My Name Is Phoenix

2D Side-Scroller by Georgia Monsheimer

My Name Is Phoenix: Text

About

The Background

My Name is Phoenix is a physiological adventure presented as a 2D side-scrolling platformer. It explores the effects anxiety has on a person's everyday life and their happiness - represents through a girl's morning routine. There are different stages the player has to play through, each of which has its own enemy that represents the fears and worries of someone living with anxiety. Fear of humiliation, the worry of hiding, the worry of body image, and fear of being late. The player has to fight these enemies and collect pick-ups to complete the game while also watching their anxiety and happiness levels.
I entered this game into the Young Creative Awards in Nottingham in 2018. It won the award in the Animation and Digital Media category. I was the first Games Technology Student from Confetti to be short-listed for this award as well as the first to win it. It was showcased at the National Video-Game Arcade, along with my 3D prototype, at Confetti's Celebrate event.

This game itself is still in prototype form - only holding one level.

The topics touched upon in this game can apply to many people in today's society; which can help them put themselves in the place of the character on the screen.

This is why its called Phoenix, the character can be reborn as anyone.

And much like the topics being commonplace within people, the need to fight them to live their best life is also present within the game. The weapon used is white with a red heart because it represents the person's willpower to battle against their troubles - which isn't always easy; much like fighting the enemies.

The Art of My Name is Phoenix

As the game is 2D, all artwork is pixel art that was made on Piskel.

This, unfortunately, has caused these sprite sheets to lose some quality based on how small the images are in reality

Happiness and Anxiety Mechanics

How to have mechanics that do their job, but work alongside the story of the game.

Instead of health in this game, there are two statistics, happiness and anxiety. Happiness works like health - when it reaches 0 the game ends negatively, as when a person's happiness is at its lowest they struggle to do anything. Anxiety is a statistic that affects happiness, as it does in real life. This connection to the real-life effects of these emotions is what adds immersion to the story.