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Major Project I - Final Compilation & Reflection

Picture Source: Our game's art (Patang puluh dina: 40 days of Grace) by Celine

23/04/2026 - 29/07/2026 / Week 1 - Week 15

Aquela Zefanya Soares / 0374377

Major Project I / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

INSTRUCTION

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TASKS

In this project, I teamed up with Celine Christabelle Patricia (0374872) and Jennifer Michelle Hiendrawan (0374682), refer to their blogs for their versions of the project.

Idea Exploration

The first thing we did was discuss possible game themes. Since we were given the freedom to create any theme we wanted, we started by talking about the kinds of games we personally enjoy. The games I usually play are mostly horror or action. Because of that, I suggested making something psychological and mindblowing (even though I definitely don't have the ability to write a story like that, but it is what it is). Thankfully, my teammates stopped my daydreaming and reminded me to think about how difficult that would actually be. Even so, we all agreed that we wanted to create something psychological.

We then gave up on that discussion and started talking about some of our previous assignments. I mentioned an interesting philosophy and religion module I had taken in high school. That eventually led us to one of our early concepts, which explored a sensitive psychological theme. We thought it could make for a compelling story, but we also realized it was a very sensitive topic to explore, especially from an academic perspective. We decided to keep the idea in mind for the time being and continued brainstorming instead.

While discussing similar themes, Celine brought up one of her previous assignments about a child learning to cope with the loss of their parents. I thought it would be interesting to expand on that idea, although at that point we were still leaning more toward our first concept.

When we consulted Ms. Anis, she explained that while our initial idea had potential, it involved a sensitive topic that might not be suitable for our project, especially as university students. Celine then mentioned our second idea about child grief, and Ms. Anis liked it. After that discussion, we decided to move forward with that concept.

Finalizing the theme, research, and story

We then gathered all of our research and ideas in Figjam to further develop the theme. Over the course of about three weeks, we refined our concepts based on the feedback we received (refer to the feedback section). Below is our Figjam board that documents our ideas and the project's development throughout this process. 

Prototype

At this stage, we decided to split our tasks. I proposed using a point and click mechanic to avoid overcomplicating things since we also had other modules to keep up with. Everyone agreed, and we decided to develop the gameplay around a point and click system. (We also received several rounds of feedback from Ms. Anis because we initially included keyboard interactions, but later decided to simplify the mechanics.)

I was responsible for creating the main sketches, while Celine worked on refining the sketches, creating most of the illustrations, and coloring them. Jennifer also helped with some of the sketches while focusing on the wordmark and cover exploration. After that, we divided the gameplay mechanics so that each person was responsible for developing one mini game.

Because of time constraints and assignments from other modules, I didn't have enough time to draw everything from scratch by myself. So, I used AI to generate pose references, along with references from Pinterest and Google. I then traced some of those references to save time. (Don't worry, I only used them as pose references, and Celine further modified many of the poses to better fit our characters and storyline.) Below is my timelapse process:

After completing the Figma prototype, we conducted our first round of user testing. Here is the feedback we received:

User 1:

  • The player was able to understand the overall story and recognize that the main character is a child.
  • Felt confused, curious, puzzled, and entertained while playing.
  • Radio tuning puzzle was difficult to figure out because it was unclear where to slide.
  • Storyline felt slightly confusing.
  • Able to predict the ending but was unsure about a specific detail.

User 2:

  • Found the story easy to understand (initially).
  • Gameplay mechanics were generally not confusing.
  • In the middle of the story, player felt the storyline became confusing and was unsure about what was happening.
  • Interpreted the events as being imagined by the character rather than reality.

User 3:

  • Initially expected it to be a horror game due to the humming sound
  • Found the experience unexpectedly enjoyable and engaging.
  • Spent quite some time interacting with the radio tuning mechanic.
  • Was surprised by the reveal of the (spoiler).
  • Gradually found the story more emotional, especially towards the ending.

User 4:

  • The player interpreted that the child struggles to (spoiler), causing him to experience hallucinations before eventually coming to terms with the loss.
  • The puddle jumping scene felt unusual because the perspective suddenly shifted from first person to third person. A clearer view of the character’s feet may work better.

