Mahmoud Yehia and I decided to create a game that would tackle a very common topic in our society : being under the influence.
If we were to explain the game in one sentence we would say : It’s always tempting to consume substances that interact with your brain’s functioning but what if we were cautious while doing them?
We have both been involved in accidents due to the lack of cautiousness while being under the influence baring in mind we both learned to drive at the age of 13. Hence, this game is a reminder -from people who unfortunately passed by this- to always think forward when it comes to such things.
Our game starts with pre drinking that leads to going to a party in which you will consume (or not) things which would turn out to be against you later on in the game. The game also includes scenarios with one’s crush which nowadays makes decisions shift a lot.
The scenarios are as follows:
–> You’re at home alone, your parents are out of town and your friends suggest that you all pre drink at your place before going to the HIT party of the season knowing that you have the car and you are their driver for the night
–> You reach the party and everyone is dancing, drinking and smoking illegal substances. You’re talking to someone when a friend offers you a joint. You accept because you don’t want to seem odd.
→ Proceed to next level since you are now under the influence of THC
–> A couple of people gather to play a game of beer-pong & now that you are relaxed/laid back and you feel less anxious, you decide to play (this is from the effect of THC)
- Your teammate who happens to be your crush points out that your eyes are red and that you don’t look very focused and might not be able to play well but you continue and start the game because of your confidence
- Your teammate who happens to be your crush points out that your eyes are red and that you don’t look very focused and might not be able to play well so you decide to let your friend play instead.
–>The party is over, you invite your crush to take them home. You talk a lot on the way back, in various subjects, and you suddenly lose focus of the road. You lose control of the wheel, and the car hits a house and people are screaming everywhere and you have no clue what is going on. Before the police arrives, you have two options.
–> Your parents come home and realize that the car is heavily damaged.
To be honest our game hasn’t been finalized yet but we are working on it…This is tougher than we thought it was going to be so please feel free to comment your thoughts about or game. How do you think it could’ve been better?
Here is the game
Karim Habashi's Blog 
Guys, really good first draft. I assume the color palette is intentional to get you in the mood of the game…but I imagine it can look slightly different depending on what happens in the game? I also see some situations where you don’t really give the player choices. Like I don’t think the situation of taking the joint was a very strong and convincing case of peer pressure but I wonder if the person says no, then more things happen (like the person he is crushing on makes fun of him or such) that eventually convinces the player to take the joint. I mean, clearly the player needs to take it for the game to proceed…but you need to convince the player. And things like trying it thinking one….puff (or whatever i don’t know what this thing is) is nothing but it leads to more. Something like that.
I like the infographic and references at the end
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Karim and Mahmoud, thank-you for sharing this openly. I came across it from Maha’s blog. I think prototyping this in a slide deck was a really good idea as it gives you more flexibility and control than many free survey tools. A couple of recommendations I might suggest align with Maha’s comment as well. After selecting a choice and the sight here, being taken to a screen with a charcoal background and red text made the scenarios very difficult to read. For text-based games I might begin with accessibility features in mind as that is the only mode of communication (so far, I’m not sure what you have planned in the future). Quickly putting colour choices through a tool like this https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ would help selecting colours.
I also found the clear lack of choice scenarios hard to get past. I understand that this is a first draft and that it’s not done yet. I’ve played quite a few RPGs as far back as on the SNES system and have seen games change over time in the way they let players make choices. One of my favourites is Skies of Arcadia where most times you have to make a choice 3-4 options appear. Each decision made is referenced to a personality trait or leadership strength of the character. Now here’s the trick, by the middle of the game depending on what decisions you’ve made for your character, certain options will start to be restricted. You’ll still see them but they are greyed out. Using Maha’s example of the joint scenario the application of this idea might look like: you have the option to take it or not, but perhaps the option to refuse is greyed out (not linked from) if you chose to drink prior to showing up to the house part. This builds a layer onto the game where past decisions influence current situations.
I don’t know the whole context of your project, but that is what came to mind as I played your game. Good luck with your work!
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Hello, thank you for your comment, I really appreciate it. however, there are games in which it is possible to have several options (as personality trait or leadership strength of the character)
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