Moon City

Artistic Statement

I first came up with the idea of having a group of people being persuaded by the United Nations to go to the Moon and establish the very first human colony in case the Earth was no longer a viable, living option. I had always been intrigued by this idea, especially with science-fiction movies like Interstellar (2014) and Star Trek which inspired me to place these individuals on a high-stakes mission with crazy external factors limiting them or pushing them.

The main character is the person playing the game. I tried to avoid using pronouns so the person playing could relate to the character better, regardless of race/gender, etc.

This allows the player to feel closer to the main character (themselves) compared to the other characters on the trip.

The characters want to successfully set up a colony or foundation for a city on the Moon for future humans to move on to and thrive on.

However, in one of the storylines, they soon realize that the Moon is already occupied by another civilization. This alien society is friendly enough, until they discover the human’s intention to take over the Moon.

The group spend most of their time simply trying to survive the difficult trip and hostile environments, as well as getting along with each other despite being complete strangers. This dynamic is something the player can choose to overcome or aggravate.

The character wants to succeed on their mission to the Moon, but they need to overcome their trust issues and need to be able to work together in order to survive.

The main character struggles in trusting the judgements of their teammates. They are either trying to work together or simply arguing the entire way to the Moon. They must decide if they want to work together or take charge despite its consequences. Then they have fight or flight responses to moments of serious threats and dangers, like any reasonable human being.

I had a few ideas for the beginning and the various endings. I wanted to end one of the storylines with an alien versus human battle over the Moon and a separate ending where they befriend each other and live peacefully in an integrated society. Another ending would have had a paranoia within the human colonists as someone sabotages their air supply in half. This leads to major mistrust and eventually a survival of the fittest fight leading to either the main character outliving the rest of the group or being murdered by one of their teammates. I had also wanted an ending where they are successful in establishing the human Moon colony, however, as I created the passages, I struggled in keeping track of the stories and ended with the human group usually perishing. They basically kept running into different fatalities which I was frustrated about but also found it kind of funny. I tested the game on my sister and her reaction to her characters’ death was entertaining. They were facing many challenges although I feel like I could have made it more entertaining and detailed if I get some more practice with the software. My end product still feels very raw and underdeveloped. I was shocked by how difficult this assignment was. At first it didn’t seem like it would take me too long, but I found myself using all of my extra time coding and developing the story.

A requirement I know I was not able to fulfill was embedding the background music and sound effects. I looked at numerous websites and YouTube videos to see how I could add audio. I downloaded MP3 apps and other software to upload music and sound effects to the game but ultimately, none of the songs worked in the final product.

The hardest part of the story was linking the choices to a separate story plot. I really struggled keeping up with the different endings and giving the player plenty of options that would hopefully intrigue them further into the story. There was a choice that would lead to a different storyline however I ended up intertwining it with a separate plot and they would merge into one ending. It was challenging keeping them apart and the amount of time that went into making sure the storyline made sense as well the coding being accurate was a little exhausting, but also satisfying.

Another thing I struggled with was knowing when and how to format the passages to fit the story. I wanted to create suspense and excitement for the player but found it difficult when to use an element, or even how to combine specific elements for a grand effect/emphasis.

One final challenge was the character development. The exercises from Pixar in a Box helped a lot but I still feel like I wasn’t able to really flesh out a relatable character with explicit needs. I tried the elevator method and using flashcards as beats, but I ended up getting more focused on the actual storylines and endings versus the character itself.

I feel like the character in the game is a pretty basic outline, but I wasn’t sure how to build it up into the story. My hope is the gameplay allows the player to feel what the character would feel.

The reader and the character are working towards completing the mission as well as surviving the entire ordeal. The character is working for mankind and on this grand mission for humanity to move onto space. They also must survive to see it through, and the player is in charge of that trajectory. They make the choices and will either end up being overcoming the obstacles and achieve its mission or die trying. The reader begins by waking up in space and making simple enough choices until the choices become rather extreme. The intended result is to make the player feel like they are in that position and care for the outcomes.