MD 1 Game: Emulsion (WT)
¶ Grundinfos
Team
Felix: 2622628
Francesco: 2622602
Lio: 2622532
Loan: 2622631
Itch Link: https://fravinci.itch.io/emulsion
¶ GDD
¶ Short description
Emulsion is a 3D narrative-driven, psychological metaphor game mixed with 2D elements, following a middle-aged protagonist who navigates his way through his inner conflict around gender identity. Through symbolic mini-games, the player faces societal pressures, their own doubts and the path towards accepting themselves. The gameplay uses metaphors to reflect the protagonist’s psychological journey with the goal to find inner peace.
¶ Story & Theme
The goal of the course was to create a game exploring topics and themes related to the LGBTQI+ community. We focused on gender fluidity and being queer as a late adult. Our protagonist is a male-born person, represented through simplified shapes and colors. In the game, we follow this character through three mini-games that symbolize the struggles of identifying as genderfluid.
At the beginning of our story, the character has a small amount of another color in their body. Their main color blue symbolizes their male expression, while the secondary color pink represents their female expression. As the story progresses, the colors begin to merge. At first, they resist mixing, behaving like oil and water (an emulsion). But as the character gradually accepts their identity, the colors blend into something entirely new, a hue unbounded by societal norms. This fusion ultimately reveals green, symbolizing their true liberated self.
In the first mini-game, they confront their inner resistance toward their gender identity. They face both negative and affirming thoughts. The wind in the game symbolizes this internal struggle, but in the end, the positive thoughts outweigh the negative ones.
In the second mini-game, they experiment with wearing different kinds of clothing. Both stereotypically male and female, as well as mixed styles that help them grow into something new. In the game eyes shoot the character with knives while laughing, symbolizing society’s aversion and mockery toward gender exploration. This reflects how external judgment can hinder self-discovery. The barrier represents their inner insecurity, while the shield symbolizes their self-protection against these attacks.
The final mini-game revolves around communicating their gender identity to a loved one. The struggle of coming out and discussing such a sensitive topic is symbolized through a puzzle that gradually becomes easier as the conversation progresses, reflecting their growing mutual understanding. The game ends with the partner’s acceptance, leaving an open-ended future for their relationship.
¶ What is gender fluidity?
Gender identity can shift and is not fixed, which is why it is referred to as a fluid gender. At times, individuals may feel the need to express themselves according to their current gender identity and prefer to be addressed accordingly (e.g., through pronouns, clothing, appearance, etc.).
This should not be confused with being transgender. Gender fluidity is not a conscious choice, it can change daily or even monthly. For example, a genderfluid person might feel like a woman for a few weeks, then non-binary for a few days. Ultimately, they align with whatever identity they feel most comfortable with at the moment.
It is also important to note that genderfluid expression does not need to fit into rigid categories like "male" or "female." In the end, they express themselves in whatever way feels right to them.
¶ Design
¶ Art direction
We focused on a low Poly art style for all of our assets. We designed our characters in a very low poly style due to our limited knowledge and experience of 3D Character modeling.
The colors inside our game were very important for us, to show the gender identity of the different people. That is why our main character was designed to be blue at the start of the game but have a small inner pink circle inside their chest, which increases in size during the duration of the game, to show their inner acceptance towards their own gender fluid identity.
Blue symbolizing male representation and pink being the female representation. In the end, the two colors mix and create green, symbolizing that they’ve found their own identity beyond stereotypical norms.
¶ Concept
For the visual style of the game the focus was on maintaining simplicity with basic forms and shapes.The main character is portrayed through basic geometric forms, as those are often associated with gender. Sharp, angular shapes suggest “masculine” features, while softer and rounded forms are usually linked to “femininity”. Color-wise the main character is being rendered in blue hue, referenced from the genderfluid flag, representing the character’s biological sex.
The overall 2D art style is simplistic, using saturated colors and clean shapes to create a bright atmosphere. Sharp chaotic and messy forms with dark hues or a stark, bright red should cause discomfort and harm, while soft shapes and brighter colors, a bright green bring forth the good – for the player to differentiate between harm and healing easily.
All in all, the art concept supports the emotional narrative by bringing symbolism, color theory and shape psychology together.
¶ Assets
¶ 3D
The complete 3D Pipeline was done from Blender to Unity Engine 6.
We used Blender 4.0 for the 3D Models, 3D Animations and the 3D Rigging.
All of our 3D assets in the game are made by us.
We focused on simple readable silhouettes.
For Example the flying Obstacle in the first mini-game has a spiky silhouette, to show its dangerous nature.
¶ 2D
All 2D art and 2D objects were made in ProCreate.
As already mentioned, we focused on simple, recognizable shapes and simple color schemes for players to easily understand their meaning and purpose.
