Safe Steps: A Night Walk Home

Inspiration

Safe Steps was inspired by real experiences—times when we, or people we know, had to navigate tricky situations while walking home at night. We wanted to create an interactive way to explore decision-making in uncertain situations, helping players recognize warning signs and trust their instincts.

What It Does

Safe Steps is a choice-driven, narrative-based game where players guide Mia through various encounters on her way home. She interacts with strangers, navigates public spaces, and faces split-second decisions that could impact her safety.

Each choice is categorized as Safe, Close Call, or Dangerous, giving players real-time feedback on their decisions and reinforcing real-world safety awareness.

How We Built It

We developed Safe Steps using GameMaker Studio 2 and GML, despite having no prior experience with either tool. Learning both in such a short time was a major hurdle, but we quickly adapted to scripting interactive elements, structuring decision trees, and designing UI elements.

Another challenge was creating pixel art from scratch. Since none of us had prior experience with pixel art, we had to learn as we went, experimenting with shading, animation, and sprite scaling to make the visuals cohesive.

Key features include:

A structured narrative with multiple choice points and consequences
A feedback system that evaluates each decision and explains the risks
Custom-made pixel art for characters, environments, and UI

Challenges We Faced

The biggest challenge was working with unfamiliar tools. None of us had used GameMaker Studio 2, GML, or pixel art software before, making everything a learning curve. We had to quickly figure out how to create and program sprites efficiently while maintaining a consistent art style.

Additionally, GameMaker’s file structure didn’t interact well with GitHub, leading to frequent merge conflicts. Structuring a branching narrative also required careful planning to ensure choices felt meaningful, all while working under tight time constraints.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Despite these challenges, we built a fully playable, interactive game in just 36 hours. We successfully created a functional decision-making system, overcame GitHub issues, learned an entirely new game development platform, and designed original pixel art from scratch—all within the hackathon timeframe.

What We Learned

This project introduced us to game development, branching narratives, and team collaboration in a fast-paced environment. We gained experience in:

GameMaker Studio 2 and GML for interactive storytelling
Structuring decision trees for non-linear gameplay
Creating pixel art for characters and backgrounds
Managing version control and resolving GitHub conflicts
Rapidly learning new tools and adapting under time pressure

What's Next for Safe Steps

We plan to expand Safe Steps by adding more scenarios, refining the UI, and improving accessibility. Future updates may include additional decision points, improved visuals, and mobile support. Our goal is to make Safe Steps a more immersive and educational experience for real-world safety awareness.

Built With

discord
gamemaker
github
gml
piskel

Submitted to

WiNGHacks 2025

Created by

I worked on front end and back end. I implemented character movement and worked on some sprites. This was my first time doing game development. The experience was really rewarding.

Gabriela Houser
I was mostly involved with implementing the back-end and front-end, creating the foundation for each of the scenes along with each of the dialogues. This was my first hackathon, and first time actually doing game development and I would honestly say it was a rewarding learning process and very fun to work with others to create our final product.

pamelavishka
I created most of the pixel art, including character coding and environments, and helped implement the decision system in GML to ensure choices had real consequences. I also worked on UI refinement, contributing to both the game's visual design and backend logic. As this was my first game and first hackathon, I learned a lot about game development, teamwork, and problem-solving under pressure.

Ramia A
This was my first time using GameMaker and also my first hackathon! I took on the challenge of implementing most of the back-end game state logic. In addition to that, I contributed to our visuals by creating a bit of pixel art, which was a fun and new experience for me. I also worked on refining the button and character animation behavior, ensuring smooth transitions and interactions within the game. Overall, this was an exciting and learning-filled experience!

Kali Schuchhardt