{"id":1952,"date":"2021-10-30T17:48:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T21:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/imgd3500-b21\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2021-10-30T19:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T23:24:57","slug":"rice-fields-game-design-proposal-kateri-kiki-bajer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/teaching\/imgd3500-b21\/kkbajer\/rice-fields-game-design-proposal-kateri-kiki-bajer\/","title":{"rendered":"rice fields – game design proposal – kateri “kiki” bajer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The game itself is fairly simple: after arriving at the home of an elderly woman and her grandson on the Japanese countryside, the player must find a few items around the area in order to help with tending to the fields. Exploring the world from the first person perspective, the player will gather items such as shovels, a wheelbarrow, seed packets, a radio, etc to help with the needs of the two other people on the farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game itself takes place in the rural Japanese countryside, around the late 90s\/early 2000s where old radios and televisions are a bit more relevant than they are today. I want to give the vibes of a rather old, worn out and self-sustained environment that is still bustling with life despite the obvious wear and tear in certain places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two main characters in this game (beyond the player character, who we do not see) are an older woman and her grandson who live on the farm. They have a small two room house – which I am still unsure whether or not I will let the player explore it – where they spend their days together. There will be no nearby houses, as everything is separated by swathes and swathes of rice fields, which the older women spends much of her time tending. The player themself can wade through the fields to find items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to convey a feeling of “we don’t have a lot, but we care deeply about one another” with the grandmother and her grandson. I have tried my best to make their designs compliment one another despite obvious differences, as well as give them some literal ties to each other with matching bows on their hats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intended audience are people who enjoy feel-good, slower paced games, as I do want to incorporate a decent amount of dialogue for the player as they talk with the grandmother and her grandson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great deal of inspiration for the particular setting comes from My Neighbor Totoro, specifically the scene at the beginning where the father stops on the road and asks for directions from one of the people tending the rice fields there. The contrast with the countryside and the road there was exactly the sort of feeling to my game that I wanted to convey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I want to use a rather stylized look for the game, focused on a low-poly style and using pixel art as the texture. As a result, there’ll likely be a lot of flat textures (namely the rice) floating around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I definitely wanted to use a lot of images from the Japanese countryside, looking at the various styles of houses. Did I want a more patched roof, made with natural substances, a more traditional based house, or a more “patchwork” style one built of concrete and need whenever it arose? In the end, I decided the lattermost one was the one I enjoyed the most. In addition, the particular style of “a house at the end of a road with rice fields and power lines on the side” was what I had in mind, so when I found the top leftmost image I was overjoyed to see my exact mind-image put into form.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next up I looked for the style of dress that rice field farmers wore, and found that it was not only pretty standard and simple all around. While Chinese rice field farmers tended to have the triangle shaped hat that we tend to associate with rice farming, the Japanese style hat is notable different, and that is something I wanted to take particular note of.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the first things I wanted to do was understand the needs of the two characters, and as a result, how the environment (namely the house) would look. I figured that as there were only two people there and they wouldn’t want for a lot, they would only need a place to live and a place to store farming equipment. I gave them a small concrete porch with a single chair, surrounded by boxes and concrete blocks, and a small alcove for storage. In addition, I gave them a small buggy car, rusted from disuse but still chugging if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I really wanted to make sure that the older lady and her grandson were the life of the game. While most of the colors in the game will be more muted and focused on natural colors, I wanted to give them the most “unnatural” colored outfits while still keeping their outfits dull so as to not make them seem out of place nor make their clothing feel unnatural as farmers. The most obvious place I was able to do this was their gloves, which I kept brightly colored and complimentary to one another.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I kept the older lady’s design full of soft, round shapes, while the grandson I gave sharp sides and such in order to help the two play off of one another. I wanted to make them look different but as if they belonged with one another, as their relationship within the game is something I want to make very apparent and pure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A picture of the rice field from the player’s perspective.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some very rough sketches of relevant items\/objects in the environment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Concept of the world from an overhead perspective.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The game itself is fairly simple: after arriving at the home of an elderly woman and her grandson on the Japanese countryside, the player must find a few items around the area in order to help with tending to the fields. Exploring the world from the first person perspective, the player will gather items such… <\/p>\n

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