if found

If Found… Dreamfeel (2020)

Create a 2D playable zine.

  • Experiment with custom asset creation and collage techniques.
  • Express ideas through game mechanics, custom inputs, and structure.
  • Use code to incorporate vectors, physics, and collisions into your game.

Videogames create embodied experiences by giving us control over our player-character, to allow them to make choices, and to interact with the rules of a designed world.

Zines are small, self-published and distributed books that contain, among other things, stories, musings, collages, photographs, drawings, and research. Often low budget, experimental, and highly personal, zines have a directness and intimacy that cannot be replicated in mass media.

In this project, you’ll create a videogame-as-a-zine that recreates a personal-artifact (an object, a memory, a place, etc.) as something that can be played, interacted with, or reenacted. Topics can be as literal or abstract as you would like, and can range from mundane to humorous to serious to practical.

Being a game, you’ll need to consider the types of rules that players will confront. We’ll look at and play examples of zine-like games to give you a feel for possible directions.

We’ve also created a bare bones 2D template project that can be used as the basis for your own, more expansive project.

Required Deliverables

  • Playable and complete. Works as intended. Play-tested and as bug-free as possible.
  • Cocktail cabinet controls. While not required to play on the cocktail cabinet. You should try and work within these constraints, but we are open to other controls if they are conceptually relevant.
  • Multiple scenes. There should be at least an opening title scene and a main, gameplay scene.
  • Custom character and world assets. Experiment with asset creation to create something unique. Consider photographs, sketches, screenshots, or anything that can be turned into a 2D image.
  • Game feel. Consider sound design, animation, and more to improve the “feel” of your game. Creating your own sounds, field recordings, backgrounds, videos,

    Optional Deliverables

  • Persistent data. Incorporate some information or state that will save across playthroughs. This could include scores, times, messages, or changes to the game world.
  • Meaningful multiplayer experience. Use direct or indirect competition/collaboration to create a communal experience. Consider how multiplayer might change the dynamic of the game.

UCLA Game Lab cocktail cabinet in two-player “corner” configuration

For games that will be played on the Game Lab cocktail cabinets, so take the format and context into consideration when designing your game. We’ve included input settings for the cabinets in our shared template.

A cocktail arcade cabinet is a modular arcade cabinet shaped like a table. A gaming PC and a monitor placed horizontally under a layer of glass, and players sit around the table looking downward at the game. The Game Lab cocktail cabinets can support up to four players in a wide variety of configurations; controllers slot into each of the four sides of the table. There are four cocktail cabinets in different colors.

1. Project Sketch

Due by Tuesday 4/30

Develop 2 (or more) sketches that illustrate your zine. What you want a player to experience, learn, explore, enjoy, etc.? What sort of images, sounds, videos, texts, and/or animations will you use and how will you create or collect them?

We’ll meet with everyone to discuss your sketch in class. We can give some guidance about implementation and where to get started.

Be sure to include:

  1. A sentence (or more) describing the idea:
    • Theme: What your idea is and how you’re planning to realize it. Who is the main character(s)? What are they trying to do? What is the world/situation/activity/etc.?
    • Interaction: What are the rules of the game or how does the player interact with these rules to complete the game (i.e. hold right, talk to everyone, build a sand castle, get to the chopper)?
  2. A visual representation of the game and how it might be experienced. This could be a mock-up screenshot, a storyboard, or something else that shows how the game will unfold.

Crystal Castles marquee artwork

2. Prototype It

Show in class on Tuesday 5/7

Start by building a graybox prototype of your zine. Try and build as much of your zine focusing on just the mechanics, systems, and behaviors. Use built-in Unity assets or placeholders. You’ll be able to focus on art, writing, sound, and other game polish in the third part of the assignment.

If the zine is primarily about the art assets, use quick sketches or rough approximations of what you’ll eventually develop.

The prototype should be playable within the editor, even if just a small portion, so we can give feedback.

3. Build it

Due by Tuesday 5/21 ~SUBMIT PROJECT 2 HERE~

  1. Build your zine.
  2. Include at least Start Scene that shows when a player opens the project followed by another scene. You can have as many additional scenes as you like including an ending scene, secret scenes, and more!
  3. Custom character and world assets. Photographs, sketches, screenshots, writing, or anything that can be turned into a 2D image can become part of your zine. Combine, collage, and experiment.
  4. Add in game feel elements. Background music, sound effects, animations, and more!
  5. Optional: Create persistent data. This could be a scoring system, an image, messages, or something else that gets stored across playthroughs.
  6. Optional: Some form of multiplayer. Consider different modes of multiplayer from direct to indirect competition to collaboration.

Please refer to the page on preparing your game for submission for more information on the build and documentation process.

Cocktail cabinets in their natural, wood-paneled habitat