For example, in the first mini-game, where the character is running and dodging words, the design of those carries meaning. Negative words have been designed sharp, jagged and messy in dark tones, to create a sense of unsettlement, something that should cause harm to the main character. Elements that look horrific like ugly laughing mouths or shackles that are binding to show off its negative impact. In contrast to that, positive words are in softer shape with even curves and elegant edges, brighter colors with elements that usually are associated with happiness. Flowers in soft pink, the sun that brings light to our world and finally, pillars that represent stability or encouragement. It’s a visual way to make the player see what supports you and what can tear you down.
In the second mini game the essence is judgement, visible as staring eyes that shoot out knives as they cause damage. They are designed to feel invasive with sharp outlines and an emotionless gaze. The player’s mental state is shown as a half circle surrounding the MC, starting from green (healthy), changing to yellow and red (critical) depending how much damage they take, the object of defense in this case being a shield.
¶ Mechanics & Game Design
Our Goal was to alternate between Story focused parts and gameplay parts of the game, to keep the game novel and exciting.
Story → Game 1 → Story → Game 2 → Story → Game 3 → Ending.
In the end, the mini-games should be symbolic and should also be represented in the gameplay itself.
¶ Game 1
The first mini-Game is an auto-runner, which focuses on building the Player Characters confidence by collecting positive thoughts. The Game draws inspiration from titles like Temple Run and Subway Surfers.
Our Main character is controlled using the W, A, S, D keys for movement and the Space bar for jumping. The Games artistic design is reminiscent of a road home symbolizing that our Player Character is finding his own way. It also intentionally features no fail state to align with its positive message.
The Player must avoid three types of obstacles: red spiky balls launched toward the player down the track, static black barriers requiring dodging or jumps to avoid collision, and large negative thoughts that block the path and must be dodged.
Progress occurs through collecting two types of items: green balls that spawn randomly and increase the player character's run speed as well as confidence when collected, and positive thoughts that appear at fixed intervals along the track. Collecting positive thoughts also increases the player's confidence meter. Filling this confidence meter to its maximum will complete the game. The fixed spawn pattern of positive thoughts ensures the player can always progress toward the goal, functioning similarly to checkpoints.
¶ Game 2
The second game revolves around defending our inner security and gender expression from hateful eyes. The player has three lives, symbolized by the barrier around the character. The goal is to defend the character for a certain amount of time.
Using the A & D keys, the player moves the shield protecting the character. The shield only moves in a 180-degree radius around them. The eyes shoot knives, which can be blocked with the shield. If unblocked, the knives hit the barrier and reduce one life.
The eyes open, turn yellow, and vibrate to indicate they will shoot soon. They turn red and laugh when actually attacking.
Over time, the character tries out three different outfits. Upon reaching the third outfit and surviving briefly, the player wins. If the barrier is destroyed first, the player loses but can retry.
¶ Game 3
The third mini-game is a puzzle-based communication mechanic between the protagonist and their wife. The puzzles integrate narrative and gameplay, starting with challenging arrangements that gradually become simpler, symbolizing their growing mutual understanding. We move the pieces with a drag and drop mechanism by clicking the left mouse button and moving the cursor.
Players can remove and retry incorrectly placed pieces (representing words or thoughts), as there is no fail state, reflecting how finding the right words takes time. The game concludes after solving three puzzles and is set in their home’s kitchen.
¶ Story Scenes
The Story scenes are small bits of direct text revolving around our main character. In these scenes just some sentences fade in when the player clicks, to get them into the narrative and closer to the emotions of the character. To progress to the corresponding game, the player needs to press a button.
¶ Technology
¶ Implementation
We developed the game using the Unity engine, with C# as the programming language in Visual Studio Code.
Our implementation incorporated several design patterns, including the Prototype pattern used for the positive and negative pickups in the first minigame.
¶ Particle system
We also created a custom Wind Effect using Unity's built in Particle systems.
¶ DOTween
Several assets were animated utilizing DOTween, a complimentary Unity plugin specializing in game feel enhancement, commonly referred to as "juicing." This tool was employed to facilitate smooth text fade-in transitions during narrative segments and to generate violent vibration effects for the eyes in the second mini-game.
¶ 3D
We utilized Blender for the entire 3D pipeline. We employed various modeling techniques to bring our concepts to life.
In addition to modeling, we handled rigging and animation entirely by ourselves. We created a custom rig for our characters.
For the three different clothing we employed weight painting techniques. This ensured that clothing deformed with the character's movements, which turned out to be a bigger challenge than originally thought.
We also made a very sophisticated shader inside of Unity that was able to change the facial expression of the character by mapping different parts of a sprite map onto the 3D Face of the character. The shader was also able to change different parameters (like location, size, intensity etc.) of the inner circle/inner glow of the character.
