Hidden Truths - Visual Novel

A Hackathon Creation ## Inspiration As the members of our team got more comfortable with each other, we learned that each of us had unique experiences with mental illness. Experiences outside of the norm that we felt a general audience wouldn't be aware of. With that in mind, we decided to design a visual novel, a choose-your-own adventure type story coded in a derivative of Python called Ren'Py. The stories within came from our own lives, and our hope is that they raise awareness of these mental illnesses in new and helpful ways. ## What it does The game is separated into three parts, each a short story written by one of our teammates. Throughout the story are various choices which can be made to alter the course of the story. While each story ends the same way, it can be experienced different ways depending on which choices are made. By the end of the game, the user will have experienced three stories from the perspective of those who suffer from mental illnesses like PTSD, depression, and anorexia. ## How we built it We downloaded a program called Ren'Py which allows users to edit and create their own visual novels. Three of us wrote the script for each story, and the fourth member of our team transferred those scripts into the Ren'Py editor. We also pulled images available through public domain and creative commons, using them as backgrounds for each scene. After programming the functionality of the game itself (branching paths, menus, transitions, etc), we saved our program into an executable and distributed it online. ## Challenges we ran into Each of us had to learn the relatively simple language that Ren'Py uses. Once we had an understanding of how Ren'Py handles transitions and choices, we designed our scripts around that framework. The bulk of our work was spent writing our stories and editing them to work within the Ren'Py framework. ## Accomplishments that we're proud of Each of us dug deep into our past to pull stories that we felt were compelling and engaging. The diversity of our writing styles helped make each story unique, and our entire team's morale and engagement remained at a peak throughout the night. This was a project we were all proud to contribute to. ## What we learned We learned how to turn a story into an interactive and immersive experience through the medium of visual novels. By designing the script and choices in a way that reflected the mental state of each main character, we work to bring the player deeper into that character's perspective. ## What's next for Hidden Truths We'd love to keep adding new stories to this game and keep finding new ways to make each one more immersive and engaging.