A day in life 2D game

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  First Screen - ending by repeatedly moving towards the TV and console. Key to leave house; cat to get a ring.

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  Living room - pick up paper and put it in bin or recycling. Cat food for cat to get ring or just spend time cooking.

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  Park - Cans all around; pick up and bin for eco end.

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  Restaurant - go in to the date or head west to time machine

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  Date on the left. Complements your recycling. Barkeep to donate money for sustainable car. Lady in front judges you for binning paper.

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  Talking to the lady in the restaurant if you binned the paper in your house

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  If you recycled the paper in your house and went to your date, you get a close up

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  Time machine - warps you to the past?

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  1st room past - basically just talking to the chair gets you an ending. Was planning on doing an apocalyptic futture if no-one recycled.

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  Basement? Going to the past and going to the top left room. Greeted with dad doing some mining.

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  Meteor when you keep talking to the chair without batteries.

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  Living room past to grab batteries, or leave through the door to go to restaurant past.

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  Past restaurant - Going to the past via time machine, then heading to the restaurant.

Inspiration

Link to the file is in the 'file upload' area. I wasn't exactly sure what a hackathon was at first, then I looked up it's a coding marathon. So at first I though I would make a website where images would pop up and you drag them to the correct category, where you can recycle it or bin it, then an explanation would pop up (e.g. paper, plastic). But I though that would be a bit too basic given the time.

Then I thought about video games with themes of a bleak future, in which the sustainability of the planet was declining. I though a cute(?) story with different 'endings' would be a good idea, since I can make it short and sweet. I had this idea while thinking about Nier Automata and Kindergarden, where the ending you get depends on your choices. I had the date idea as story device to get from point A to B. I chose to use Bitsy as I saw it was good for quick game/story projects. It is aimed at kids to help make learning fun, or at least encourage them somewhat to recycle.

What it does

It's basically just a story, where you move around using the arrow keys, pick some items and go somewhere. Items help you unlock endings (such as binning the paper in the house then talking to a character in the restaurant would cause a 'meteor' to come down). Hopefully inspires you to recycle. Look the image gallery for all the maps, and brief descriptions on the possible 'endings'. It wasn't as bleak as I thought it would be, but it does reward you for doing nice things. I hope this counts.

How I built it

There isn't massive amounts of code, mainly text box dialogue, pixel art, and 'if and else' statements for comparing variables and item amounts. So I started out with some art, items and variables, then carried on from there.

Challenges I ran into

I didn't storyboard it, so it was just whatever came into my head. I was afraid there wasn't enough sustainability elements in it to be considered part of the theme. I had recycling and binning, but not much regarding poverty or food waste. It also, surprisingly, took a lot of time. The software was rather limited in which it can't do more than selection and movement, so I was stuck to a story. I also was running out of time to make a powerpoint or video to show off the project.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm glad it looks alright and the paths/endings work. I think it's rather funny, and I added quite a few recycling elements.

What I learned

I learned how hard I find it to plan something to do for a hackathon. Got to learn how to use bitsy and make some pixel art.

What's next for A day in life 2D game

If I had more time, the endings could be a bit more well earned. Doing more to actually reach an end. Where you recycle all the cans in the park, it could take you to do a series of minigames too (like identifying what can be recycled etc.). I wanted to add an alternate reality where the future is bleak when no one does their part in recycling. Maybe add some music too it. Thanks for reading.

Built With

• bitsy