nicely)

Deleted post1 year ago

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