Prima Foosiripong
Ticking Tea Time
You are no ordinary waiter, but a detective in disguise, your mission is to hop on the train, serve afternoon tea, find the spy, and save your country from the ticking bomb.
Awards & Recognition:
BIDC's Rising Star Awards for Game 2024
PlayPrime Awards Best Narrative 2024
Genre: Adventure, Simulation
Development Time: 11 months
Role: Producer, Game Designer
Engine: Custom Engine (OpenGL)
Team Size: 7
Role & Responsibility
Producer
Plan the game's development process
Create and maintain milestone backlogs, schedule, and prioritizing for team members
Work with the game director to create and maintain the design document and asset list
Hold weekly meetings to review progress and assign new tasks to team members
Game Designer
Design and construct the main story, including the plot, characters, and settings.
Collaborate with artist to design the character that fit with the setting and develop character bible
Work with the design team to create story arcs that fit the game's vision and overall design
Collaborate with artist to develop the character asset that would fit with the dialogue
Design Process
Milestone 1 : Concept Proof
To prevent burnout, we have agreed to create a game that aligns with everyone's passions. This led us to brainstorm ideas and vote on the ideal game concept. While also consult professors for their input to shape the concept into what we can do in the reasonable scope.
And we have agree on
A casual detective simulation, you assume the role of a detective who open a food stall to conduct an investigation in the neighborhood. Gather insight by day, advance your clue board by night.
A picture of our brainstorm session
Next, we establish our design pillars and brainstorm on how to achieve them
We have establish on the design pillars of this project according to the experience we want our player to have, relaxing, simple gameplay which focus on the case-solving aspect to challenge their analytical and critical thinking skill.
Research Session
We have research on the theme and place we want our investigation to take place, and we have settle down on
TRAIN
Why?
Locked down environment, good for scoping
1
Association with spy/criminal trope
2
Story and time limited make sense with the setting
3
Fit the gameplay
4
(Train looks cool on portfolio)
5
Now, food
To fit with our design pillar 'Convert a complex crime investigation into a simple gameplay', we searched for the food that requires no cooking to create a simple gameplay. Which led us to...
AFTERNOON TEA SET
Tea
Sandwich
Pastry
Which player need to prepare an afternoon tea set consisted of these 3 to suit with each customer's need, make them satisfy and gather clues when the tea is brewed
Setting
Now we settle on the theme and gameplay, it's time to move on to the world building part
Thespia
Welcome everyone to 'Thespia,' which draws inspiration from the Victorian era (19th century) in Great Britain. Thespia is divided into two regions, Westside and Eastside, currently in the center of domestic conflicts as they compete for control over each other's territories. This conflict has ignited many secret espionage operations across Westside and Eastside.
Hesperia Express
The game takes place in the luxurious first-class cabins of the Hesperia Express, which travels from the capital of Eastside to the capital of Westside.
Narrative
Case Overview
From the setting, world building and theme that we set earlier, we now moved on to decide what type of case we would choose to develop further, and the winner is...
BOMB THREAT
"In a world of global conflicts, a Westside spy has planted a catastrophic explosive in the East capital. They've taken refuge in first-class cabins on the Hesperia Express. As a top detective from the Eastside government, your mission is to disguise as a waiter to uncover the spy's identity and locate the bomb before the train reaches its destination"
Why?
Create a sense of urgent in gameplay
1
Give players a stake and create tension.
2
Association with spy/criminal trope
3
Associate with domestic conflict setting
4
Characters
We teamed up with artists and let them focus on designing the character before we jump to designing the case detail. This way, they stay excited and motivated about the project as they get to work on their own original character.
First draft of all the characters, consisted of scraped designs. Our artists really do a good job!
Final Design
Now, it's time to work on the background and personality of each character. We have a plan for all passengers to be equally suspicious at first impression, which brings us to this.
We also documented the detailed information about each passenger, including their personality, archetype, likes/dislikes, etc. in the character bible below
Case Detail
After choosing all the characters, we start discussing the sequence with each other by drafting it on the whiteboard for easier commenting and brainstorming ideas for scenario we want in the game.
Then, we arrange all the scenario and design tension for each of them as shown in the graph below
Martha
Our goal is to ensure her cabin has minimal tension, as she will serve as the tutorial for introducing players to the game's core loop.
Archibald
He is the most challenging passenger to serve food and select dialogue for due to his personality. However, information we can gather from him will be vital for the case, resulting in his cabin having the highest tension of all four.
Twin
Initially, the tension in this room is low, allowing players a moment to relax with some humor. However, as the conversation progresses, the tension increases as they become more suspicious.
Octavia
Octavia appears suspicious at first, as players advance, she provides crucial information about the spy's identity, reducing her suspicion and leading to lower tension.
Submit The Case
This will be the most intense moment in the game, as all the built-up tension culminates here, and the player's choices will significantly impact the outcome.
