Initially, when I was told the brief for this project was to “design a game about a serious issue”, I honestly had zero idea where to start. In theory, any idea could be made serious if presented in a certain way/context. Thankfully, after voicing my concerns, we were given a bit more prompt and instructed to possibly try basing a game off issues we have personal experiences with.
I’m thankful to not have been born with many lasting issues, the largest being my eyesight which was recently corrected with surgery, so even with the updated prompt, it took me time to concoct an idea. In the end, I based my game off of one of my larger ongoing hobbies: writing.
I do a lot of writing in my spare time, having amassed a following that I am very proud of online, and one of the main issues I have writing is to do with the concept of ‘writers block’.
It’s a rather broad term, and can apply to many different concepts for many different people. To me, it is the ongoing irritant of being unable to concentrate on my writing due to present distractions in my environment. Even small things like the room being too hot, getting distracted by phone messages, and many more things can throw me off my writing far easier than I’d like to admit.
And so, with an idea of the ‘issue’ I would be looking into, I began planning for my game, eventually naming it – Focus!