Devlog 6# Hito 3

Hello here!

From the Puzlitas team we are very excited, because this time we will have the opportunity to present you DictioTherapy, the videogame we have been working on for a while.

THE HISTORY

DictioTherapy is a puzzle game, where words are the key. Our protagonist cannot remember/has distorted memories about certain relevant events in his life. Our protagonist goes to therapy, and the therapist listens to what they have to say and makes certain comments to them. The therapist's comments are very important for progressing in the game, so pay attention to them. By clicking on keywords, they can be saved in a dictionary and be available for use. The objective of the game is to choose the precise words to then solve the puzzles that the protagonist has in his mind. 

We can go into our protagonist's mind and see a collection of memories. Each memory has an anomaly, a distortion or a missing piece for which the player will have to solve with the help of the therapist, using words from the dictionary.

Not all the words that can be saved are useful to complete a level.  If you lose your cool and perform too many in-game actions, your vision will be blurred and your mental health will worsen. Do not despair by doing too many interactions, try to stay calm so that your mental health remains stable and you can complete the game, each thing in its own time.

ABOUT THE GAME FEATURES

Below, we tell you about some of the features of our video game, such as the tools, techniques and other things used for its creation.

SAVING VARIABLES BETWEEN SCENES

In order to correctly store the words in the dictionary and other variables during the different scenes of the game, autoload nodes were used. This functionality allows having these nodes open in each scene while the game is open.

USING THE MAIN MENU AND THE PAUSE MENU

We want you to be able to start your gaming experience correctly, that's why we created a user-friendly main menu, which will be displayed when you open DictioTherapy.

In it, you will be able to start your game, see the credits and, if you wish, close the game. If you started your game and wish to return to the main menu, just press the 'P' or 'Esc' key on your keyboard to access the pause menu and select the option to return to the main menu.

EVERY GAME MUST HAVE AN INVENTORY

We have an inventory that slides up with mouse interaction! Here you can store your words so you can use them whenever you want!

COMMON INTERACTIONS AND INNOVATIVE MECHANICS

The words you save do stuff!! "Hope" is light and "Get your life together" helps you make your bed  

TALKING WITH YOUR THERAPIST

We made functional dialog!! Using the Dialogic plugin, we've made dialog for therapy and for the tutorial :))

YOUR MENTAL HEALTH IN REAL TIME

With our trusty progress bar, watch your mental health go up and down as you play :D

ASSETS USED TO CREATE THE VIDEOGAME

To put together the final product that we present to you on this occasion, we used our own resources, such as music, sound effects and some of the drawings (visual resources). On the other hand, we also use free use resources, which do not require author citations and are obtained from pages where the authors release them from copyrights. In addition, we use resources from external authors that do have copyrights and that is why we mention them properly in the credits.

MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS FOR AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

A member of Puzzlitas, was inspired and composed five different melodies for each moment of DictioTherapy, these consist of short audios that are repeated in a loop to generate different atmospheres. He was also in charge of recording the sound effects of the videogame to generate a more immersive experience in the 2D videogame. To call these sound effects, a node was used as autoload, in which specific functions were defined for each effect.

ORIGINAL DRAWINGS

We've made some pixel art!! Check out our drawings throughout the game :3

AWARDING MERITS

As in any video game that involves hard work of the creators and people who participated directly or indirectly in its creation, upon completion of the game, the credits scene will be shown. In them we introduce you to the Puzzlitas team and the authors of the videogame assets. However, you will be able to access them from the main menu whenever you wish.