GAMES DEVELOPMENT
24/04/26 - 24/07/26 (Week 1-15)
SUN YUTONG (0377440)
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
JUMP LINK
LECTURES
Week 1 (20/4/2026)
Today, Mr. Ronald explained the assignment brief for the Mental Wellness
Game project, including the theme and key requirements. He also showed us
several example games on Steam to help us understand how games can explore
emotions and mental health in different ways. After that, we formed our
groups of five and started discussing initial ideas together, discussing
about some possible concepts and directions for our game.
Week 2 (27/4/2026)
Today, we continued to discuss our project and get feedback from Mr. Ronald.
Week 3 (4/5/2026)
This week, we finalized our game topic concept and start to do the GDD
draft.
Week 4 (11/5/2026)
This week, we revised the game mechanics and discussing about the memory
story.
Week 5 (18/5/2026)
This week, we distributed the jobs among our team members and started
drawing the game assets and design ideas. We discussed each person’s
responsibilities and began developing the visual style for the game.
Week 6 - 9 (25/5/2026 - 15/6/2026)
Each of us continue doing our own assigned part of the game.
Week 10-15 (22/6/2026 - 27/7/2026)
Developing in PlayCanvas and refining the game flow.
Week 15
Complete and finalized our game and the submission require documents.
GAME DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Week 1 (April 20, 2026), we formed a five-member team.
These are our team members:
- Sun Yu Tong
- Pan Rui Ning
- Jiang Jia Yu
- Aricia Man Yi Xuan
- Rachel Ng Jie Ting
Brainstorming Development:
At the beginning, our group discussed and came up with three different
game ideas related to mental wellness. One of the main ideas was a 3D
emotion simulator, where players explore different emotion rooms such as
sadness, anger, and anxiety, with interactive activities in each space
based on their current mood.
However, after receiving feedback (Week 2, 27/4/2026) from Mr. Ronald, we
realized that some of our ideas, especially the emotion room with multiple
mini-games, might be too complex and difficult to maintain in terms of
quality.
This is the slide deck outlining our game's theme concept:
Finalized Concept:
After sharing and discussing all the ideas, we decided on the project topic
through a group vote. The "Sea of Echoes" concept, which I proposed,
received the most votes from the team. Once selected, we proceeded to develop
and refine the concept as a group.
Fig 1.3 Game development document
This is our first rough draft for our concept.
Narrative Storyline:
Fig 1.4 Story idea
After drafting our game concept, we continued refining the storyline and
discussed how to create a more emotional and meaningful narrative experience
for players. We decided to create a "friendship-based" narrative between two
characters.
Work Distribution:
Then, our group started to distributed work:
Aricia:
All of the characters (MC & NPC), including character movements
Ship
UI design
Game cover page button
Game map and in-game elements
Jiayu:
Design all game backgrounds
Yutong & Ruining:
Drew memory cards, think of the story
Design the mini game
Rachel:
Responsible for game coding & programming
My Process of Creating Game Assets:
First, Ruining and I divided the work of creating illustrations for the
"Memories" section and the various mini-games. I was responsible for the
"Memories" section and mini-games 6 through 10, while she handled the
"Memories" section and mini-games 1 through 5.
Fig. 2.1 Memories 6–10
Next, drawing on the established art style, I determined the overall visual
style for the "memories" segments and the mini-games.
Fig 2.2 Art style reference
Development in Adobe Illustrator:
We began by sketching the "memories" for each story and then designed
corresponding mini-games; throughout this process, we engaged in multiple
rounds of team discussion and review to refine and improve our illustrations.
Memory 6:
This is "Memory 6," which I created. During the process in Illustrator, I drew
elements on separate layers to make it easier to extract the assets later.
Fig 3.1 Process screenshots
Fig 3.2 Memory 6
Mini-game 6:
Gamepaly: The game's core gameplay involves players restoring the
content of letters; although the letters can be fully reconstructed, the final
sentence remains missing, leaving the player with a sense of regret.
Memory 7:
Mini-game 7:
Gamepaly: The core gameplay involves players manipulating
the audio to make the sound increasingly clear.
