Visual Novel Game

About

Deception in Disguise is a multi-linear visual novel project I created for my Narrative and New Media class at SFU. The player controls a high school student trying to uncover a murder that took place in their school a year prior. This is done by questioning their fellow classmates during a Halloween school event.

My Role

In the project, my main focus was producing the final art for the six characters in the story, two of which being my original designs. After collaborative discussions on characters' roles and motivations, I played a pivotal role in designing the intuitive protagonist in detective attire and one of the crucial suspects dressed as a clown.
Additionally, I assumed the responsibility of programming the game's script.

The detective protagonist Blake.

The mischievous prankster Alice.

The helpful assistant ghost Jesse.

The charming party boy Charles.

The tired and introverted Luciel.

The peppy but klutzy track star Mika.

Milestones

Initial Concept Documentation

At the project's onset, collaboratively our group documented the game’s mechanics and plot outline on a shared Google Doc. As well as outlined the necessary assets required.

Concept Art

During this phase, I worked on a majority of the concept art for the game. Upon receiving rough art from my group for other characters, I created quick sketches to visualize how the cast would appear together. This was done to ensure distinctiveness and a cohesive color scheme between characters. I decided to focus mainly on blues and reds to fit with the game’s predominantly purple backgrounds.

Initial rough Alice sketches.

Further refined Alice sketches.

Title screen and HUD concept sketches.

Character lineup to unify character's designs and colour palette.

Final Deliverable

In the project's final stretch, I completed finalized illustrations and coded the game using Ren’Py, where I implement the script into the game's code. I also ensured that characters emote differently with each line and took the initiative to teach my classmates how to use the program.

Challenges

The primary challenge we faced in our project was the lack of effective work segregation. Numerous writers and concept artists had divergent ideas that were challenging to harmonize in the final product. Moving forward, this made me realize that there should be more communication between teammates, and I should not be afraid to propose concepts that may differ from what the client wants.
Additionally, in terms of the finalized illustrations, if remade I would like to experiment further with the characters' shape language to visually emphasize their personalities and redraw the portraits with more detail and diverse poses, aiming to better convey emotions in various scenes.