Game Concept: Ember

Here I document the ideation of the first of my three game ideas, which ended with the working title 'Ember'.

Users will have first-hand experience of the tragedy of dementia, having a bittersweet feeling of observing joyful memories and deep bonds with the knowledge they are stripped away.

Core Gameplay Loop Ideation

Further insight on the essential experience and its ideation can be found here.

I wanted to build a narrative game through this essential experience, as I believe that narrative design is my greatest strength when compared to other skills. I felt that focusing on the story and characters would be the best way to emotionally impact players.

I struggled to ideate a real gameplay loop for this concept. But I eventually settled on the following before the phase 3 presentation:

Loop 1

Activity & Risk:

Exploring the game space, with the risk of missing information that might hint towards upcoming aspects of the story.

Reward:

Mechanical: N/A
Emotional: Get a deeper understanding of the protagonist and his family.

Opportunity:

There will be occasions after dialogue that the player can explore the space and examine items. As the game progresses, there will be more clear hints of the protagonist’s dementia.

My idea behind this loop was that I could allow the player to have a growing sense of unease and realisation that unusual events are occurring as the game progresses. However, I still feel that there is something lacking about this being the sole core gameplay loop, and that if I were to continue developing this idea in phase 4, I'd need to have another loop.

Another loop I came up with and abandoned is noted below.

Loop 2 (Scrapped)

Activity & Risk:

Dialogue options to choose what stories the protagonist tells with a time limit, with the small risk that they may not get to choose if they are not quick.

Reward:

Mechanical: Unlocking different interaction options when exploring the space later.
Emotional: Forming a more personal connection with the protagonist and his family.

Opportunity:

These opportunities will arise from conversations with the protagonist’s family, naturally appearing throughout the game.

I abandoned this idea because it added a non-linearity to the story that I felt would increase the scope in an undesirable way, making it harder to deliver a full and satisfying gameplay experience within the time limit I have for developing the game. I think that I will can create a more emotionally impactful experience by focusing on linear storytelling.

Gameworld and Narrative Ideation

Discontinued Concept - No Working Title

"The player is in 1st person, experiencing events in a disjointed order that makes them consider what order things actually occurred."

I decided not to pursue this idea further, as I thought that it would be more confusing as an experience and harder to pull off in an engaging way than my other idea shown further below. I believe it would have been jarring for players to switch from a scene to another that is vastly different without any context, and make it harder for them to connect with any present narrative.

Second Concept - Initial Title "remEMBER"

"The player plays as a man on a camping trip that he goes on with his family. He interprets stories from the flames of a campfire, only for it to later become apparent that the flames are his own lost memories."

I felt this concept had a satisfying structure for telling the story of someone with dementia from a first-person perspective, using the medium of games to tell the story with an artistic technique to convey the loss of memories: being the fire showing what's been 'burnt away'. I knew I would have to more thoroughly think through why he goes camping and who is actually in his family, so I considered what character's would be included.

Key Character Ideation

Harry

He is a kindhearted man who’s demonstrated a deep love for his family in the past, supporting them to the best of his ability.

Elizabeth

Liz for short, she is Harry’s wife by the beginning of the game, displaying a relaxed nature with a fondness for light jokes. They are clearly happily married. Eventually she will no longer be seen, having died without Harry recalling this fact.

Jess

Harry’s daughter, clearly seen when she is young (visually around 8 years old), she seems energetic and deeply attached to her father. She loves his stories.

The Flame

Seemingly a living flame, it initially makes Harry fearful. However, it is not hostile. It seems to know how to put him at ease most of the time, and acts warmly towards him. The Flame is secretly Jess as an adult.

Gameworld and Narrative Final Concept - Ember

"The player is in 1st person as Harold Jones, or simply ‘Harry’. He goes on the same camping trip every summer since he was in his early thirties with his then-girlfriend-turned-wife, and even took his daughter whilst raising her. He takes a simple joy in telling stories through interpreting the flames of the campfire.

However, what is an unspoken detail at first, is that Harry suffers dementia (more specifically Alzheimer’s Disease), and the stories he shall interpret in the flames will actually be memories that he has lost; that have ‘burnt away’. As he goes through stories/memories, years pass by subtly: as the game blurs into one night from Harry’s perspective."

I feel it is important to begin the story with a sense of wholesomeness and sweetness to make the players invested in the characters, and make their experience have some joy.

The emotional impact of the story should encourage some players to reflect on their relationships with loved ones (not exclusively family).

I changed the working title from "remEMBER" to "Ember" to be less on the nose about the themes of memory loss, and be shorter so it is more easy to remember.

Trailer/Demo Scenario Writeup

It begins with Harry sitting at the campfire. His young daughter (8-12) sits next to him and hugs Harry before asking him to tell a story.
Harry will look into the campfire’s flames and tell of a woman who grew up dancing and teaching others how to do the same, igniting passion and joy within her students. During the tale, the tone will be warm and pleasant, with soothing background music, and the flames will shape into people, including this dancing woman made of flames.
Once the story ends, the music goes silent, Harry will notice that he can’t see his young girl, calling for her. Tense music will build up as he approaches a tent.
Once the tent is opened up, Harry (and the player) will see the same woman of flames that appeared in the campfire, lightly burning the inside of the tent around it as it lies down as if asleep. It will get up, scaring Harry and making him step back, asking “what have you done with my daughter?”, the figure will approach while stating “it’s me”, and the music will begin to shift to a sombre tone.
Moving further away from the tent, Harry will yell for the figure to stop, to stay back, to go away. The figure will say ‘It’s me, it’s Jess” as it tries to hold him and comfort him. Harry will say the figure is lying, until she hugs him as she had when she was younger. The flames then engulf the screen for the end.

I had hoped to make time to create this scenario in Unity, but I felt it was a lower priority and so left it as my last goal. Due to lack of remaining time and my lack of experience in Unity I was not able to make this trailer in time.

Prototyping

Storyboard

Player character (Harry) with his daughter, camping
Harry interprets stories from the shape of flames in the campfire
Harry can't find his daughter and looks around, seeing environmental changes.
Encounter what appears to be a feminine flame elemental, causing fear [in Harry]
The flame will not hurt Harry, and speak soothingly. It asks Harry to read the fire.

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Lego Scene Mock-Up

Harry sees 'The Flame' in the campfire

Same scene with light under 'The Flame' to better show their appearance, shown from two angles

Moodboards

Fire & Humanoid Flames

Forest and Campsite (Low-Mid Poly)

One-Page Pitch

The last thing I made for this idea before the phase 3 presentation was a 'One-Page Pitch' to summarise all of the core aspects of the game's theme and gameplay to attract people to finding out more, whilst trying to find a way to not spoil the fact that the player character has dementia; considering its a major story element.