This Little Car Of Mine

‘This Little Car Of Mine’ is a relaxing and cosy driving game that explores the theme of grief as you, the player, are on a journey to scatter the ashes of your late grandparent.

 The game focuses on the adventure the driver goes on as they find pockets of memories on their travels. These memories will expand the story and will make the player’s impact feel more relatable and connected. The game is set in a fictional version of Cornwall and will include beaches, towns and coastal paths to traverse.

Overview

‘This Little Car Of Mine’ is my final indie game project for my Masters course at Falmouth University. Taking some inspiration from my own life, this game centres around a story that would be relatable to anyone who has experienced a loss of a relative. This game is going to be emotional, charming but also relaxing. I want to emphasise that this game isn’t meant to be stressful to play, so you won't be chased at any point. ‘This Little Car Of Mine’ will be a pocket sized story that will keep the player engaged from start to finish.

100 Days Of Development

Why create a game that centers around a car if it doesn’t coincide with the narrative of the game? The car in This Little Car Of Mine was a gift from their late grandparent. This not only reflects the grandparent spiritually joining you on the journey as you travel to scatter their ashes but it also represents them as a person. Cutscenes in the game will coincide with the car and represent the journey you go on in the game. During a crucial part of the story, in a memory cutscene, when the grandparent finds out they are sick, the car- outside of the memory, also briefly breaks down and parallels the struggle. 

Games have the unique ability to immerse players in different perspectives and narratives. By creating a game about grief, I can spark meaningful conversations and encourage players to reflect on their own experiences with loss and how they relate to others who are grieving. I want to make sure my game is accessible to a wide audience. This includes considerations such as basic but intuitive controls and support for multiple platforms/devices. Accessibility will help to maximise my game's reach and impact.

Location

I decided to set my game in a fictional version of Cornwall as it has resonated with me all of my life. Cornwall is beautiful to me and recreating it in a cosy and relaxing game would be a perfect fit. From the harbour towns, to the mines, you will be treated to different environments to find the memories of your late grandparent. Each location will centre around the story and memory of the area. This will allow me to create several different themes for the levels. It does help that for 4 years of my life, during my Undergrad course, I lived in Cornwall so I have lots of photos for reference when creating these areas.

Memory Pockets

‘This Little Car Of Mine’ will take the player on an emotional and wholesome journey through the memories of someone they have lost. Your Gameplay experience will see you explore different locations that tie to the memories, when you find a black and white ‘Memory Pockets’ you will have to find a specific element in that area to bring colour back into the world.

In ‘This Little Car Of Mine’ your main task will be to find black and white areas in the game which represent the memories of you and your late grandparent. These areas will play out a cutscene that will expand the story and will reveal colour back into the world after it is told.

Memory Pockets will not only be a visual representation of someone going through grief as they revisit past locations but I will also be altering the music to represent a change in feel of the game. I am aiming to use bright colours for the maps to juxtapose the black and white Memory Pockets in the levels.

I want to use the lack of colour in the Memory Pockets to represent the feeling of grief. The player character is revisiting the areas they shared with their grandparent and it can convey a sense of sadness and to do this I want to use a colour shader and also alter the post-processing for the main camera.

New Levels and Future Development

The levels in my game will represent the different stages of grief. I have now finished the first level and I am excited to get the next levels implemented. I am midway through my Masters module and I will be continuing development on ‘This Little Car Of Mine’ until I am done.

Thank you for checking out my game! If you want to play it I will link the game here:

https://samclaydon.itch.io/this-little-car-of-mine

The password to try it out is: DemoMay2024