Project Overview:

"A Day for Mia" is a game designed to simulate-- and build empathy for-- the frustration felt by those with mobile disabilities when struggling against insufficient structural accommodations and careless bystanders. You play as Mia, a college student attempting to finish a short To-Do list before meeting with a friend for coffee. Mistiming your crutch swings, bumping into anything, forcing yourself to move faster than is comfortable, or asking people to move will raise Mia's frustration. Stumbling with too high a frustration leads to a fall, and takes longer to recover from. The player must manage their frustration, pick an efficient task route, and avoid making mistakes to complete this seemingly simple To-Do list in time. 

 

Basic Locomotion...

The movement system is challenging, and requires the player to rhythmically time 2 inputs to simulate the coordination needed to use crutches. The cycle is...

• 1. Lean forward using the 'W' key, placing your crutches on the ground ahead

• 2. Press 'Space' to swing your body ahead, past your crutches

• 3. Repeat

 

While this may seem simple, prematurely hitting space at any point (i.e. when not having finished the "lean forward" animation) results in a stumble. This mistake is common amidst avoiding obstacles and navigating the environment while trying to beat the clock.

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• The player can also hold 'Shift' and move faster than normal, at the cost of steadily increasing their frustration meter due to this strenuous effort 

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Frustration Meter...

A major aspect of the gameplay loop is the management of frustration towards the obstacles you must overcome. The frustration meter will increase by:

• 1. Stumbling through bumping into objects or people, or mistiming a crutch swing.

• 2. Asking bystanders to move when they inconsiderately block your bath.

• 3. Holding 'Shift' to increase your speed to a strenuous degree.

• 4. Ascending or descending the stairs.

 

When the frustration meter passes into the 'danger zone' as indicated by the marker on the meter (as well as the angered UI speech bubble appearing next to Mia), any stumble will instead result in a fall. Falling takes longer to recover from than a stumble, so must be avoided.

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The multi-tasking of managing Mia's frustration meter while struggling against the clock is itself frustrating for the player, and is a core way the game seeks to build empathy.

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Bystanders...

The game is full of inconsiderate bystanders wandering absent-mindedly through the building. They are purely an obstacle and won't even offer to open doors for Mia. To avoid them, the player must either:

• Move around them, which is often difficult given the movement system​​

• Asking them to move with 'Alt', at the cost of raising your frustration meter

  • The character will move to a new location and aggravatedly stare at the player before resuming their behavior​

Bystanders will also stare at Mia when she falls in front of them instead of helping her up, representing Bystander Effect

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Structural Obstacles...

There are a handful of obstacles resulting from the building itself. How they impede your progress will impact the route you choose to accomplish your task list in time.

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• Faulty Doors

  • While the doors in this game have a disability button to open automatically, they aren't well-maintained and will fail to open about 1/4th of the time​

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• Inconvenient Elevators

  • The 2 elevators in this game are problematic because they are painfully slow to arrive, open, and close their doors, as well as being out of the way from notable locations​

    • This inconvenience makes them a pain to use, despite being safer​

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• Stairs

  • The stairs are located in more convenient spots than the elevator, but are very strenuous to use.​​

  • On stairs, Mia's frustration meter constantly rises and the player must spam 'Space' to lower it, plus each step taken causes it to immediately increase substantially

    • This is meant to simulate how exhausting it is to use stairs on crutches​

  • Maxing out your frustration meter causes a time-consuming stumble

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To-Do List...

Holding 'Tab' lets you access your To-Do list of 5 items and see what is left to complete,

with finished tasks being crossed out.

It will also highlight the next locations through walls for guidance.

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Open-Ended Objective Design...

• The tasks can be completed in any order, and the map is designed to be open-ended in the possible paths to reach them. While there is theoretically an optimal set of paths and task order, what that would be is entirely ambiguous

  • i.e. Maybe the stairs in one area are worth the risk given they lead directly to another task, or maybe the elevator is close enough to a task that its slowness won't be too detrimental.​

• This is meant to emulate the burdensome level of planning required for those with mobile disabilities in how they go about completing what for others would be a simple set of errands.

  • The stress and frustration in what should be mundane is meant to build empathy.​

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Endings...

The game has 2 ending screens:

• The Win ending shows Mia and the friend happily enjoying your coffee

• The Lose ending shows that Mia exhausted trying to get to the table, and your friend guides her to a seat with concern

  • This helps losing not feel to bleak, as this is supposed to highlight the issues disabled people face, not paint them as hopeless victims with no one to turn to​

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