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An indie game about Domestic Violence
Name: THOẠI
Genre: Simulation, RPG, Puzzle, Audio
"THOẠI" is a Vietnamese word that has several meanings, based on the word it paired with:
"Đối thoại" means "talk"
"Hội thoại" means "conversation"
"Điện thoại" means "phone"
"Đoạn thoại" means "dialogue"
"Tin thoại" means "voice-text"
It's also the name of many Vietnamese people.
ABOUT THIS GAME
As a senior operator, the player will work at a domestic violence hotline. During the course of the game, you will receive many urgent calls from bystanders. Sometimes there may be scams or suspicious calls, but listen carefully or you may miss important details.
The idea for this game came from the realization that the rate of domestic violence is increasing rapidly, due to COVID-19. And from some 911 hotline videos I happened to see on Reddit.
MAIN CHARACTER BACKSTORY
Take place in Ho Chi Minh City nowadays, Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Thoại is a senior domestic violence hotline worker. She is 40 years old and has a daughter with her husband. During her childhood, she suffered severe violence from her father. This left her with trauma and when she had a daughter it affected the way he treated her. After being discovered several times by her husband, they decided to separate and are now in a custody battle. Every week she has to meet with her therapist. The therapist's final judgment will decide whether or not Mrs. Thoại can stay with her daughter.
GAME STORY
The game begins when there are only 21 days left until the Court's final decision. In the role of an operator, players have to deal with different cases thanks to the information gathered through phone calls. There are many types of calls: urgent, fake, harassing, mysterious, etc. Most of the calls are based on real cases. Your performance on the job plays an important role in the court's final decision. Each decision you make will lead to different endings, both for the calls and for the main character's story
Gameplay
GAMEPLAY
21 stages, 3 - 4 phone calls per stage.
2 difficulty levels
Level: Normal
Day-shift
Night-shift
Level: Challenge
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While having a call, you might encounter problems about signal, sound and noise.
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Find all the required evidences and decide if you should call the police or not.
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Based on player's choices, the story will go in different ways, leads to several endings.
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Player will know the result of each stage when they read the news on the next day.
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Every real-life case will have its "True ending", which actually happened in real life. When a true ending is found, players will see a link to an article about that case.
More details...
FOLLOW THE SOUND
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Headphone recommended
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Listen and move your phone to where you can hear that sound or voice clearly
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"Sound-circle" appears on the screen as a hint for sound location in space and can be interacted with.
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When a voice can be heard clearly, it will appear in the conversation area.
MAKE YOUR CHOICES
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In some circumstances, players have to choose their responses.
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This action takes an important part everywhere in this game, from calls to the main story.
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Each choice will lead the story in different ways
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Even the score of every stage can be chosen
FEATURES
Score
The max score is 3 points, filled at the beginning of each stage. The score of stages will be added up, and the total score can lead this story in unexpected ways.
Wallet
Each week (7 stages) the player will receive a small amount of money for living. Money also can be earned through some special activities
Item
These items can deal with problems when having a phone call, it somehow can affect the main story
Store
Where players can buy all those items
Technology
Provide more information
- GPS
- Caller information
- Call history
YOU LOSE WHEN...
Each stage has 3 points. If click wrong 3 times, the player will lose 1 point. Lose points 4 times, and the player has to play that stage again, with completely different cases.
You also have to restart that stage, if you call the police for a fake case, that when they arrive nothing happened.
The game will end if the player reaches the ending where Ms.Thoai loses custody of her daughter
Game structure
SITEMAP
USERFLOW (begin tutorial)
GAME STRUCTURE (1 stage)
User interface
USER INTERFACE
Concept: Viet Nam and old things that still remains today.
Design inspiration: Cement Tile
MOODBOARD
COLOR MOODBOARD
ICONS
PALETTE
COMPONENTS
TYPOGRAPHY
LOGO
APP ICON
Illustration
ILLUSTRATION
Illustration inspration: Familiar things with Vietnamese
MOODBOARD
COLOR MOODBOARD
IN-GAME ILLUSTRATIONS
Office in
day-shift
Office in
night-shift
Store & Items
INTRO ANIMATION
A piece in Ms.Thoai's memory, right before her family separation. On the last day, she used violence on her daughter, and got caught by her husband.
Demo video
DEMO VIDEO
This demo was created in iPhone 13 Pro Max's screen size
Thanks for watching
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