One special texturing technique worth highlighting was the use of Vertex Painting for the red spikes of the spike ball in the first mini game, in which we made the top vertices of the spike red and the bottom one completely black, giving us a gradient from black to red across the spike. Finally baking this out and using this as a texture, give us the opportunities to use it inside the game engine.
¶ 2D
For the title screen, the animation was created using Procreate’s animation assist feature. This tool allows frame-by-frame animation, making it easy to create motion while maintaining the hand-drawn look.
¶ Audio
We used the free software Audacity to edit free sounds from the internet to our needs. Some sounds had irritating parts or just one second of a bigger sound was needed.
¶ Project Documentation
¶ What did we want to achieve in the semester?
Our goal for this semester was to develop a 3D narrative-driven game that explores the emotional and psychological journey of a middle-aged man who begins to critically reflect on their own identity and sexuality for the first time in their life. The game follows their personal discovery as they confront desires and aspects of themselves that they had long suppressed or never fully understood, particularly their questioning of traditional gender roles and their own gender fluidity which may eventually lead them toward exploring their own identity.
The narrative is designed to be introspective and sensitive, portraying the protagonist's inner struggles and the weight of a lifetime shaped by conservative norms and expectations. Throughout the game, players face a series of symbolic mini-games that represent the emotional and societal obstacles the character encounters on his path toward self-acceptance. For example, one mini-game has the player walking against a strong wind, symbolizing the internal resistance, doubt, and shame instilled by years of social conditioning.
Other challenges explore themes such as the tension within his marriage and the fear of losing long established relationships. Through this project, we aimed to create something meaningful that looks at late-in-life identity exploration, something rarely represented in games.
¶ What did we achieve?
We managed to develop two mini-games with small Tutorials. The first mini-game involves the player walking against a strong wind current, symbolizing the internal resistance and social pressures the protagonist faces. The second mini-game involves the protagonist trying on different clothes, while being watched by various eyes to reflect societal judgment and scrutiny.
Every mini-game has a small story background given, which sets the tone and makes the symbolism of the game more understandable.
We also included a Main Menu with credits
¶ What is missing/Could be further improved?
We couldn’t bring the story to life exactly as we envisioned. We had planned to create simple cutscenes to introduce key characters, provide context, and advance the plot. These cutscenes would have strengthened the emotional connection with the character and allowed for more immersive storytelling.
We also couldn’t complete the third mini-game due to time constraints. As a result, the wife character was cut, which saved time since we didn’t need to model or rig her.
Overall, the mini-games could use more visual polish, and incorporating additional story elements would make the character more relatable.
¶ Who did what in what area
Lionel made all of the 3D Models, Animations and rigs by himself for the game, which mostly revolved around the main character.He also made a dedicated custom shader for the character which is able to change the facial expression and change the parameters of the inner glowing circle.
Loan worked on 2D art and the 2D assets for the game. That includes the title screen and its button design and 2D in-game objects. In addition, Loan was in charge of character design for both the main character and their significant other for the 3D artist to implement characters and their expressions in 3D.
Felix was one of the primary programmers for our game. His main contribution was the design and development of our first minigame as well as various other smaller systems for the project, including but not limited to the Music and Sound Manager as well as a custom Particle System for the wind effect.
Francesco was one of the primary programmers for our game and the creator of its theme and core story concept. He developed the second mini-game in its entirety and implemented all narrative sections, including asset effects like fades and vibrations. Additionally, he programmed the main menu and scene navigation system.
¶ Lessons learned
¶ General
Through this project, we learned that openly asking questions when uncertain is crucial for a smooth workflow and avoiding backtracking. Communication as a whole was key, it could have also helped us adjust the project’s direction to better match the team’s skills and time constraints.
Additionally, the integration between 2D and 3D assets proved problematic and didn’t look as polished as we’d hoped.
¶ Playtesting
We gained many insights through playtesting sessions and implemented quite a handful of them in our game.
During the first playtest, we received some expected feedback since our game was still in a rough prototype stage. However, we also discovered new ideas and uncovered several bugs. For example, in Game 1, moving obstacles would get stuck on the character when the player was moving to slow. Another issue was the poor readability of text in Game 1, which we improved by adding white outlines. In Game 2, the eye's original line-targeting mechanic proved confusing, so we replaced it with a vibration effect to better indicate attacks.
By the second playtest, our game was nearly complete. We received balancing feedback and could better analyze player expectations. In Game 1, players wanted to jump over negative words, so we adjusted the collision accordingly. We also found that controls in story segments weren't completely intuitive, so we added more visual hints.
¶ Next steps
We'd like to further refine the game to achieve a more polished and visually appealing presentation. This would allow the full narrative vision and potential to shine through. Adding cutscenes and completing the final mini-game would significantly enhance the storytelling experience.
However, we recognize this requires substantial additional work, and we're currently uncertain if such expansions will be doable in the future.