The Wind and the Wisp

Creative Director

An alt controller game about connection, and what it means to say goodbye.

Contributions

• Leading a team of 28 designers, programmers, artists, sound designers and usability researchers to develop an innovative MFA thesis that explores microphone input in a game made in Unity. 

• Maintaining and upholding the project’s creative vision across all disciplines. 

• Collaborating with engineers, artists and designers to implement new design mechanics. 

• Developing physical and digital prototypes in Unity to refine mechanics and align features with the project’s experience goals. 

• Debugging and using Unity and C# to assist designers, engineers and artists with implementation and resolving technical challenges. 

• Mentoring inexperienced members of the team.

Design Process  — Building Attachment

The player controls both the Wind and the Wisp. The Wind gets triggered whenever the players blows into the microphone, and the Wisp is controlled through WASD/controller. 

Project Goals

1. Make a game that the players feel like they are in, while not just being the player character. 

2. Players will feel attached to the Wisp. 

Experience Goals

1. Players will feel connected to the Wisp and like the Wisp is their own friend when they blow into the microphone. 

2. Players will feel sad at the end of the game when the Wisp leaves, but feel happy about the time spent with the Wisp. 

The Thesis Question

How do I make a game about saying goodbye to a friend in a way that provides hope and builds a feeling of connection rather than loss? 

Core Loop and Gameplay

• Blow into the microphone to create change in the world.

• Flowers have unique mechanics that are triggered when the Wisp is holding one and the player blows (for example, breaking objects). 

• Flowers repair the garden when replanted in the garden. Repairs also reveal new pathways in the garden.

• Garden is a hub. Flowers can be replanted here, and there are blowable objects here for the Wisp and player to play with.

• Doors in the garden that lead to other levels.

Narrative 

The game opens with a cutscene depicting the death of the Wisp. A heart rate monitor flatlining, and the red line becoming the red string which gives the Wisp life. With the flatlining comes the collapse of a beautiful garden as well. All of the beautiful structures collapsing, the foliage and flower life dying. The breaking of a heart. 

The Wisp is seen pacing around in a mysterious environment, and the player blows to get its attention. The Wisp and the player make their way to the broken garden and are filled with resolve to fix and restore it to its original state. 

The player can play with the Wisp in the garden for as long as they'd like, until they go to the center and upright the fallen Zinnia flower. The Wisp uses its ribbon to support the Zinnia, and without the ribbon, fades away. The Wisp waves one last goodbye to the player.

Do not be sad because the Wisp is leaving, but cherish the time spent together.

Design Process  — Ideation and Prototyping

In Spring 2024, during thesis prep, I explored a multitude of thesis questions and ideas. 

All of them were floating in the realm of what it means to build a connection, and loss of a loved one. 

I was building prototypes using a little ghost-like character on a mission to water some flowers. These prototypes explored the player taking on the role of the Wisp and coming to care about the flowers they were taking care of. Only to later learn that each flower represents a stage of grief, and the Wisp is coming to terms with the fact that they have passed away, and the flowers represent someone who is alive who still misses them. 

These prototypes were fine, but I felt they were lacking elements of attachment. Players were not feeling attached to the flowers. Players did, however, really like and feel more attached to the Wisp character. 

At this time, I was feeling super frustrated with the prototypes, and I started noticing I was sighing a lot. And it felt good. I started paying a lot of attention to the ways I was breathing. The exhales, the inhales, the holds, the gasps, the long sighs. I wanted to capture this feeling of relief, and built a prototype about holding your breath. Players would hold their breath to stop time and go into a memory to explore it. However, they could only stay in the memory as long as they held their breath. Every time they revisited a memory, it changed a little bit because as time progresses, memory fades. 

The prototype proved successful in a few ways: 

1. Holding multiple emotions. People felt that the memories were depicting warm and fondly remembered events, but the player character was not happy and having difficulty reconciling it. 

2. A physical mechanic was engaging, and immersed players in the experience. 

This is when I pivoted towards the first iteration of the current game: 

A non-conventional first person game (I came to this realization later). 

We started creating simple prototypes for having the player blow into the mic and having a world output. 

We continued building into more advanced prototypes. 

A chasm that the Wisp tries to float over, but they are too heavy and begin falling down into the void. The player must blow to keep the Wisp afloat. However, the player cannot blow forever, and the Wisp eventually falls down.

This was the first proof of concept that demonstrated all necessary components of our design

Players feel anxious and panic once they realize the Wisp is falling. They frantically huff and puff to keep the Wisp afloat, because they care about the character’s survival. The player eventually runs out of breath and the Wisp falls, leading to a sense of guilt for not being able to assist the Wisp across, but also relief that they could let go. 

We started to push our design towards not just blowing into the microphone to create physical change in the world, but as a specific method of interacting with the Wisp. Blowing into the microphone will always elicit a physical or emotional reaction from the Wisp. 

Our introduction was simultaneously carefully crafted while also accidentally being the most memorable part of our game thus far. 

The Wisp is wandering around a wasteland, and the player blows into the microphone to get their attention. The Wisp floats over to the camera and stares right at the player with a look of confusion. The player blows again and the Wisp giggles before floating forward and signalling for the player to follow them. At this point, the player gets WASD control of the Wisp.

Playtest data showed us that playtesters found that the most memorable part of the game because the Wisp was directly reacting to their input, and acknowledging their presence. It made players feel like they were in the game, but more importantly, challenged players’ idea that the Wisp is the only character in the game. It successfully introduced two characters in the game.