Pause

Cover art
Explore the beautiful scenery.
Talk about how you feel.
Scripts used

How does the COVID-19 pandemic make you feel? Does virtual learning feel intimidating? Is working at home becoming stressful? These all may be thoughts you have had. Many people around the world are dealing with new feelings of fear and stress amongst the pandemic, as well as from current social and political issues. But how can we deal with these emotions?

What it does

Pause is a game that allows players to destress and take a break through calming activities such as talking about your day, listening to nature sounds, or simply exploring beautiful scenery. Pause is a unique take on a mental health app, which generally consist of journaling or meditation. Instead, Pause focuses on creating a quiet, relaxing virtual experience where users can choose to destress in a variety of ways, whether it is just enjoying small in-game activities or talking about how they feel with other characters.

Pause is not at all a replacement for therapy or mental health treatment; it is simply a game designed to help you destress and take breaks when needed. Whether you use it just for fun, to talk about your thoughts, or to get advice from in-game characters about dealing with certain emotions, it can help you decompress after a long day or during a stressful situation.

Inspiration

For many people, games are a great way to relieve stress and step away from work and responsibilities. Especially with COVID-19, there are many restrictions on the things we can do and places we can go, so simulating new environments could be relaxing for many. Pause stemmed from the idea of making journaling apps more interactive, so instead of simply using an app as a mobile notebook, it could be played like a game.

How I built it

I built the prototype with Unity, using C# and a visual scripting asset called Fungus to add player movement and dialogue. I designed the graphics/art assets myself using Medibang Paint and Figma.

Challenges I ran into

I had planned to create a more complete game with more dialogue, characters, and activities, but I ended up having to learn a lot more than I anticipated in the few hours I had for this hackathon, such as how to code player movement, how to use the Unity animator, amongst other things. I ended up making a prototype with only a few scenes and limited dialogue, but I still learned a lot along the way!

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

This is the second game I’ve ever made, and it’s the first where I tried coding, which I’m really proud of! I’m really proud of creating a playable character with animations and overall just laying the foundation for a fully functional game.

What I learned

I have never coded before, so I picked up a bit of C# to develop my app prototype, and I learned a lot about Unity and game development. I had a lot of fun!