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Eco Retro Video Game
An old-school RPG quest which aims at raising awareness to environmental and sustainability issues. The game emphasizes actions that involve changing life habits, such as recycling. This project was made as part of a course on environmental and cultural design at Shenkar College.
The Game Plot
The protagonist is Jude Melton, an old-school private investigator, divorced dad and technophobe. He takes on a case for a Native American chief, whose reservation and tribe are under threat from an unknown source. Jude goes on a quest to uncover the mystery and save the reservation.
The Problem
In a world characterized by accelerated technological progress and increased exploitation of natural resources, humanity has largely lost its connection with nature and environmental consciousness. I believe that barring a radical change in our life habits that helps to reduce environmental degradation, our future as a planet, for both humans and animals, is at risk. I chose to attack this problem through an investigative quest, aiming to increase awareness among young people and children and channeling my message through the storyline and game mechanics.
The gifs was made by (from left to right):
https://tenor.com/users/trouxasoueu, https://waneella.tumblr.com/
Inspiration
In building the environment, I was mostly inspired by role-playing games, especially those with modern themes. I also drew from old games such as Pokémon and Shadowrun for Super Nintendo, with their old-school atmosphere, unique game mechanics and pixel art visual language.
The Idea for the Game
While I knew I wanted to do an environmentally-themed RPG, I realized that a game that mostly involves collecting and recycling garbage can be quite boring. That is why I decided to write an adventure/thriller storyline and use it to introduce environmental and sustainability themes. That is why I decided to work on a story involving a detective uncovering a mystery related to environmental degradation, going
head to head with a mega-corporation careless about the future of
the planet.
Character Development
Work Process
Script
I started by developing the different characters, and then wrote a script illustrating the dialogue and interactions between those characters, as befitting an RPG.
Environment Design
Initially, I used Photoshop to design objects using a 32x32 pixel grid on order to maintain the pixel art style. Realizing that the quality was not good enough, I used Illustrator to draw vector objects and then exported them to Photoshop using the 32x32 resolution.
Vector First Version
Pixel Art Final Version
Characters Design
I started by using the 32x32 grid for the characters, but then decided that increasing their length gave them a more realistic and proportional look. I drew the detective first and then the other characters, and for each, I designed four walking directions with walking animations.
Development
I developed the game using RPG Maker VX, which enabled me to introduce motion and interactive elements without the use of programming. After importing the objects, I constructed the different scenes and interactive elements, made up of different events and variables and serving as a kind of programming language for the game. Next, I embedded the dialogue as a series of text boxes, and developed the primary game mechanics of collecting and recycling garbage, in addition to scene-specific mechanics such as grocery shopping, escaping corporate agents etc.
Screenshots
See also:
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