Exploring Witness Bias
My team & I worked on this game during our Alternative Development class, which focused on creating a game for a goal outside of purely entertainment. Fractured focuses on witness bias and how people's recollection of events can be inaccurate or biased. You play through the events leading up to and during a crime as three different characters, each with their own recollection of the events.
Channeling your inner detective
Besides making the game's UI, I also contributed to the design of several of its mechanics. We wanted to add some sort of time limit when playing to force the player to collect as much information as possible while they can. Rather than using a timer, I thought a clock would be a more fitting way to showcase this for the player. Since the player is playing as three different characters, we wanted them to be able to keep track of their findings easily. This was done by introducing a notepad that the player could view at anytime.
Creating a game not strictly for entertainment was a really interesting design experience since there was more to consider when creating engaging gameplay for the player. It also helped me learn how important it is to do a topic justice when focusing a game around it. This was also my first time using Unity to make a game, as well as one that was not only 2D, but also narrative-driven. This was challenging because I wasn't familiar with the game engine or working with a dialogue system before. I do think it was valuable to make a game in an engine besides Unreal to see the strengths and weaknesses between the two.
