The Night March

Purpose

During each summer, Gameheads students create teams among themselves to create a game over the summer with a core idea shared by each team member. It was my first year and there were two more students from Hawaiʻi as first years too. We teamed up with some others from the continental U.S and we searched for a story or practice that can be shown to teach others about Hawaiian culture. We agreed on the stories of the Night Marchers. We decided that the core theme is respect, specifically respect toward our Hawaiian ancestors and aliʻi (chiefs). The core mechanic we came up with is to kneel in front of the Night Marchers until they pass to show respect towards them.

Contribution

For this project, we used Unity to develop this game. I was the background artist and co-cultural lead. I reached out to former kumu (teachers) and uncles to share their stories and the cultural significance of the Night Marchers to Hawaiʻi. As the background artist, I used my own and my friends and familyʻs photos of hikes around the islands as a reference to create a forest scene. I included lehua and the yellow hibiscus in the foliage because both hold significance as they are endemic to Hawaiʻi and connect to many stories about the Hawaiian Gods. Since the scene was set at night, I opted for cooler colors like blue and purple. In turn, the other artist (character artist) used warmer reds and oranges to contrast the player with the surroundings.

Some smaller things I did were, before receiving a sound designer, I gathered drum sounds that may have been played by the Night Marchers. For the mechanic of when the player encounters the Night Marchers, I added an invisible box that “traps” you with the Night Marchers, as if you do not show proper respect, you die.

Learning

As this was my first game I made within a team, I learned how important communication was, especially since we were all in different places, requiring us to work virtually with each other. I also got to see the different perspectives of how people perceive Hawaiʻi and our stories. It was also a learning experience to find a common ground for an art style with the other artist, so things can fit together. I aimed to learn the intricacies of overlays as I tried and eventually scrapped the idea to have an overlay of the “night” and have moonlight shine through the trees, or follow the player.

You can learn more on our game’s itch.io page.