We then proceeded with our first presentation, and Ms. Anis mentioned that the feedback from our initial user testing was valuable enough for us to continue developing the project.

After that, we continued with our assigned responsibilities. Since Celine already had a heavy workload with the illustrations, Jennifer and I focused on refining the storyline, improving the transitions between each mini game to create a smoother experience, adjusting the gameplay mechanics, and polishing the Figma prototype. During this stage, Celine remained in charge of the illustrations, while Jennifer and I handled most of the gameplay mechanics, storyline improvements, and Figma updates. We also used AI to help color some of our sketches due to our limited time.

To better represent our final game, I created several main menu layouts for the team to choose from. Jennifer then recorded the prototype walkthrough and added the sound effects (the video can be found under the Final Result section). We honestly don't know why we decided to include a voice over, but we thought it would make the experience more immersive. (It ended up completely changing the vibe of our game lol)

Lastly, we conducted a second round of user testing and received more valuable feedback that will help us further improve the game in Major Project 2. (For Ms. Anis's feedback, please refer to the Feedback section.)

Feedback:

  1. The visuals are much better now. She really liked the color palette, and overall she loved the visuals.
  2. She liked that we added an intro mentioning one of the parent, so it wasn't just guessing whether it would be the mom or the dad who (spoiler). (For context, during the previous user testing, she said she could already tell the story was going to be sad, but she couldn't tell whether it was the mom or the dad. So this change helped a lot.)
  3. Overall, the story feels much more connected and provides better context for what's happening.
  4. She really liked the new puddle gameplay. She preferred this version much more than the previous one because it was more engaging. She also noticed that the mother's reflection slowly appeared, which was a really good sign for us.

Criticism:

  1. She suggested giving the mother's flower more meaning and making it reappear until the end of the game. It doesn't have to be explicitly mentioned in the story, but it could subtly appear again while the character is walking to the park or somewhere else. The idea is for the flower to be a recurring element without drawing too much attention, so it gives the feeling that the mother is still watching over the child until the very end. She also suggested that we do a bit of research on the flower and its symbolism.
  2. The "bakiak" gameplay felt a bit underwhelming compared to the previous version. The visual cues for switching feet weren't as clear or impactful as they were in the older prototype, so she had to guess what she was supposed to do.
  3. The marble spoon (kelereng) mechanic felt too fast and became a bit overwhelming. Because of that, she couldn't really focus on the story and ended up concentrating more on finishing the gameplay. She understood that the mother was trying to interrupt the player, but she didn't fully grasp the meaning behind it.

FINAL RESULT

Walkthrough

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GANQT2VOU2OiOdE3zPhtgvlq_WMTR-SQ/view?usp=sharing

Hi-Fi prototype

Link: https://www.figma.com/proto/nFL5D9PKK3FuT5dRQYWXgU/Major-Prototype?node-id=1305-157&starting-point-node-id=1305%3A157&t=kUajElw7wUhtjZLN-1

FEEDBACK

Week 1

Ms. Anis

  1. We consulted with Ms. Anis about our game idea. Initially, we wanted to create a game about someone questioning whether God exists in this world. However, Ms. Anis said that while the idea is good, it would be more suitable as a personal project or something outside of this major project. 
  2. Therefore, we presented our second idea, which is about how a child deals with grief, and Ms. Anis said this topic can be developed. She also gave us some game references, such as Raven Monologue, and Roger, suggesting that we could try playing the game and take inspiration from what works well in it. 
  3. She mentioned that the art style of the game is interesting and could serve as inspiration. Ms. Anis also emphasized that the aim of our game should be to make players emotional.

