Eloise Best

One New Message

Award-winning narrative game designed to teach young people about coping skills & resilience.

INTRODUCTION

Won 1st Place in the 2022 Resilience Game Design Contest run by charity Jennifer Ann's Group.


Role: Solo Developer

Skills: Art, Programming, Narrative Design & Writing

Tools: Unity, Yarn Spinner, Procreate


Play the Game

Trailer for One New Message: https://vimeo.com/744793305

SUMMARY

I won 1st place in the 2022 Resilience Game Design Contest with this narrative-driven game that helps young people explore healthy coping skills. The game has been published on itch.io by Jennifer Ann’s Group and comes with a free lesson plan for educators to use with their students.

CONCEPT

I entered the contest by submitting a written pitch for a game that would help young people explore the topics of resilience and healthy coping skills.


I pitched a narrative game that involved the player replying to text messages around different stressful situations at school, at work, and with friends. I tried to emphasize choice in the game – rather than forcing the player to use healthy coping skills, the game lets you do whatever you want but makes the consequences clear and provides future opportunities to make different choices.


I was selected as a finalist based on my written pitch, and had 6 weeks to develop the game and create a trailer.

DEVELOPMENT

I created the game in Unity and used the Yarn Spinner dialogue system to manage all the text in the game.


My process for developing the game involved:


  • - Created a rough outline of the game story, levels, and background art.
  • - Used Yarn Spinner to implement a mobile phone-style interface and to manage the story text between levels.
  • - Used buttons and Yarn commands to allow the player to select different coping skills and unlock additional reply options.
  • - Used Yarn variables to store data about player choices, then used this information to personalize the story.
  • - Used Procreate and a limited color palette to create backgrounds with a cozy, relatable feel.
  • - Added lo-fi music and sound effects from the Unity Asset Store.
  • - Finalized the text in the game and gave characters unique ‘voices’ with use of emojis, slang, etc.


If I’d had more time to work on the game, I would have focused on increasing the choices available to players and giving more options for them to ‘turn things around’ after failing to use a healthy coping skill when the option was first presented.