Studio 1- Related Works Week 3

I Woke Up

I Woke Up is a free dialogue selector game made in Unity. At the beginning of the game the player is asked to choose between waking up next to a man or a woman, and from there is taken on a strange journey which varies depending on your dialogue choices. The player can either cruelly dismiss the man or woman, or desperately seek their attention- or a mix of both extremes- and regardless the game will have a mysterious ending. One time I was told that my character had started to completely forget their family and friends and could only think of “her”; in another we seemed to amicably part ways only to find she was continuously showing up in my life “by coincidence”. The spooky music and outstanding hand drawn visuals combine to make this quite simple game extremely powerful, which is a huge inspiration given I only know how to make quite simple games.

Persona 5

It seems cruel to only write 100 words on the massive JRPG Persona 5. In P5 you play as a Japanese high school student who has been forced to move alone to a Tokyo school after being involved in some trouble in his hometown. It starts casually enough. You play through each day (April 1, April 2 etc) going to classes, working part-time jobs, going on dates, and reading books. But eventually you make friends and with them you journey into an alternate world to take down evil adults’ spirits to stop them from doing bad things in the real world. It sounds complicated, and it is, but it’s extremely fun. The player is given a huge amount of space to explore Tokyo, improve yourself, and make friends, and figuring out the best way to use your time is extremely satisfying. I think the game’s most important contribution to the field though is its incredible visual style. Visually, the previous four games in the series were certainly cute and occasionally psychedelic, but P5 is absolutely mind-blowing: scary, funny, psychotic, zany, mischievous and wholesome. This means that even when you feel you’re in a (very occasional) rut trying to make your way through, say, September, you are never bored playing P5.

Rosehaven

Rosehaven is an Australian comedy series set in a fictional Tasmanian small town. Daniel, who grew up there, returns home from several years on the mainland to help at his mother’s real estate business while she is ill. He is soon joined by his best friend, the recently divorced Emma, and together they attempt to run the business and overcome several demons from Daniel’s past. This show is nothing over-the-top. Daniel, a little over 30, has perhaps only recently found some self-esteem, and has resolved to stand up for himself to his mother and his old foes, but only wants to do so by living humbly and slowly earning respect. Emma is quietly devastated about her divorce and you never quite know if she’s there helping Daniel because she desperately needs a distraction or if she genuinely sees the value of small town life, but she also quietly goes about living a sensible life and supporting Daniel and the business. Either way, each episode sees them encounter a normal-ish obstacle, usually centered around a problem tenant, or Daniel finding a girlfriend. I’ve watched all of season one in lockdown while I’m living alone and I must say the show has kept me great company. It is proof that you don’t need expensive sets or huge, excessive laughs to make a project that makes its audience feel better about the world. I love these types of characters, probably because they are just like people I know, and I’m sure I will write about many like them.