Stranger Games – Group 11

Introduction

For our game design project, our group decided to remediate the Christmas lights scene from season one of the hit TV show Stranger Things. We decided to make a puzzle strategy game using Game Maker Studio 2 where we use the Christmas lights on the wall to decipher a message. While our group did not have much coding experience, we truly enjoyed the game design process. From making the sound effects and sprites to developing the frame-by-frame game functions, we got to set foot into the challenging world of game-making.

Source: Stranger Things season 1, episode 3

Why Remediate Stranger Things?

When brainstorming game ideas, our group wanted to create a classic puzzle game with a complex background. After reviewing a few movies and TV shows, we landed on Stranger Things: a TV show that remediates the timeless game Dungeons and Dragons. In the specific scene we chose, a young kid by the name of Will has gone missing from his home. Later, it is discovered that he is trapped in the “Upside Down”, another world that exists beneath Hawkins, Indiana. While trapped in the “Upside Down”, Will tries to communicate with his family by interacting with different electronic items in his house (traversing worlds). At first, his family thinks it is an electrical issue but his mom, Joyce, later finds out that it is Will communicating with her. She decides to set up a wall full of Christmas lights, each light representing a letter of the alphabet. Will uses this wall to send messages about his whereabouts.

Through this scene, our group decided to make a puzzle game where one deciphers a message using the light wall Joyce created in Stranger Things.

Game Design

In terms of game design (led by Diego), our idea was pretty straightforward. Our idea was to develop a three-part cryptic puzzle. The first part of the game focused on understanding what the lights on the wall indicated. We went about this by developing a two-room platform where the player can switch between the light wall room and the living room. In addition to the two rooms, the player is also given a text box with 26 text slots. Each text slot corresponds to a letter in the alphabet. As well, each light on the wall corresponds to a letter in the alphabet (but the player has to figure this out). In the living room, a variety of items lay around and will shake. On top of the shaking, the lights on the wall would brighten up corresponding with the letters in the name of that item in chronological order. For instance, if a lamp shook, the first light on the wall would turn on as it corresponds to the letter “a” in lamp. The player must figure out the relationship between the items, the lights, and the chart. Once they fill up the chart and understand that the lights represent the alphabet, they are free to move on to the second part.

In the second part of the game, Will turns on the lights to communicate various words that are part of a phrase. The players’ job is to use their knowledge of the light wall to decipher the words Will is trying to tell Joyce. The player must type the correct word into the text box in order to move on to the next word. Once all the words are properly guessed, the player can move on to the last section of the game.

In the last part of the game, the player must take the words from part 2 and put them in the correct order to decipher what Will is trying to say. Once the player puts them in the correct order, the game ends.

Art Visuals

In addition to the game design, we also had visual sprites and audio produced by Amelia. The intention was for all the object names to cover each letter of the alphabet, so we came up with a list of 10 common household items that held the letters A-Z. Each item had to be drawn separately from the backdrops and to make a sound when shaken by Will, so we drew several of these items and sourced sound clips that correlated with each object. We then hand-drew the two 2D game backdrops – the living room and the Christmas lights display – in a style we found fitting for the era of the show. Stranger Things is set in the 1980s, and the cartoons of the time often featured marker and outline-based drawings, which we incorporated in the style of the object and background drawings. We thought it would be fitting to have a visual remediation that matched the visual media of the characters’ temporal setting, especially as the protagonists are middle-schoolers who would be watching cartoons. We also studied the clips of our remediated Stranger Things scene to try and match the rooms as closely as possible (ex. the pink floral wallpaper behind the Christmas lights). 

Background Music

The music was the most difficult artistic element to create, as we wanted to take inspiration from the Stranger Things theme, but still create something inspirational out of it. We followed a theme and variations, in the form of ABA, where we took the main Stranger Things theme and remelodized it in different lead lines throughout the A sections. We swelled in and out treble and bass elements so that the music would not feel stagnant, even with the same repeated harmonic construction. 

We then added an original B section that we felt broke-up the repetition of the main theme, but still kept it in the same synth-based style of the A section. We made the B section more harmonically complex and introspective than the A section, reflecting the game’s original intention of being a puzzle-solving experience. We also wanted the B section to reflect Joyce’s worry over her son, Will, in a way that the A section isn’t as capable of. The synth sound we used for the lead line is based on an FM radio, which is indicative of their communication between the two dimensions through artificial means (and the Walky-Talky and radio elements which were integral to our original game-design). 

The piece then returns to the A section, which allows the piece to repeat over and over (as often occurs when playing a videogame…the track can’t just end at its 5-minute conclusion) without any jarring re-start. We also added some little sparkling, high-frequency synth hits in this second A section that reflect the twinkling of the Christmas lights on and off. We felt that the composition both reflected the 80s-instrumentation style and pulled elements from the original Stranger Things theme in a way that suited the goals of the game the best (in musical remediation). The music isn’t meant to be the focus of attention, but instead an integral background element that helps provide necessary atmosphere.

