Volition
Volition is a short 3-5 minute experience that follows a young adult who is soon to graduate high school as they take out the trash. In the process, they are berated with expectations and the dread that they must soon make a drastic choice that will alter their life forever.
In this game, I created all the art and animation seen in the application Piskel. I composed all music within the game, and I sourced and edited all environmental sounds and sound effects from Freesound.org. I also wrote all of the dialogue for the game as well as going through feedback on the script and revising in accordingly.
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Although light on gameplay, I designed this game with the intention of telling a short story in game format and creating interesting characters and spaces.
The game's script consists of four characters as they have a one-sided conversation with the player character, a silent protagonist. Although, it is revealed at the rooftop scene that the player character can in fact speak but has chosen to be silent.
I wanted to have this be a part of the game as a way of honing in on the game's theme which is the anxiety many young people face once they must consider what they will do with their lives after their school lives have ended. I felt that this was a pretty common experience that players at most stages of their life can related to.
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The player character themselves was designed to appear tall, lanky, barely an adult with a goofy look who was also androgenous. By designing the character this way, I wanted the player to see them as an naïve teenager who would much rather hang out with their friends than think about what they should do for the rest of their life.
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For the other characters, I wanted to show the different extremes of the sort of expectations that could be placed upon a young adult in the player character's situation. I included a mother who is stressed and cares deeply for her child's wellbeing, an older gentleman with quite traditional and rigid expectations, and a reassuring janitor who found joy in an unorthodox way. Finally, I created the friend character at the end of the game to be on the other end of the spectrum; someone who lives in the moment and does exactly what they want when they want to.
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With all of these perspectives on a similar issue, I wanted to leave the player with questions on their own expectations and definitions of successes for themselves and others.
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