Overview:
My Project is an Animal Crossing style game that takes place in a small, secluded town, away from the city. The game will walk the path that Animal Crossing has already pathed but take a different turn. The main purpose of the game is to escape to a nicer and friendlier world filled with residents that actually feel like they are alive, I want to allow them to express themselves I don’t want them to always feel okay I want them to sometimes feel sad or angry I just want them to feel like they exist because something these games do well is making you feel like you have friends in there and I want to improve that feeling. I want it to help improve or at least help control the mental health of the people that play it, I want them to play it when they feel like they need someone I want them to think of their residents as their friends that they can go visit whenever they please.
Motivation:
My motivation for this project comes from the fact that Animal Crossing New Horizons saved me, here is why back in 2020 we were just getting started with all the lockdowns and Coronavirus stuff when some family stuff happened and my mental health plummeted that was until Animal Crossing came out it was this incredible little world where we could all get away and visit each other and talk to these animals that lived in our towns and became friends with, all in all it allowed us to escape to somewhere that wasn’t reality. It is for that reason I think that we need a better escape or at least another option for one there are many games that allow for escapism but none that I've seen try and stick close enough to the original formula and improve it. Another important aspect of Animal Crossing is the social aspect with real people, I want to lean into that little more about that and add mini-games and other things for you to do with friends.
Description:
This game will have seasons that are based on the real clock so that it syncs up with whatever hemisphere you are from which is very important to me to allow for both north and south hemisphere seasons. I want the game to run on an in game clock so that time passed faster than in real life allowing you to do more in the time you are playing for. Another thing I want to have is basic player customization to allow for full expression. The residents themselves will either be Cat People or Chibi versions of real people, think pokemon before it went 3D. There will be an NPC mayor that you can make suggestions to for public work projects which will allow you to change or build certain things around the town. The residents themselves I want to have basic emotions, It will probably be random but I want them to experience, happiness, sadness, anger maybe at other villagers. Another thing for the villagers is I want to be able to do stuff with them I want them to ask you to hang out in the city area of the game as well as in their house and maybe to play basic mini games. Speaking of city area to get their I want to have some form of transportation like a train or bus or uber kind of thing that brings to there and once there all the shops and special buildings. Another thing I want to incorporate is season festivals which just adds a little celebration time to co inside with said seasons around the time they would be in the real world. I want to also build on the multiplayer form of animal crossing and have you be able to visit real life friends towns as well as play mini games with them too.
Tools and Technologies
As it is a video game, I will need some kind of engine now Unity is the first thing that comes to mind it will be able to be used to make the game but another one that comes to mind too is Gadot simply due to its open-source nature and friendly documentation I feel it could be the engine that I end up using. Other tools I would need is something to make art with the first thing that comes to mind for me is Photoshop or Paint.net both fantastic at what they do which are very similar things.
Skills Required
Skills required would be some programming knowledge either in C# for Unity or Godot Script which is similar to python for Godot. Another skill required would be basic art skill nothing too fancy but the ability to produce digital art would definitely come in handy at any skill level. Maybe some knowledge in working with one the game engines or even a game engine at all. I would say it isn’t completely feasible to find all the skills required to make this game, learning to use the tools and software will be a separate beast in itself there will be a learning curve with this.
Outcome
If the project is successful a functional game would have been created there would be a game that can rival Animal Crossing and most importantly give people another way to escape reality and hopefully if the game turned out successfully how I planned it could help with the mental health of some of the people playing it and that by itself would be a win.