Title Screen

Inspiration

We wanted to make sustainability feel more personal and interactive. Environmental issues are often discussed at such a large scale that it can be hard to see how individual choices connect to real change. In Otter Words turns those ideas into a story where players can make decisions and see the consequences. The characters are also inspired by the mascots of SFU Surge, the organization behind StormHacks.

What We Built

In Otter Words is a choice-driven visual novel based around UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Players follow Yinny and four other otters as they deal with garbage, polluted water, community involvement, limited budgets, and responsible innovation. The game tracks decisions, relationships, environmental progress, and minigame performance, which all contribute to the ending.

How We Built It

We built the game in Ren'Py 8.5 with Python. The story is split into multiple acts, with a central decision system tracking player choices and traits. We also used OpenRouter to generate a personalized finale based on the player's decisions, allowing the ending to reflect the full playthrough.

Challenges

One of our biggest challenges was making choices feel meaningful without making every answer obviously good or bad. We also had to connect decisions from across the entire game into one consistent ending. Another challenge was keeping the topic of sustainability serious while still making the game fun, approachable, and lighthearted.

What We Learned

We learned a lot about branching story design, state management in Ren'Py, and building systems where many small choices contribute to a larger outcome. The biggest takeaway from the project was also the main message of the game: change does not have to be perfect to matter.