Genre:
Online 3D Simulation Game
Tools:
Unity & Blender & PS & Procreate
Platform:
iOS/Andriod
Team:
Ziwei Niu – Independent
Game Overview
Mon-ssenger is a simulation game combined with social element. In the game, players will raise their monsters to explore their world and meet other players. Monsters in game need to be nurtured are the same as pets in reality and they will act according to their status. As players nursing, they will grow up thus unlock more activities and areas.
Story Background
Mon-ssenger Inc. created a parallel world called The Monster Dimension. Little monsters there, as natives, build a world has siliar latout of reality. They love to travel, communicate and live at ease in a carefree world. However, people in our world are suffering from tight pace of life. Numerous anxieties and fears tear people apart from each other but there is still hope.
As the bridge between 2 worlds, Mon-ssager Inc. opened ports on people’s mobile devices, gave people a chance to raise newborn monsters. They will use their own growth and experiences to help people fix connections with each other.
Why I Made This Game
I chose this background story because soical pressures has caused many people to suffer from social anxiety. They are thought to have Social Phobia. I even found that lots of friends around me are in this situation to a greater of lesser extent.
Therefore I surveyed nearly 100 respondents to discover the real source of their anxiety and found that they were actually worried about the comments came with social behaviour, especially from strangers. Below are some of the experiences shared by interviewees.
Moreover, almost all of them had actively tried to get rid of this problem, but very few had suceeded. On the other hand, they all agreed that appropriate social activities could alleviate the symptoms of social phobia.
“I don’t dare to say hello, I’m often embarrassed, I’m embarrassed for myself and for others, I’m not used to asking for help, I don’t dare to talk too much, all these things make it hard for me, but I still find it hard to overcome.”
——24, Designer, Beijing
” Going to class makes me anxious compared to online classes.”
——20, Student, New York
” It’s really uncomfortable to say hello to a familiar stranger, I don’t even know what his name is.”
——23, Illustrator, London
” Not being able to say what I really want to say, or being afraid to take the relationship further, still bothers me.”
——18, Student, Beijing
Case Study
I have analyzed 7 products in 2 categories, each of them has its own characteristics, but for the social phobia group, problems still exist.
And here are solutions in my game:
• The first one players will meet is his/her cute monster. They build relationships with monsters before meeting strange players in the game.
• Message is a core mechanism which means players can share events happened in game easily.
• Mailing behaviour is planned and encouraged with the aim of sharing and mutual support, allowing players to cultivate a social network for their monsters and creating an environment where players can communicate with each other with reasonable restrictions.
• In the end, nursing their monsters is the biggest incentive to get them back in the game.
Gameplay
Players can name, choose personalities and customise the appearance of their little monsters. As the little monster grows, it will gain more appearance customisation points and the range of its outings will improve, the random events it encounters will change, and it will develop its own preferences for things.
Monsters are at the heart of Mon-ssenger, players explore, understand and observe the world in the game through monsters, and as monsters are the only characters that players interact with directly in the game, it is important to ensure the integrity of the image of the little monsters in the first place.
Monsters Design
There are 8 personalities for monsters, which players have to choose at the bagining of the game. The personalities affect the behavioural tendencies of monsters after hanging game.
Monsters have 4 attributes and each of them affect the behaviour of monsters. Players can raise relevant attributes through postive activities while they may decrease due to some random events.
The monsters have 4 different actions that players can see the current actions of monsters via ICONs on status bar.
Players have 5 ways of interacting with monsters, all of which can be done by tapping and dragging, causing the monsters’ attributes and actions to change.
Messages
Other mechanisms
Players will find different ornamental plants, random events and quests in different seasons of the game, and the scenes in the small courtyard will change in appearance with the seasons.
In addition, players can observe monsters trigger different random events at different stages of growth, seasons and moods. Random events may bring new souvenirs, affect the properties of monsters, and meet other players’ monsters. Players will find an alert window for random events when they open the game and will need to make a choice. Some of the random events will have a series of follow-up events that tell the player about interesting incidents in the game.
Processing
Modeling
In Mon-ssenger, the furry little monsters are the main characters that accompany the players. Players can customize the appearance of the little monsters, with different optional features at different stages of growth.
In addition to the physical features of the monster, players can also choose to dress the monster in clothing and accessories that are regularly changed in the shop (in progress).
Initially, I tried to blend several scenes together, but this resulted in the camera not being able to find the right movement to switch scenes, for example, some of the hidden light sources for indoor effects would appear in the courtyard scenes. So I cut the four scenes apart. This way I can also place better plants in the courtyard scenes.
UI/UX Design
In Mon-ssenger, the player does not need to spend a lot of time completing various tasks, so I wanted to present the player directly with the most suitable interface for observing the status of the little monsters.
The shop and the postal service act as two separate screens where the player can directly discover the desired functionality. The status of the little monster will always be displayed on the top left of the screen, so that the player can keep an eye on its status in any situation. Similarly, settings can be opened in each screen.
Mon-ssenger is a game designed for mobile devices and all interface proportions are based on the screen of the iPhone X.