In the final gameplay, the mechanic was ultimately modified to adjust the
fluctuations of the two audio signals so that they matched in frequency.
Memory 8:
Fig 3.2 Memory 8
Mini-game 8:
Gamepaly: This game incorporates a memory element; initially, items are scattered on
the floor, and players must drag them back onto the cabinet to restore the
arrangement shown in the image below.
Fig 3.2 Memory 9
FINAL COMPILATION
PlayCanvas editor project link:
Web-playable Final Game ("Sea of Memories") link:
Brief description of Sea of Memories
Sea of Memories is a 2D side-scrolling narrative adventure that combines
atmospheric
point-and-click exploration with relaxing puzzle gameplay on PC (Windows)
and
Web (HTML5) platforms.
Designed for players who enjoy cozy, emotional, and story-driven
experiences, the game follows a protagonist sailing across a quiet, fog-
covered sea in search of forgotten memories.
Using simple mouse-only controls, players collect glowing Light Fragments,
solve interactive minigames, and gradually restore memories of the
protagonist’s relationship with Xiao Tang. Each recovered memory helps the
Guiding Light Plant grow, symbolizing emotional healing while illuminating
the surrounding sea.
Sea of Memories encourages players to progress through remembrance, ref
lection, and acceptance, exploring themes of grief, healing, and moving
forward in a gentle and meaningful journey.
Video Presentation YouTube Link:
Cover: DST61104 Games Development - Assignment
Component A: Final Game & ePortfolio
Component B: Game Asset Manifest
Component C: Prototyping Document
Component D: Game Design Document
FEEDBACK
Week 2 (27/4/2026)
Specific Feedback:
Our primary emotions should be based on research, not random choice.
If the gameplay concept is strong, narrative is not necessary.
We need to concern about complexity as each room have different mini game.
If too many game, it would be hard to maintain quality and consistency.
Different gameplay in each room is good.
The most important is "How the player feels of playing the game", it must
align with the project theme.
Week 4 (11/5/2026)
Specific Feedback:
We should make it clearer that the stars collected by the player represent
positive memories and emotional fragments, may use sound effects such as
cheerful ambience, children’s laughter, when collecting stars to help
players emotionally connect with the memories.
Instead of directly collecting memory shards, we can change the system
into collecting smaller star fragments first. After collecting enough
small star fragments (for example, 6 pieces), they will combine into one
complete large star. Then, the completed large star will then unlock
a memory scene and related mini game.
For the art style, we could reference a simple visual style similar to
stickman-style games. However, the final visual style is still up to our
group’s decision.
Since the gameplay mechanics are relatively simple and minimal, we should
focus more on storytelling, atmosphere, emotional delivery, and visual
presentation.
Week 5 (18/5/2026)
Specific Feedback:
Overall game mechanics are good and well-structured.
Instead of collecting and placing stars one by one, the idea can be
improved by transforming collected stars into a plant growth system,
allowing the plant to fully grow first. Then, planting it at the final
island as the ending action.
Recommended adding special effects (e.g. glow effect) to the plant as more
stars are collected to make the growth feel more rewarding.
REFLECTION
Participating in this project was a challenging yet rewarding experience.
It was our first attempt at game development, and fortunately, the team's
unwavering support and efficient collaboration ensured the project
proceeded smoothly.
Overall, the course was both demanding and highly beneficial. Our
instructor fostered an open learning environment and gave us the freedom
to manage our own schedules; this not only honed our independence but also
provided a genuine taste of the actual art pipelines and development
cycles found in the game industry.
My assigned tasks involved working with Ruining to illustrate the game's
"memory cards" and to design and draw the mechanics for the mini-games. I
wasn't particularly proficient with Adobe Illustrator at the start, so the
initial illustration phase took quite a bit of time; however, this
experience significantly improved my skills with the software.
I am deeply grateful to my teammates for their flawless work—from
character design and illustration to background art, the creation of the
memory and mini-game elements, and the coding that brought the game to
life. It was through our collective collaboration that we succeeded in
creating a truly outstanding game.
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