Inspiration
We wanted to tackle an idea related to social isolation as the expansion of technology in our lives, that once connected us, is now dividing us more than ever. Extreme cases are looked down upon as situations that one can easily escape from given enough motivation. We wanted to show that the decline can be subtle, gradual, and unexpected - anyone can succumb to isolation, and the trek out is grueling.
What it does
We have the user go through 5 scenes of an everyday individual. They first start out happy and enthusiastic about their new life, allowing the player to interact with setting up their environment after a big move. But as the months progress (indicative of scene progression), the user slowly becomes isolated, starting with little everyday discomforts shown on their laptop, their interactions changing to harmful alternatives or eliminating previous everyday interactions. Signs, transitions, and interactivity will signify the impact of the users deterioration.
How we built it
We first established a basic apartment setup, compact so that the user can feel suffocated by their choices but also reminiscent of Asian apartments, where this problem most commonly occurs. While 3D assets were being modeled, we used substitute primitives to develop the pertinent interactions, such as month 1 unpacking and desktop alerts.
Challenges we ran into
Establishing all the components necessary to subtly but steadily depict descendance into isolation took longer than expected as we had many components to develop. We also had issues setting up physics of the many interactable items. We had the assets appear really simple so we would have liked to have created more custom and advanced textures.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud of all the assets we were able to compile and build. Also the amounts of progress we were able to establish in every scene (appropriately named month 1, 2, 4, 5, 8).
What we learned
We learned a lot about the issue itself, the subtle incidences of everyday life can suddenly snowball without notice.
What's next for Hold it Together
Adding more interactivity components, more signs of deterioration, and possibly adding more scenes that the user commutes to, such as their workplace and the general outdoors.
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