Hatching Misery

For this project, we were required to design a game that makes the player experience an emotion. The emotion our group chose was “Hurt”. Our game has the player taking control of a mother hen on a farm, trying to defend a clutch of chicks from encroaching hawks. The player needs to lead the chicks around a farmstead, using shelter as cover from attacks, to find food for her chicks. If the chicks are fed enough during the day, they survive the night. If not, they die during the night. For Hatching Misery we wanted to subvert the players expectations by creating a cartoony, kids game, aesthetic. By that I mean bright saturated colours, simple shapes, and bright happy music. Then when the player loses their first chick, and hears the scream, they’ll realise what kind of game they’re playing. We have also set up the soundtrack so it phases between different versions of itself depending on how many chicks are left. Making a transition into sadder and sadder tones as the player fails the chicks and lets them die.