Overview

Game Title:

• #19-09-26

Genre(s):

• Visual Novel/Interactive Fiction
• Role Playing
• Point and Click
• Puzzle Solving

Pillar(s):

• Chinese Characteristic Element
• Black and White Comic Sytle
• Stream of Consciousness Narrative

Major and Minor Focus:

• Major Focus: The goal of this game is to express personal emotions, so narrative is the game’s major focus. It is important to express very personal thoughts and feelings to the audience with simple words. Also because the setting has strong regional characteristics, the story needs to show the unique characteristics in the context of a Chinese high school.
• Minor Focus: The puzzle-solving part of the game is something that should be weakened. Because the main goal is to tell the story and express feelings, the too-difficult puzzles can lead to the audience’s attention being diverted. So solving puzzles is not the main focus of this game, but just a way to add interaction.

Concept Statement:

• #19-09-26 is a black-and-white comic-style first-person visual novel, which is a reflection of my memories of high school life. The game scenes use real school pictures that I once recorded, the character designs refer to my former school uniforms, and the story references my memories.
• The reason I created this game is that I can not forget my painful high school life, and many of my friends around me had unfortunate high school lives as well. I want to show the high-pressure and closed life of most high school students in China by the main character in this game as a microcosm so that people who share the same experience can find a sense of identity.

Story Overview:

• Players take on the role of a Chinese high school student searching for her missing only best friend, a small calico cat, in the dark campus. During the search for the cat, players will find that parts of the once-familiar campus seem to be missing, and after piecing together the broken pieces of the campus, some vague flashbacks of memories appear. These clues all point to one place in the end, which is the player’s final destination.

Core Loops:

Essential Experience：

• For all players, I expect their gameplay experience not to be very depressing and painful, but that’s what I started with, but after a few revisions, I decided to weaken that impression.
• In the final edition, for non-Chinese players, I expect the player experience to be like, ‘Ah, so this is what their student life is like.’, I want them to be able to relate to the depression that is shown in the game, not to not inflict this pain on themselves, and to understand what I am showing is one of my goals.
• As for the Chinese players, I hope they can understand me, understand what I’m going through and at the same time find their own sense of belonging and identity in the game, even though it’s hard, I hope they can laugh and say, ‘This is exactly what I used to be like!’. Just like I want to be identified with, and wouldn’t that be a good thing if it eased our pain? I guess.

Target Audience:

• The target audience is adults over the age of 18, the first reason being that adults are more likely to have gone through high school and have the time and energy to play games. The second reason is that the overall tone of #19-09-26 is still depressive and unpleasant, with mild hints of self-harm and suicide in the course and end. So this is not an appropriate game for children or students going through their student years.

Platform(s):

• As a point-and-click visual novel, this game is not strict about platform. PC/Mobile Phone/Switch can be its platform.
• Also, this game would be free, so I will post it publicly on social networks and upload the files for people who want to play it.