MessageMe

Take a look into this prototype of a short SMS-based horror game as you navigate that familiar computer until something... unfamiliar... takes your attention away.

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Note: Please try playing the app on Scratch before you read this note.

Inspiration

Based on other digital-world based horror games, like "Error 51" or "Simulacra", this text based game simulates an IM messaging system like AIM in order to warn people of the dangers of viruses from unknown sources.

Games are a medium of expression, played by many with a purpose to invoke a emotional message. Horror games are an incredibly powerful tool to invoke emotions, but also help simulate what a person may do when faced with adversity. Gaming as an art form can be used for advocacy, and such titles like "Papers Please", "That Dragon, Cancer", and "Detroit Become Human" can attempt to unweave complex ethical problems and moral responsibilities. I chose to make this game to teach about viruses that can crash your program.

What it does

You are instructed to log on to your Windows computer. Then, you will open up an app called "Message Me" . You can read over your profile, settings, and 4 other chat histories from your friend. You can also choose to logout. However, you discover that you have a new friend who wants to share some interesting information with you.

How we built it

I used Scratch, a drag and drop coding based platform built by MIT, to make the game. I orginally wanted to use Unity, Pygames, or Android Development Studio as I did in a previous hackathon, but my computer space seemed to slow the programs down. I built it using Scratch since Scratch programs are typically easier to program, since they use high-level blocks of Javascript.

The program itself has a multitude of backgrounds to serve as screens, sprites that serve as buttons between pages, audio sounds to add fear and simulate a Windows machine, and text-to-speech to simulate virtual assistants. I added an objective counter to show the objective. I also added control flow statements to monitor what the text would be based on which of the three options you click. To make the app almost freeze when you started the conversation with the new friend, you could not logout or switch pages between the other chats, to simulate that something was going wrong. I added broadcast messages in order to highlight when certain messages occur.

Challenges we ran into

Scratch does not have a text engine, so I had to make sprites' costumes change each time rather than setting them to have a text change, which limited my initial desire to have the user type out messages which would ideally display on the screen. I also wanted to add more sound and visual effects, but the Scratch library is limited. I wish the game was longer and scarier.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am really proud of the visual elements of the game, since I am not an artist, yet the game looks somewhat fun. I did not create the inital pages, such as the user screen or windows wallpaper screen, but found those on Google Images. I am also glad that I was able to sort out one bug, which was that certain items would not be clicked on or certain sprites could be clicked during key sequences when they weren't supposed to.

I am also really proud that I created this game in a couple of hours from (and excuse my pun) Scratch. :)

What we learned

I learned more about broadcast messages paired with "until" statements. I can't think of an equivalent in other programming languges, but it most resembles a while loop. I learned more about how to plan a horror game, since suspense is necessary to make the game feel palpable. I also learned a little bit more about types of viruses and logic bombs, as I researched if this file would be a worm, logic bomb, trojan horse, or just a virus.

What's next for MessageMe

Hopefully, I want to learn Unity in order to bring this game to an actual programming interface. I also would like to learn more about creating text engines in Scratch, if I keep the game there. Furthermore, I want to learn more about creating pixel art for games. In the future, I want to be able to let users type their messages and actually have it be like text bubbles that float up and you can scroll through messages, whilst sending images or other media than just text. I also want there to be an option to modify the user profile and change settings, potentially making things creepier. If it could be possible to have binaural audio, that would also be wonderful for MessageMe.

Note: In case YT link doesn't work, I've added a GDrive Link where you can watch demo directly.

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