PROJECT
BREAK-
DOWN
GAME DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT,
2D MOTION GRAPHIC
Creative Project
DeArtective 3D Puzzle Game
ABOUT THE PROJECT
DeArtective is a 3D puzzle/detective game designed and developed for the submission of Digital Media Studio 5 course while studying at RMIT University Vietnam.
Course lecturer: Nguyen Huu Tu.
The brief was to create a virtual museum to showcase some of the artworks in RMIT's Art Collection Gallery. We were allowed to be creative and further elaborate the concept to create more than just a virtual museum.
3 paintings from artist Lien Truong were chosen to be featured in the game. Her paintings revolve around cultural and political ideologies, intertwined with our histories and belief systems. These 3 paintings are part of Lien Truong’s collection called Child Soldiers, featuring actual people with significant, inspiring real-life stories.
The trio are Malala Yousafzai, Nujood Ali, and Maibam Prity Devi. All of them were still kids when one of them luckily survived after being shot while on a bus to school, one stood up for herself to obtain a divorce after being in forced child marriage, and one saved many lives when she heroically threw away a grenade.
Game details:
We came up with a detective/puzzle game that aims to provide an interesting way to help players explore the stories of these subjects of her artworks. The player plays as a detective and is set to embark on a mission to find all 3 subjects inside the painting who have gone missing. Each painting has a room of its own, including 2-4 minigame puzzles which involve other artworks in RMIT Art Collection. By solving minigames inside each room, the player will learn some bits of their real-life stories as clues to finally find them.
We are a team of 3. Each member was in charge of 1 room. I was responsible for the design and development of Maibam Prity Devi's room and minigames.
Game instruction:
"RMIT Art Gallery was vandalized by evil forces, 3 subjects in the paintings of artist Lien Truong have gone missing. Scattered around are their belongings. You – the Player, are the detective. You must find them in the gallery."
CREDITS
Art direction: Nhung Bui
Motion graphic: Nhung Bui
Room design, 3D modelling & Game development for:
— Maibam Prity Devi: Nhung Bui
— Nujood Ali: Hoang Quynh
— Malala Yousafzai: Thao Le
Graphic design: Thao Le, Nhung Bui, Hoang Quynh
Sound: Epidemic Sound
Year: 2021
01
Maibam Prity Devi
Some unidentified militants threw a grenade into Prity's family shop in Manipur, India. Prity - a 10 year old girl saved many lives when she picked up and threw away the grenade. Later, she received the National Children's Bravery Award.
02
Nujood Ali
Girl from Yemen forced into marriage at age 9. After being beaten and raped by her husband, on April 15, 2008, she broke with tribal tradition and successfully obtained a divorce. At 16, she changed her name from Nujood, which means "hidden", to Nojoom, which means "stars in the sky".
03
Malala Yousafzai
A Pakistani activist for female education. In 2012, after taking an exam, was shot by the Taliban while on a school bus. In 2014, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate at 17.
MINIGAME
FOUR
MINIGAME
ONE
CREDITS
Art direction: Nhung Bui
Motion graphic: Nhung Bui
Room design, 3D modelling & Game development for:
— Maibam Prity Devi: Nhung Bui
— Nujood Ali: Hoang Quynh
— Malala Yousafzai: Thao Le
Graphic design: Thao Le, Nhung Bui, Hoang Quynh
Sound: Epidemic
Year: 2021
MINIGAME
TWO
MINIGAME
THREE
01
Pre-Production
IDEA BRAINSTORM
Creating a 3D Interactive Website that has engaging minigames inside was our group’s initial idea. However, later on, we realized that it would be difficult to create a game and then find a way to put it up on a website. Eventually, we agreed to buile the game using Unreal Engine. Right from the beginning, we knew that we would be doing a puzzle game related to the RMIT Art Gallery’s Artworks. Innitially, I suggested letting the user play as a detective to find all the girls in Lien Truong’s painting who have gone missing. It was a light-hearted idea but then we thought it could work. We tried elaborating why they had gone missing and creating a route to find the true culprit. However, since we only had 3 months and only starting to learn using Unreal Engine, we could not go with the finding the culprit route.
GAME PLANNING
We collected information on each girl's life and using that information, we proceeded to plan out the game journey to find them. Everything was taken into consideration so that the minigames are related to the subjects inside the painting.
GAME DESIGN
We use Invision Freehand to plan the Room Layout. we spent a lot of time thinking of the Room Layout and deciding each interior piece. Some interior pieces are from real-life products and are based on real measurements. Since the topics of the subjects we were working were serious and heavy - war, violent and rape, we wanted the game to have a peaceful look and feel that everyone can enjoy without feeling too disturbed. That way, more people, even children could learn more about the stories of the Trio in the painting.
02
Production
3D MODELLING IN BLENDER
We started working on building the room in Blender. To keep the consistent look throughout the game, we agreed on having the same room height with a soft, elegant, and modern feel. However, every room still got its look and different set of interiors.
BUILDING GAME IN UNREAL ENGINE
We start developing our rooms and minigames in Unreal Engine. Countless Youtube videos were consumed during the time we move into Unreal Engine. Everything was new and had tons of trials and errors. After the mechanics were almost done, we started working on the lighting, materials, and room's color palette. After making sure every room had worked smoothly, we merged all rooms and continued working on the general game mechanics.
GAME UI DESIGN
Game's UI design was done in Figma, where we also used to plan out and design the pop-up screens for the game.
SOUND FX & BG MUSIC
Sound FX and BG music were taken from Epidemic Sound's library. We went through many music files to pick out the most suitable ones that must have a suspenseful, mysterious feeling while still remains peaceful and delight.
MOTION GRAPHIC
I developed the Intro Sequence for the game. It took inspiration from Iphone’s ads for the motion of the paintings rotating in the first few seconds. I also worked on the sequences which appear on the TV scene inside Prity’s room (Loading screen, Wrong-channel screen, Right-channel screen.
03
Post-Production
FINE-TUNING GAME LOOK
After the mechanics were done and all 3 rooms were merged together into a single game file, we then fine-tuning the looks of each room to make the game more consistent.
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