Jasmin Rohde

Portfolio

BA4: Experimental Game - Hold My Hand, I'm Scared

Team Members

Lara Streppelmann - Artist
Judith Kneip - Artist
Jasmin Rohde - Programmer and Sound Designer
Anna Oberhauser - Designer/Project Management/Project Lead

Production Year

2022

Platform

PC

Genre

2D Narrative Side Scroller

Engine

Unity

About

You play as a single-use plastic bag that got thrown away and is now falling into their last journey and it's (quite literally) going down hill. But fear not! You're not alone, there's plenty of trash to hold onto. You're facing eternity together, with quiet conversations of days long lost. Although, these exchanges only remain in the moment, whilst your grip is growing weary and you continue to tumble down. The only thing you're left with are the lingering feelings from your encounters and the realization of your inevitable fate. Eternal life might be scarier than death.

Unusual Perspective

Players play from the perspective of an object that is usually considered trash.

Custom Hand Controller

Players use a custom-made controller that resembles a hand to interact with the in-game characters.

Mixed Media Art Style

Utilization of self-taken photos, animations, illustrations and audio snippets.

Personal Contribution

Programming & Sound Design

Main Dialogue System

For the dialogue system, I used Yarn Spinner to implement the main dialogue and the ability to choose from two answers that affect the outcome and personality of the bag at the end of the game.

Idle Lines

If you finish a dialogue with a character they will start idle talking until the player decides to move on.

Encounter Lines

While approaching the next trash character, the player can see them talk, if you decide to hold on the actual dialogue starts and zooms in and can be exited again by simply letting go.

Final Dialogue

The final dialogue shows the bag sitting on the sand until the sea glass joins him, the content of this dialogue is built dynamically and heavily depends on whom you met, how far you got in these conversations, and what options you picked, the bag will reflect on the characters and his actions.

Custom Hand Controller

We created a custom controller for the game which is shaped like a hand so that you can hold a physical hand while playing but we also implemented keyboard support to be able to play the game without the hand as well.
For holding on you can use the spacebar and select options with the mouse or w and s and then enter.

Hand Controls

The hand controller has 3 buttons for the input and they are placed in a way that the player feels like holding a hand, as you can see the left button on the top is to hold on to a trash being, the right button is to select the first dialogue option and lastly the one at the palm of the hand is for selecting the second option.

Controller Creation

To create this controller I used an Arduino Microcontroller and paper mache and then attached the three buttons to it.

Sound Design

For the sound design, we decided that we wanted to have one piece of music for the end of the game, the rest of the time there will be ambiance playing, and the music starts once the plastic bag meets the sea glass.

Sound Effects

Ambient sounds will tell the story of the environment, e.g. when more trash is being dumped. The sound effects create a more realistic soundscape to create immersion and draw the player in. You can also hear the characters talk, in their own way, with sounds fitting the character's material. For the implementation of the sounds and music, we have used fmod.

Gameplay Video

Download Game Prototype

Download