The Elephant in the Room was a solo project made as an experimental piece of work for a Specialist Game Development Practice module at Falmouth University. The prototype was created around the theme of Domestic Abuse. The inspiration came from early development talks on the game "Ambient Light". When working in a team, it is inevitable that you will have to kill off some of your "darlings". However, what sat with me is what my original vision for the game could have been; so I thought, why not make it myself? 

I centered the theme less about Gaslighting, which was the theme in Ambient Light, and more on the generalised aspect of Domestic Abuse. Because this was my first time working on a solo project, I knew there was a lot of risks to having such a big scope. I minimilised this risk by splitting what work I needed to do into a weekly layout and setting time restraints to each aspect of the project. I then used AGILE methodology and bi-weekly sprints to achieve the desired goal. 

My other major risk was the topic itself. Domestic Abuse in any form holds a lot of weight for certain individuals that have had to experience it throughout their life. I knew if I didn't take this topic seriously, the entire project would be horribly critisised - and rightly so. To remedy my worries on this matter, I spent an entire two weeks researching and reading everything I can about Domestic Abuse, taking in notes from victims as well as psychiatrists who specialise in helping those going through it, to fully understand what I wanted this project to be. 

I personally feel so proud of what this project turned out to be. I loved making it, and I hope one day I am able to make this into a fully playable title. 

Click Here for the full development blog.