...breathe.

DEVELOPMENT NOTES

‘…breathe.’ is a short game I created in Bitsy for a university task. From the start I had conceptualized representing uncertainty in life. Over the course of the game the player is lulled into a sense of security and direction. This is abruptly taken away however, and the player is left lost and confused as the world starts closing in around them. It alludes to loss and depression. The game is wholly black and white, mostly to facilitate the creative intent of the final rooms (descent1-7).

Controls

You can move using the left, right, up and down keys on your keyboard. WASD can also be used to move. Pick up items by walking over them. Walk into other characters to talk to them. Pressing any key to progress dialogue.

Character Design

Characters are represented as chess pieces. The player character is a Pawn, made unique by a single missing pixel on the head. This alludes to the player merely being a pawn in ‘the game of life’.

The Mother and Father figures are represented by a Queen and King respectively. Both King and Queen represent figures of authority and protection.

Both the Students and the Employees are also Pawns, though they lack the defining pixel that the player has. This is to give the impression that the player and these characters are equals. They are also to be seen, as with the player, as pawns in the game.

The Teacher is represented by a Rook symbolizing the fortification of knowledge and direction.

The Boss is represented by a Bishop to convey the aspect of authority and control. With the employees (pawns) spread out side by side as they sit before the boss (Bishop) the office scenes take on an almost church-like appearance. This helps to demonstrate the quasi-religious nature of going to work day after day.

The Girl is represented by another Pawn. Like the player however, she is afforded a unique aspect by having hair. Both the player and Girl are equals yet unique enough to stand out from the other Pawns.

Room Design

The game consists of 27 rooms, several of which are duplicated and modified in order to provide the illusion of change. Each room was designed to visually represent the theme being expressed.

Room 01: birth

This simple room consists of a narrow, linear path. The player starts at one side and moves to the other. It is meant to represent the act of birth.

Room 02: home1

This room is shaped like a house in order to convey the feeling of ‘home’. The Mother and Father characters can be found here, along with two items representing their ‘blessing’. In order to leave the area (noted by the word EXiT) the player must pass two barriers. To clear the first barrier the player must obtain ‘Mother’s Blessing’. Once they pick up this item they are teleported to a copy of the room with the barrier removed. Beyond this barrier they may pick up ‘Father’s Blessing’ in order to remove the final barrier. The same room-change trick is used throughout the game to enact change in the immediate environment.

I originally wanted the player to be given the items through dialogue with the characters. However this proved to be too complex for the default editor to handle and I have no understanding of how to code this behavior in manually. I then wanted to have both the Mother and Father side by side, however this severely complicated the room-swap technique. I settled on gating both characters from each other and having the player progress through the barriers before being able to leave the room.

Room 03: home2

home 2 is a copy of home1. This was done to remove the first barrier after picking up ‘Mother’s Blessing’.

Room 04: home3

home3 is once again a copy of the previous room. This time the second barrier was removed.

Room 05: school1

The school room is shaped like an apple, a commonly used symbol to represent learning or academia. The environment consists of four desks, one of which the player ‘sits’ at, and three other student pawns. A teacher, represented by a Rook, stands in front of a whiteboard. Next to him is the item required to remove the barrier blocking the exit. This item, called ‘Teacher’s Blessing’, is meant to look like a crystal ball or similar orb in order to represent knowledge. I had tried to make several other symbols such as an academic cap, a book and a scroll however the pixel limitations made this difficult.

Talking to the other students the player is met with the repeated phrases of the Mother and Father.

Room 06: school2

school2 is a copy of school1 with the barrier removed.

Room 07: office1

The office room is drawn to look like a computer monitor. It is filled with desks, each with an animated computer monitor above them. Along with the player, nine other employees sit at these desks. They each repeat the same phrases as before with the addition of the teacher’s dialogue. Here the player must approach the boss at his desk and collect their salary.

Room 08: office2

office2 is a copy of office1 to remove the barrier. The co-workers have all changed their dialogue to repeat the boss’s statement.

The limitations of the editor made this and subsequent office scenes somewhat painstaking to set up. Because a sprite is unique, when it is place in another room it is removed from where it previously was. This meant I had to make copies of each sprite. While I had done this already with the previous rooms, having the number of actors in this scene made it painful.

Room 09: love1

This room is shaped like a heart to convey the feeling of love. The player approaches the girl character and obtains her ‘love’, removing the barrier to the exit.

Room 10: love2

love2 is a copy of love1 with the barrier removed.

Room 11: office3 and room 12: office4

Both rooms are carbon copies of their previous iterations, albeit leading to different exits. I repeated these rooms to give the sense of repetition. I could have repeated these multiple times, but the effort involved exceeded the amount I was willing to invest for this task. Simply repeating it twice provided the same effect.

Room 13: love3 and room 14: love4

As with the previous office rooms, these are a repeat of the love rooms from before.

Room 15: office5

Things change here. If the player is paying attention, they will notice that the ‘salary’ item is no longer next to the boss. The dialogue from the other employees has changed as well with them now saying nothing in the form of “…”. The break in routine should take the player off guard, creating a sense of uncertainty. When the player approaches the boss they are given the simple message “No.” and teleported to one of the next rooms.

Room 16: office6, room 17: office7 and room 18: office8

The player is left standing alone in the office. The other employees along with the boss are gone. The computer monitors are no longer flashing. There is a distinct sense of abandonment and isolation.

Several copies of these rooms were made as the player could have approached the boss from three different angles. To avoid teleporting to the wrong spot I made a room to accommodate each potential approach. I later realized this was unnecessary as I could simply have linked to different exit points, however I left it in to demonstrate that this was something I learned from.

Room 19: love5

As with the previous office room the player should notice that the love item is missing here. When the player approaches the girl, they are once again subjected to an abrupt “No.” and the girl vanishes. This should further compound the feelings of loss and abandonment.

Room 20: love6

Copy of love5 with the girl now gone and the barrier removed.

Room 21: descent1, room 22: descent2, room 23: descent3, room 24: descent4, room 25: descent5, room 26: descent6 and room 27: descent7

These final rooms represent the player being lost, wondering in a void with no sense of direction. Various trigger points exist that teleport them to a smaller version of the room. This gives the effect of the playable area getting smaller and smaller, closing in around the player. A total lack of awareness of where the triggers are leaves the player uncertain as to their next step. Each time I played this, despite already knowing the outcome, I experienced hesitation in making the final move. A first-time player may also experience this, not knowing what will happen next. The game of course ends after this, but its cyclic nature (it just loops back around to the start) helped inspire the title ‘…breathe.’ When the game loops back around the player is reborn to live the same story. In a way the game could be interpreted as a personalized hell simulation in which the protagonist is doomed to suffer the same fate over and over.