Memories O’5
An easy play-through and strategic 3D interactive visual novel.
This team project is based on the theme ‘depth” of the Ludum Dare 57 Game Jam. The Game is 3D Interactive Story Game, featuring multiple realistic content and hidden Easter Eggs. The story is about something outside the ordinary, the only way to find out is through your own understanding during your playtime.
Design: Raphael Ji. Art: Raphael Ji, Ming Xu and Liuyuqi. Code: kekwu.
Controls
Move with W, A, S and D. Use the mouse to interact with and examine objects.
Research & reference
This game is inspired by Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that gradually erodes memory, identity, and one’s perception of reality. Rather than presenting the illness directly, the game translates its emotional and psychological impact into interactive gameplay and narrative experiences.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects memory, thinking and cognitive function. Short-term memory loss can develop into confusion about time, place and people, affecting daily life and independent functioning.
Game preview
Core gameplay
This project centers on a “deep narrative + puzzle-solving” core gameplay. Players experience the game from the first-person perspective of an elderly man with Alzheimer’s, exploring dreams, searching for clues, and reconstructing fragmented memories through interactive objects.
Game flow
The player experiences the daughter’s life in reverse, tracing her relationship with her father from adulthood back to infancy.
In 2005, find the medicine bottle. In 2000, clean the room, find the diary and discover a key in the toy bear. In 1995, decode the cassette clue to open the diary. In 1990, hide in the wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek. In 1980, play the melody on the toy piano. The journey ends in the Ocean of Memories.
First dream level
(China, 2000) The player enters the game as the 55-year-old protagonist. His Alzheimer’s disease has not fully manifested yet, but his memory has already begun to fade. His daughter, who has moved out, calls and asks him to sort out some belongings and mail them to her. The protagonist is already within a dream.
Second dream level
(China, 1995) The protagonist is 50 years old, and his daughter is 16. On this day, he secretly reads her diary, is caught, and a heated argument erupts. The player need to deduce the diary’s password by using clues from the daughter's Walkman and cassette tapes, then find the key hidden inside a teddy bear to unlock the diary and move on to the next level.
After the fight, the daughter storms out and slams the door. The protagonist chases after her but falls into a dream corridor, descending into a deeper layer of the dream.
Third dream level
(China, 1990) The protagonist is 45 years old, and his daughter is 11. This layer of the dream is a memory of the protagonist playing hide-and-seek with his daughter. On the TV in the center of the room is an old photo of the two of them, while the screens of the television and radio flicker with “no signal” patterns.
The player hides inside a wardrobe, but suddenly the protagonist's phone rings. Because of work, he is forced to interrupt the game, leaving his daughter disappointed.
Fourth dream level
(China, 1980) The protagonist is 35 years old, and his daughter is 1. After pushing open the wardrobe door, he returns to his daughter's nursery. A father who has forgotten everyone recalls the purest love he once shared with his child.
The end
Final Layer — The Sea of Memory The protagonist's consciousness continues to fall within the dream. He floats on a golden ocean, surrounded by objects from the years he spent with his daughter. In this sea of memories, the protagonist slowly drifts toward the end of his life.
