Canary's Chirp - Development Post #1

Hello!

This is Part 1 of the many parts of the blog on the game design module and the project I have in mind for it. Here's a quick ID card of the rough idea -

Name - Canary's Chirp

Genre - Narrative based serious game

Art - 2D, Pixel Art

Platform - PC (HTML or .exe)

Overview

Canary's Chirp is a story game, based on a girl who has autism. The game takes place in today's world, where children with autism are treated differently and aims to show how they feel. The game will be presented in a point and click format, where the player plays as Canary, the child with autism.

Design Process

The main plan is to get feedback and stories of the parents and the kids. A session will be conducted where incidents will be noted down in order to have an accurate picture of the situations they face daily and how they deal with it. It's the most important part of the process, but should also give a chance to meet new people and tackle a target audience which is somewhat unknown.

Depiction of Real Life

The game will aim to mimic the interactions and the treatment that kids with autism endure each day. The game will be interactive, in a way that the chores given to kids will need to be performed by the players, for example, it could be as simple as going to kitchen. The players can move the character around, the scenes will be static but the character can be moved.

Dealing with Social Interactions

The game will have a dialogue tree, but will be a linear narrative. The story will showcase how the kids feel about social situations, as well as how they react in those situations. The game will portray the picture of the hardships and struggles faced by these kids.

Parent's Perspective

The project is not meant to only show what challenges the kids face, but also what the parents face. The parents face stress when they try to communicate, and it's very hard for them to also be part of a journey where they must be involved most of the time.

The game will require a lot of research and personal talks with the parents. The kids will be tricky, but the data will be gathered about their feelings and issues through papers.

The next blog post will detail the story line, mechanics and flow of events that will occur during the game.

Cheers!