Hello, Bye
‘ Two houses, two memories, and … bury.’
— After grief, all will be well again
Genre
First-person Exploration Game
Team Size
3
Duration
3 weeks
State
Completed
Contributions
Project Concept
Level Design
Environment Art
Programming
Keywords
Mourning
Mental Visualization
Environment Storytelling
One of our team members just lost a loved one before the project. We hope to use this piece to console those who are going through the same pain: Grief is temporary. Eventually everything is going to be okay. In this game, we planned to simulate the mental world of those who just lost their loved one. On the one hand they are nostalgic about the warm and happy past, which is stored in the happy house. On the other hand, they experience the suffocating mourning feeling after the disaster, which is depicted by the sad house.
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Table of Contents
Design Statement
1. Level Design
Sad House:
Entrance
“I don’t want to go home. Everything at home reminds me of them. Everything looks the same on the surface, as if when I open the door, they will greet me with a smile as usual. But these days, the pain that almost gouges out my heart makes it clear that they will never come back again.”
In order to express the reluctance to come back home, I exaggerated the length of the corridor. In terms of lighting design, in order to show that the protagonist is suffering from a huge blow and has entered a psychedelic state of denying reality, I chose a combination of purple, pink, and blue.
Sad House:
Living Room
“Standing alone in the empty living room, I feel dizzy and can’t breathe, as if the air was emptied out. Why am I the only one here? It shouldn’t be like this, it shouldn’t be like this…”
In order to express the emptiness of the living room, I exaggerated the height of the space. The room being underwater and the floating furniture express the suffocation and dizziness of the protagonist. Players can make jumps to temporarily rise to the surface, and then slowly fall down to the bottom.
Sad House:
Dining Room
“Eating…oh right…I have to eat… I used to love sitting here and eating with them…”
Eating together is an important occasion for human beings to build emotional connections, and thus one of the most memorable occasions the protagonist spent with the loved one. I used the concept of ‘claustrophobia’ and designed the dining room to be extra narrow, like the inside of a coffin. This contrasts with the spacious and lively dining room at Happy House.
Sad House:
Their Old Bedroom
“I’m terrified to go in. Once the door was opened, I could see their smiling faces, smelling their scent. hear them calling my name. The familiarity of this room dragged me into an abyss of grief.”
To express this horrifying sense of grief, I used the concept of ‘deep sea phobia’, and designed their room as a sea abyss inhabited by a sea monster.
Sad House:
Stairs
I have to go upstairs and sleep. Just get some sleep and everything will be fine. I guess, I hope…”
Since most of the family interactions take place on the first floor, the second floor becomes a temporary haven for the protagonist. The sense of suffocation diminishes as long as the objects and spaces that evoke memories are not visible. Follow the stairs and the player will surface. Due to their disordered daily routine and the reduction of eating, the protagonist has little energy left. So I exaggerated the length of the stairs and increased the thickness of each step.
Sad House:
My Bedroom
“I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to go downstairs, I don’t want to think. Oh right, I can forget all the sad things with a drink. A pizza will also help.”
Excessive pressure makes the protagonist lose self-control and rely on drink, smoking and overeating to temporarily forget about sadness. The collapsed wall suggests the current fragile mental defense of the protagonist.
Sad House:
Second Floor Corridor
“Don’t think about it anymore. It will only make me miserable. Stop it, stop!”
The protagonist knows that recalling the happy times in the past will only make him sadder, but still, he can’t help thinking about it. So I put a lot of warning signs on the corridor leading to the Room of Memories, which means that the protagonist clearly knows that it is dangerous for him to be trapped in the memories.
Sad House:
Room of Memory
“The memories are presented in the form of a dream. Every single detail is magnified. All the memories about them are so vivid, but also depressing.”
To create a magnifying and oppressive feeling, I copied the decoration of the Happy House and made them huge. To reflect the sense of dream, I used pink, blue and purple as color palette and placed props in an unconventional way.
Forest Scene:
New House
“Lately I’ve been recalling the past less often. It seems like life is back on track. Sure enough, eventually everything will be fine.”
After the player finishes exploring both houses and get back to the forest, they can’t enter the two houses anymore. A pink house shows up and the player walks towards it. It represents the protagonist has accepted both the nostalgic happy past and also their post-disaster negative frame of mind, and decides to move on with their life.