Marija
Medium: video game
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, RPG Maker MZ, Piskel, Javascript
About
Marija is an RPG where you play as a young girl who gives birth to a monstrous stillborn at your friend's sleepover. Ashamed and scared, with the help of your friends' stuffed animals, your goal is to discard it before anyone discovers what's happened. The game is alluding to Christian themes, as well as others like adolescence, puberty, sex, family violence, and substance abuse. The game is largely based on my own preadolescents, and the relationship I had with God, my friends, my family, and especially my body. Marija has been exhibited as an art installation and exhibited at the Hammer Theatre in San Jose, CA.
Process
Learning how to work in RPGM MZ was challenging
but gratifying at the same time. I quickly picked up on the use of grids to divide maps. You can see in this image the dark squared tiles are events which are triggered by switches when the player interacts with them.
640x480px
This project forced me to wear many hats. I animated the walk cycles for both Marija and the nonplayable dog, Rex. I shortened the legs and misplaced the "fleas" on his body to give the illusion of movement.
An event is a way to create scripted actions triggered by the event command. I had to keep track of what events would affect others, and how that affected gameplay. This event has a conditional switch that can only take place after event "0004 Bathroom Birth" is triggered.
A series of events with conditions applied over the “Hallway” map.
Installation
Preliminary render of exhibition layout.
Photos from the installation at the Hammer Theatre in San Jose, CA. The installation is replicating the in-game bedroom. Depicted is a sleeping bag surrounded by plushies and “the thing.” On a projector plays a short narrated video along with game play.
Learnings
This was my first game development project that I completed on my own. Considering the window of time and my preexisting knowledge, I am overall happy with the outcome. That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of room for improvement. There was a lot I wanted to do with this game but not enough hands or time to do everything. Here are some points I want to improve on if I decide to continue this project:
User experience
Considering the game is story driven, I would have liked to have done more playtesting with players of different backgrounds and skill levels to ensure that the game is played in the order it is meant to be played.
Market awareness
Despite this being more of a personal project, I still want it to be successful in the genre of games like it. I would like to do more research about my potential audience and look at trends in similar genres to create a product that resonates with others.
Post-launch support
I would like to go back to the itch.io files posted to ensure the game is running as it should. I general, more time to upkeep the game to ensure it is playable for years to come.