05: Exhaustion

I’m not late posting this. Repeat after me. I totally did not forget and I am not late.

Cutscene:

We got a functional intro cutscene now yippee! This was a test making a full screen animation in Aseprite (the pixel art software I am using) as well as using the Timeline function in Unity.  The setting is during a therapy meeting where the doctor gives her a diary to write down her feelings. The colors I chose were a softer pink and purple color palette to give off a more comfortable vibe when going into the story, a stark contrast to the horrors to come. The reason for this is because I didn’t want to portray talking to others about issues or going to therapy in a bad light. This is meant to be a safe space for Raven. After receiving the diary, the screen will fade to black and another cutscene for a tutorial will begin but I haven’t started on that. 

Monster Designs:

This research purpose was to learn more about the mental health issues we will be tackling in this game and how to portray them through monsters.

Alienation:

Raven was diagnosed with a chronic illness when she was a child, resulting in her ghostly sickly appearance. Her parents were the busy absent type so she was incredibly lonely. One day during her childhood, she went to the park nearby to play with others, but the children, not used to seeing others that look as ghostly as her, made harsh comments about her appearance and refused to play with her. The monster design would need to reflect how these comments and her failed attempt to interact with others affected her at a young age. Initially meeting the monster would be a silhouetted human on top of the play structure before transforming into a monster with a large mouth and multiple eyes to represent their comments and unsettling gazes towards Raven. 

Body Dysphoria:

Raven would now start pointing out stuff about her appearance based on what the children said. She never noticed it before until she was rejected from society. This will be a humanoid creature that appears after looking at Raven’s reflection. It would be a crying eyeless creature with bony fingers and an indistinguishable body. The colors of the monster would be similar to Raven’s to reflect Raven’s perception about her physical self.

Isolation:

There isn’t going to be a full confrontation with this monster just yet since isolation is the main issue Raven is dealing with and will be a main boss later in the actual game. There will be a teaser cutscene about this monster at the end of the demon. It should appear to be a friendly recognizable  person as a lure to cut off connections with others. I’ll make another version where it shows its true self, being a small curled up creature enwrapped with veiny tentacles to push others away.