Time to Go Home

Made for RMIT Games Design Showcase:

Producer, Programmer -  @Jimmy Lin

3D Artist, Tech Artist  - @Leigh Smith 

Art Director, 2D Artist -  @Marvie Marin

Music Composer - @Jay Brendan Del Rosario 

Play as Kipp as he wastes away the hours after school, waiting to go home… fill up the time, drawing, sticking and wandering around in Kipp’s wondrous imagination! In this narrative experience, take your time to reminisce and reflect through the innocent eyes of a child. We wanted to create an experience of what it's like when you're just a child who longs to go home. For players with similar memories to feel seen, and for people to walk away feeling a bit more care for the little voices around us.

Time to Go Home serves in many ways, as a glimpse. A glimpse into one ordinary afternoon for an ordinary child, venturing deep into the kaleidoscopic wonder of any child’s wondrous imagination. It’s also a glimpse into the secret lives of children whose views and thoughts are not often considered by those who aren’t around a small human of that age normally. It also invites those who play to glimpse into their own memories, reflecting on days past, to feel a connection with some universal experiences we might all have felt in one form or another. 

Creating the project, One key goal was for the outcome to be a glimpse into the abilities and talents of our team of 3. Jimmy -producer, programmer, Leigh -3D artist, tech artist, Marvie -Art director, 2D artist, we came together wanting to make something that uses art to invoke feeling. The sensation of being whisked away into a daydream, lost in thoughts was the atmosphere we tried to convey.  

Jimmy took inspiration from his time working as a childcare educator, to tell the story of those kids who wait eagerly for their parents, sometimes a little longer than they would like to. Time to Go Home is structured with the player from this perspective. The game invites you to waste time away, doing things we might’ve only done a long time ago; drawing, sticking, playing with dolls. These activities set the tone of “take your time”, letting the player move on whenever they feel they’re ready. When they are ready, they’re fed breadcrumbs of memories and experiences, hopefully to sit with, reflect over and just remember. 

The worlds of the game -from a creepy half sketched nightmare, a hidden overgrown hideout and a plastic imagination of being at home, are all distinct in the emotions they convey, yet conform to the same shape and form of the classroom that our protagonist Kipp remains, waiting. Through careful design, lighting and post-processing, the same old classroom takes on different forms in Kipp’s mind. 

Kipp, our patient koala, is the centerpiece of our story. His design, iterated upon countless times, seeks to embody the clueless innocence of a child. He feels emotions he does not yet understand, but with hope, a crayon, and a little help from a friend, Kipp continues  to dream.