Challenges Faced and Remodel

While we wanted to develop this game with Game Maker Studio 2, we, unfortunately, were not able to. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, our team had to remodel our game design and build our project with Twine since we did not have any coding experience. Jamaal led our efforts by creating a “choose your own adventure” game along with the script and video trailer! The new game concept follows the same storyline as our original game design with an emphasis on the plot surrounding the Christmas light scene. The player is tasked with picking various potential storylines within this scene. In order to beat the game, the player must select the right storyline options that lead Joyce to Will’s location.

Twine “Strange Games” home screen

What We Learned

Throughout the game development process, our group learned a lot! Our biggest takeaway from it all is that there is a lot of work that goes into making a video game. From the game design and script to the coding and audio/visuals, a lot of hard work is required to make a game work. Additionally, we learned about the importance of collaboration. Everyone has to play their part in order for the game development process to work. If one person falls short, it sets the design process back a big step. All in all, video game development requires a team effort where everyone must contribute their strengths. There are so many moving parts in the design process and each part is just as important as the next.

Closing Thoughts

While we were not able to create the game we wanted, it was fun exploring video game development. For all of us, this was a new, fun, exciting, and scary experience that we are glad we got to experience. Being able to work on all the moving parts of a video game and seeing what it takes to put such a production together was also pretty eye-opening. Anyways, while this isn’t a finished, polished product, we hope you enjoy our game!

Game link: http://jamaalfinkley.vudigital.net/Media/StrangerGames.html

– Amelia, Diego, and Jamaal!

The Profound Lore of Dead by Daylight: How a Game Adapted the Stories of the Most Popular Horror Movie Characters

Dead by Daylight is a survival horror game where four survivors enter a map, try to fix 5 generators, and escape through an exit gate. This is all while a killer roams around the map trying to place survivors on hooks to prevent them from escaping. Seems pretty straightforward right? Well, it was when it first released in June 2016. Back then, there were only 4 survivors and 3 killers. Now there are 23 survivors and 21 killers for player to choose from to enter a trial and either please the Entity or escape through the gates or the hatch.

Screenshot taken from the Dead by Daylight Wiki showing the available characters since September 8, 2020 https://deadbydaylight.gamepedia.com/Dead_by_Daylight_Wiki

Now you might be asking yourself “What is the Entity”? Well, The Entity is as much of an enigma to hardcore players as it is to you, someone maybe hearing about DBD for the first time. Basically, the game exists in an unknown realm ruled over by The Entity, an unplayable character, that pits survivors and killers in an endless cycle of trials where the killer must sacrifice the survivors to The Entity in order to please it. Not only does the existence of The Entity provide a sense of understanding as to what these characters are doing, but it also provides a backstory as to how they got in this unfortunate situation.

The Entity (Dead by Daylight fanart) by Inkary on DeviantArt

To learn about this backstory, we must turn to another unplayable character that exists only to provide the DBD community with more lore: The Observer. The Observer can be accessed by players by going to The Archives and learning about all the characters’ pasts. The Observer teaches us this through his device, The Auris, with which he can penetrate through The Entity’s Fog and learn the memories of all the survivors and killers. We learn how Meg went from running high school track to running loops around The Deathslinger; how The Hillbilly was locked up as a child because of birth deformities and later escaped, killing his parents/torturers and becoming a crazed killer; and (most intriguing to me), how the likes of Nancy Wheeler, Bill Overbeck, Freddy Kreuger, and Pyramid Head were all transported to this realm.

In-game screenshot of The Observer with The Auris in hand

With licensing characters from other film and video game franchises comes a lot of boring legal terms that must be followed. However, the developers of DBD, Behaviour Interactive, sought to create a link between these characters’ respective worlds and the world of The Entity. Because of this, each licensed killer and survivor has their own origin story unique to the Dead by Daylight game but still coinciding with their backstory created by their designers. For example, the game explains that Steve Harrington was in the Hawkins National Laboratory looking for Nancy who had called for him when the ground opened up, swallowed him whole, and he awoke “in a strange place that seemed familiar but unfamiliar at the same time.” These sorts of stories are consistent with every licensed character, and even the ones created by BHVR themselves. That is the kind of in-depth lore that has captured the hearts of a dedicated community.

In-game screenshot of The Executioner (Pyramid Head), from the Silent Hill game and movie franchises, executing Cheryl Mason in the courtyard of Midwich Elementary School

The connections between the origins of licensed characters and their roles in the game do not stop at their backstories. Their corresponding perks, add-ons, map offerings, and cosmetics all have ties to the movies or games which these characters originated from. This level of dedication by the development team to create a game that has such a deep storyline is unrivaled in comparison to any other game I have played. The community is so attached to these characters and their stories that there are countless comedic shorts on YouTube and cosplay tutorials and fan art on Reddit.

YouTube video by Samination that parodies and trolls Dead by Daylight’s second newest DLC, CHAPTER XVI: Silent Hill

I would say that this is one of the biggest reasons why this game and community is still growing and thriving. With 4 new DLCs being released each year, I am so excited to see the levels to which this never-ending lore will reach.

-LaysPR