Project Overview
Ijo is a short third-person exploration game created as a response to the artwork seen above. This piece was created by a 10 year old boy named Harada Haruo just days after an atomic bomb destroyed his home of Nagasaki (August 1945). When I saw this painting the first time, I was immediately taken back by how peaceful it was in a horrific way, the calm before the storm. This led me to a more calm perspective when shaping the narrative.
I wanted to capture a child's view of this situation, and in doing so I hoped to put the player in Harada's shoes and understand the emotions involved in such a catastrophic event. The art, gameplay and narrative is styled towards a child's imagination - a simple task becomes an adventure. As the event happens, however, things become very real.
Design Objectives
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Focus gameplay on driving the player through a story sequence.
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Capture a child's imagination and perspective of the whole event.
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Keep the experience under 10 minutes.
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Increase skill in Unreal Engine 4.
Platform:
Windows/PC
Engine:
Unreal Engine 4
Scripting Language:
Unreal Blueprints
Pipeline:
Unreal Engine 4, Blender, Maya 2017, Photoshop CC
Project Completed:
In Development
Team Size:
1
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Response
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Wanted to take the main features of the painting and use them in some way (the round sun, the bomb etc.).
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Kept the Japanese style for architecture and used the artist as the protagonist.
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The calm before the storm feeling from the parachuting bomb plays a big part in creating atmosphere post-event.
Implied Narrative
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All features play a part in either directing the narrative or connecting it to the protagonist:
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UI creates a child's sense of adventure with quests and a compass (also no quest markers are given to allow exploration).
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Gameplay is simple but applied as a 'quest' to emphasise a child's imagination.
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NPC's offer life to the world to produce emotions once event happens.
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To keep the peaceful atmosphere I wanted a bomb couldn't be used - the mysterious sphere helps show the confusion of a child but implies destruction.
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Shadow of the sphere shows the effect of the devastation through contrast.
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The "Fat Man" silhouette shows the child taking the bomb's name seriously (a 'Fat Man' bomb was dropped on Nagasaki).
