Welcome to...
Day by Day
With an ill son and a dangerous job Mr. Davis does his best to navigate a challenging life in an ever-changing healthcare system. Take the role of a warehouse worker struggling to make ends meet in this 2D RPG style serious game. When things can't seem to get any worse, government policies introduce a new more privatized healthcare system to a family with a terminally ill son. Experience the struggle and fight to keep the family together and safe.
Game Design
Day by Day is a serious game that was created to address and educate player about different healthcare systems and how they affect different groups of people. The message was informed by a research paper I wrote before creation.
The game delivers its message through gameplay and narrative. Each day the players will go through a cycle of talking to family, going to work, then visiting their sick child at the hospital.
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I took on the role of lead level design as well as lead programmer. I was in charge of designing the minigames and engineering the gameplay mechanics of the game as well as overseeing all programming.
The main gameplay comes from the work minigames. We had originally planned to create three different minigames. We had to cut back due to deadlines and scope to just one. Player's performance in this minigame determines how much they will be paid at the end of the day.
In this minigame, players must stack boxes onto the shelves without falling off. Each box they stack will reward them with more currency. When players begin climbing a ladder they are shown a balance meter that they must keep between the red lines or they will fall off. If they fall off three times, they will be immediately sent to the hospital. This causes the players to miss out on currency as well as losing currency from a medical bill.
Documentation
We spent half of the time developing Day by Day on documentation and continued to update documents throughout production. This includes a 33 page game design document, a formal research document, a project plan document, a team charter document, and more.
Theoretical target audience team exercise
Pages from our game design document