Description of the game

Game Walkthrough (story overview, mid point experience, goals)

The story start inside the car, with the child and parent arguing. Before the interactive part starts, a short video explaining the back story is played. Starting with the decision of either apologizing or keeping quiet, the plot starts to go in different directions. After some bad decisions, the child ends up sneaking out of detention, and has again the decision to either tell the parent or just hole up in the bedroom. Similar to this, the story will go on in different directions. The goal of the story is to make the best decisions possible and rekindle the relationship with the parent, while handling your emotional well being.

Fictional background of the game (story)

Since Martha’s mother has been gone, nothing has been the same. Friendly chatter turned into accusatory fights, quality time together into collective grieving, and familiar love into rebellion and frustration.

Since Martha has only reacted to his advances with shutting him out, Martha’s Dads daily life has gone off the rails. He’s not only grieving the loss of his wife, but also the loss of his connection to his daughter. Thoughts of frustration, anger and sadness run through his mind all day, and get in the way of his work and family responsibilities.

Since Martha’s mother is gone, Martha has blamed everyone for being the cause her life will never be the same, including herself. It will never go back to normal, so why bother trying? She does not want to talk about it to anyone, least of all her dad. She longs for a release for her frustration and anger, and finds it in her daily interactions at school, picking fights and talking back. But somehow not even fighting makes her feel better.

Description of major characters in the game

Martha:

Martha is a 13 year old girl, who lives with her Dad in a suburban neighbourhood. Besides going to school she also likes to take walks with her Dad and her dog, playing with friends and taking part in her schools basketball team. At least she did before it happened.

Pappa:

Martha’s Dad is a 38 year old man, working in an office as an accountant. He loves spending his evening at home with his family, watching TV or playing games. His biggest goal is to give his daughter everything he can, so she can live her best life. He occasionally likes going to a bar with some of his old friends, or an after work beer with his fellow accountants.

Max:

Max is a 13 year old boy, who lives with his Dad in a suburban neighbourhood. Besides going to school he also likes to take walks with his Dad and his dog, playing with friends and taking part in his schools basketball team. At least he did before it happened.

Mamma:

Martha’s mother is a 38 year old woman, working in an office as an accountant. She loves spending her evening at home with her family, watching TV or playing games. Her biggest goal is to give her daughter everything she can, so she can live her best life. She occasionally likes going to a bar with some of her old friends, or an after work beer with her fellow accountants.

Goal of the game/ How do you win

The goal of the game is to make the right decisions to get the family to connect again, create a loving atmosphere and deal with the grief of the parent in the most healthy way possible. Through making the decision to open up to the other party, a connection is made again, and together the family can deal with the loss and change that has once torn them apart.

Even after starting off with some of the wrong decision, that drive the family apart even more, the playing will get some changes to make everything right again, so even players that do not start off with healthy coping mechanisms can turn the game around again.

Key challenges for players

The key challenge for players is to empathize with the characters and gain the knowledge throughout the game to know which decision will lead to a positive outcome.

Interface/Feedback mechanics/Interaction

The interface consists of a menu button, which is always in the corner for players to get help, save and end the game, or go into their settings, a progression bar which shows how far they are in the game, and how far along the next decision is, and the occasional decision buttons.

When picking the healthier decision, players will get minimal audio feedback that signals they were right, they are also rewarded with popups of the thoughts of their friends/talking partners, that either praise them or judge them.

Visually, the players can get a sense of the direction they are going into through the colors. The illustrations are always complimented with one primary color and their shadings. When going in to a positive direction, the colors are brighter and happier, while after making an unhealthy decision the colors get darker and less saturated.

How does the player learn to play

In the beginning of the game players will be shown an introductionary video. In this video the story of the family will be introduced, as well as the decision making. There will be mock decision buttons in the beggining story, that show the player how to progress through the game. If players have difficulty understanding what to do, and take a long time to press a button after the decision is posed, the will get a hint popup, that explains to them again, how to progress through the game.

How does the player progress through the game

All players have the same starting ground, and the possibility for many different endings. Depending on the decisions they make, the gameplay can range anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. In the beginning, decisions will be easily distinguishable between healthy and unhealthy. Players that keep picking the wrong option will get more hints throughout the game, and easier to distinguish choices. Players that do very well and get many decision right in a row will not get hints, and are posed with options that get harder to distinguish.