Week 2

Ms. Anis

  1. Ms. Anis approved our idea with several suggestions:
    • Have more research on the art direction we want to apply based on our targeted audience
    • Create a demo of the most interesting part
    • Ask/consult Mr. Razif for audio guidance, as our game relies heavily on audio to convey the mood
    • Create a proposal and present the wireframe inside the proposal 

Week 3

Ms. Anis

  1. What we need to fix:

    • we lack momentum → need to build up the momentum, no need to explain everything to the player, indicate that there is hope in the end, make contrast in each scene (from sad to happy, etc), the game has to be meaningful

  2. Recs for the game:
    • Remove balap karung (sack race) and the household chores mechanics
    • Jumping in puddles 
      • Make the illustration of the MC sinks (so the ending would lead to the father saving the MC) 
      • Ending: mc tune the radio until the father’s voice becomes audible, then listens mother’s humming sound completely
    • Hide and seek: friends peeking then click quickly before they disappear (control: left click)
    • Bola bekel (bekel ball)
      • show funeral flowers/woman silhouette
    • Sendok kelereng (marble and spoon race): the mother’s humming voice is the obstacle, MC would be unstable (physically and mentally), so player must stabilize to win the game 
      • The backsound would contain parts of the mother’s humming
    • Bakiak (clogs race): the mother’s voice is the obstacle → will disrupt mc’s momentum and the gameplay’s mechanic 
      • Humming sound will be played, though there would be some disruptions
    • Have a poetic message in the ending while the full humming sound is playing in the background
Mr. Razif
  1. We consulted with Mr. Razif about our background music idea. We asked several questions, such as how to compose music and whether we could use stock music and AI generated music in our project. He told us that since we do not come from a music background and do not have the knowledge to create music ourselves, we are allowed to use those options as long as we are careful with copyright issues and properly credit the source.

Week 4

Ms. Anis

  1. For the puddle point of view, take a little bit from and roger, change the angle of the puddle to make it more make sense. Put the mother frame and funeral flower in the center. The more he jumps the clearer it gets (frame and funeral flower)
  2. For the ending, maybe when father saves him, you can have male voice over, and then just a hand going in (father’s hand) “anakku wake up” 
  3. You need to show sample of your illustrations during your proposal and make sure all of your art styles are the same and consistent 
  4. Use “Petang puluh dina” for the main title and then use a subtitle below the title “40 Days of Grace”

Week 5

Ms. Anis

  1. Change the reflection for the cover, because it doesn’t look real. The reflection must be like this (the face must be there)
  2. Put the title in the middle and don’t put it side by side (horizonally). Arrange the title with one word per line. Make your branding. Because the title is 40 days, make the 40 bigger and don’t make it the same with the other word (make it as an icon)
  3. The artstyle can be mix and match, the background can use water color/ crayon and character can use more solid color 
  4. The character feels a bit too graphic design 
  5. For mom and dad, You can crop their faces halfway, so their full faces don’t need to be shown.
  6. For game script, you need to build your wording like syair/pantun for the javanese version 
  7. Next week must prepare wireframe and logo (for branding)

Week 6

Ms. Anis

  1. Figure out a style or element to make the main character pop
  2. Explore the title that has Javanese Script
  3. Continue on the cover later, focus on the UI and Game mechanism
  4. Match the color and lighting between the character(s) and the background
  5. Don't make the background static, work in layers
  6. Work on the technical execution
  7. Make a rough lofi, show the interaction, use figma to make the simple interface
  8. Weave/connect the sequence with silhouette (to make it easier for the animation)
  9. Make the blueprint of the house into a flowchart instead

Week 7

Ms. Anis

  1. Add a gameplay tutorial before the players start the game on how to play the game mechanism.
  2. Add a button underneath for the player guide, in case the players forgot how to play. 

Mr. Ronald

  1. You can put video for game scenes, just make sure the format is not for 4K video, but for the game engine. 

Week 8

Ms. Anis

  1. Shorten the Tutorial Text (For Hide and Seek)
    • For Instance, Click the arrows in the screen to change place
  2. Make sure when the click button is clicked, the father is not hiding anymore
  3. Choose 1 type of interaction, Focus on Point and Click. Do not add keyboard actions
  4. Mechanic suggestion for Marble Spoon (Sendok Kelereng) mini gameplay is to click in the certain area in the bar
  5. Remove the scene where the father saves the child from drowning
    • Change the scene into just showing the hand, make it ambiguous 
    • Show either (or both) the mother’s or father’s hand, but make them distinguishable
      • For example, the mother’s hand could have bracelet, while the father’s hand has arm hair
    • When it is dark, make a faint voice of the father that gradually grows stronger before the boy opens his eyes
  6. Change the target audience to teenager (13-19)
    • Else, Build Up the story stronger as for now it’s lacking of emotional depth
    • Suggestion, A Flashback of Toni when he’s adult to his childhood life
  7. Can use the hugging scene so that players realize that at that moment his mom already passed away 
  8. Ending: "goodbye mom" then put the bola bekel on his mother’s grave ( it showcase that he accepted that his mother has passed away)

