Overview:

In Monsoon, I want to express real-world problems and focus on helping people who are suffering from the darkness in this world. Cyberbullying, wars, and instability led by immigration once established fear in my mind. I was a safe gamer child living in the fantasy world of games, and I was being protected by my immigrant parents. Now I was having to face the world as a young adult, so I felt like a bubble that could break at any second by the storm from society. However, I learned to stay strong, and I saw many others like me shaping their bubbles into armor; we carry the responsibilities and anxieties but also the love of our family; we bravely walk forward to survive.

To transform this life experience above into my game concept, I built a fictional world design of bubble creatures (who represent children and young adults) living inside an environment with unpredictable sand storms (which represent societal challenges). I explored new possibilities in the concept design such as combining the fragile characteristic of the bubble with strong knight armor. I followed scientificity logical flying machine designs based on sailboat and parachute tutorials. In the game, players can DIY their own style of machine frames. By dipping the frame of machines into the bubble water, they form bubble surfaces that carry winds and allow players to fly. Through playing, players will move from being protected by family to being lost in the sandstorm alone; they will find out the darkness in this world; they can either choose to build flying machines to escape the danger, or they can shape themselves into strong knights, stay strong inside the storm and fight back against the pollution and villain that cause the storm. I designed the plots to bring players ‘courage’ by challenging them in the sandstorm, ‘love’ and ‘warmth’ through the kindness of other players and the character’s families, and ‘freedom’ by giving them a free and open world that they can choose their path. I then investigated other gamers to complete my survey, and determine if my ideas are acceptable to other players. As a result, I developed this game concept Monsoon: Lodge in Storm.