Week 9

(Presentation Week)

Week 10

Ms. Anis

  1. Consult with Mr. Razif and Mr. Ronald about the game transition and the mechanism to avoid confusion.
  2. Mr. Ronald → about the game mechanism flow
  3. Mr. Razif → about the game humming flow
  4. Is the game doable in playcanvas/unity?

Week 11

Mr. Razif

  1. For making the game, Unity has a collaborator function:
    • Collaborator function (student account) → avoid working together in the same scene
  2. Bakiak Mechanism: 
    • Control becomes inverted gradually, sometimes its inverted sometimes its not (not straight away inversion), to show instability
  3. Fix the story telling, for now it is still quite vague, 
  4. Radio slider
    • Make the slider more prominent, thicker and boxier
    • To make more sense of the game mechanism, it would be better if the control is using the Rod from the radio.

Week 12

Ms. Anis

  1. Background illustration is already consistent
  2. Storyline has better flow compared to the previous one, 

Week 13

Ms. Anis

  1. Clarification cleared 

Week 14

(Preparation for final presentation)

Week 15 (Final presentation)

  1. For the Puddle Jumping gameplay, add transition animations between jumps to make the jumping animation feel smoother
  2. Explore the UI Design for the game objectives
  3. Make the marble less disturbing/overwhelming
  4. Voice over timing needs to be fixed

REFLECTIONS

yap session alert

This module has been such a journey for me. I learned a lot about myself, my capabilities, my emotions, game development, how to create new ideas, how to engage players, and tons of other things. I'm not really the type of person who loves making stories, especially when we're given the freedom to make anything as long as it's still respectful in the academic world. So when my teammates and I discussed what to make, we felt stuck. Even during brainstorming, we all had different ideas and directions in mind. Then, we randomly started discussing a sensitive theme, and that's when we thought the idea could work (though it ended up being controversial, and Ms. Anis advised us to avoid the topic, so we ditched it. The funny thing is, we could've also gotten ourselves into trouble if we had actually gone through with the first idea because I know our families would've opposed it, but that's a different story lol). Then, I remembered that Celine once had an assignment related to child grief, and we thought it would be good if we expanded on that idea. That's how we came up with our story.

When we were developing the story, we encountered several problems, such as getting stuck and feeling unsure whether the story would drift away from the main topic. Thanks to Ms. Anis, who guided us not to overcomplicate the story, to keep it simple, include lots of symbolic items, and incorporate some of our culture into it, we were able to change almost half of the story into something much better. Then came the hardest part, which was illustrating. After tons of discussion with my teammates, we decided that Celine would handle most of the illustrations, while Jennifer and I focused on the sketches, storyline, storyboard, and most of the work in Figma.

I'm grateful that I didn't do this project alone because I get stressed and sick easily. Thanks to all my friends and teammates who helped me, whether by providing valuable feedback (they were also the ones who gave us very in depth user testing feedback), assisting with developing the story and the game together, or simply taking me out to have some fun (gaming + watching movies) to ease my mind from overthinking all the modules I took this semester. 

I'm also really grateful to Ms. Anis for her constant feedback, patience, and encouragement. She helped us go from feeling lost, unsure, and pressured at the beginning of this project to feeling happy and relieved knowing we were able to complete this module up until Major Project 2. I hope that whatever problems we face later, we'll still be able to finish this graduation project with smiles on our faces.

Looking back, I realized that I tend to overthink and doubt my ideas, especially during the early stages of any project. However, this module taught me to trust the process, accept feedback from my peers, and rely on my teammates instead of trying to solve everything on my own. These are lessons I hope to carry with me throughout our graduation project.

I will definitely cherish this memory, especially this semester because I'm taking all the hardest, craziest modules (most of my friends already warned me, but I ignored them because I thought I was all that. PS: I'm not).

Thank you all <3

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