Postmortem: Dirge

Postmortem: Dirge

This is a visual novel game based on the oriental aesthetics of 物の哀 (pathos of things). It tells an autobiography of a woman in an East Asian society.

Video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/820726286

Hanbing Wang

33743664

Introduction

Dirge is a visual novel game based on the oriental aesthetics of 物の哀 (pathos of things) for itch.io. It was developed in one month. The project is inspired by Chinese poet Li Shangyin's poem 'The Sad Zither'. Zither, a traditional Chinese plucked instrument, has a mournful voice. Starting from the strings, the poet recalls his youth and expresses his deep sorrow. In this double-narrative visual novel, I combine the imagery from the poem with my growing up experience to tell the story of an East Asian woman's youth. In the game, players will enter the heroine's memories by plucking Ms Zither's strings and decide whether to assert their own will or East Asian dogmas on women, creating two different narrative lines.

Development Tool

This game was developed in Visual Novel Maker.

Narrative Design

This game is designed with a dual narrative line.

In the first part of the game is the "Growth Chapter", where the player experiences the protagonist before he makes a choice:

At first, she had a strong personality, full of angles, and suffered a lot. When she was young, she wanted to be loved. But she didn't want to cut herself, she tried to defy the dogmatic rules, and she wanted to stick to her system. She stubbornly kept telling herself that everyone was drunk and she was alone. But the seed of desire took root in her heart and never went away. She would stand in front of the camera rushing to cover up, when no one was around, praying for another purer face, another pair of slender bodies, and will often secretly envy other women's stable feelings, and successful marriage. She was finally in love, in other words, she was finally freed from the wrong relationship. She was reflective, miserable, and depressed, questioning her attractiveness, her idea of love, and her sense of self. She was enveloped by feelings, rolling around in them, dripping, and every minute of energy spent reflected her soul, reflecting to ask herself, what is love, who are you, what love has brought you, from the mirror of love, what have you learned? Do you see who you want to be? She kept falling and asked the heavens, but heaven never answered. She began to resent her natural stupidity and inability to take steps; She began to confess her jealousy, jealous of the smooth sailing of the shrewd and calculating person whom she detested.

The player is then ushered into a "Decision Chapter," which unlocks two different narrative lines.

Narrative line 1:

The first narrative line is the author's own experience, and the outcome unlocked by the player who, faced with an identity dilemma, chooses to conform to social dogma:

So, she put away her rebellious heart, in front of the mirror to judge her features, appearance, and personality flaws, and began to undergo a complete and orderly set of exercises, down to the length of her nails, and the colour of her clothes. She became adept at cutting herself to earn social acceptance. The dogma of East Asian society, like air, swirled deeply around her body with her breath, coiled like a double helix. She made a mess of herself, cut her eyes to tears, then gradually numb, even full of fighting spirit, never tired of it. She chose to wade out of the mire with her legs, through various active choices and passive screening, to establish a complete system of her value. She weaned herself off emotions and expressiveness, and instead of dwelling on problems, she focused on how to solve them. She is a humble, mellow woman who knows how to hide her flaws and tries to be smart. But with the acquisition of reason, she also lost the ability to empathize. She has become the opposite of herself. She could feel a growth as painful and complete as the erosion of a bone. From loving someone with pure and astringent excitement to enduring the pain of soul transformation to becoming a more self-consistent and complete person, a more realistic and calm person, a soft outside and hard inside person, and a more active and enterprising person in career. As she wallows in this long journey, she suddenly looks back and realizes that she is gradually losing her unique colour and disappearing into what she considers a "successful East Asian woman." Only she knew how much innocence and passion had been inside her, how she had suppressed it, examined it, cut herself apart and denied herself, and pieced together a new self to face the world that had hurt her.

Narrative line 2:

The second narrative line is the opposite of the first, where players choose to stick to their own characteristics in the face of the identity dilemma:

She set out firmly on her own path, rejecting mediocrity and determined to maintain her identity. She bravely faced challenge after challenge and blow, ridicule and misunderstanding. Instead of seeking approval from others, she began to look inward and discover her own unique value. In the process, she met like-minded friends who supported each other and pursued their dreams together. She also met someone who truly understood her, who not only appreciated her unique personality, but also wanted to accompany her on her journey through life. She finally became a successful artist, with her work to convey a unique voice. However, on the way to pursue her dream, she also paid a heavy price. She lost some people who once cared for her because they couldn't understand her persistence and choices. She also hesitated emotionally, worried about how her personality would affect those she loved. Despite her many achievements, she is still full of regret. She thought of the irreparable loss, the missed opportunities and gentleness. She felt as if she were scarred by scars that reminded her of her past struggles and pains. Still, she persisted. She believes that those past hardships and setbacks are what made her who she is today. She understands that there will always be regrets growing up, but they are part of her unique color. It is these regrets that make her cherish everything she has now and pursue her dream even harder. On this road, she no longer blindly to pursue the so-called "success", but to try to find the real belong to their own happiness. She understood that only by sticking to her own characteristics, can she find that different life.

Two different choices lead to two different stories. Similarly, no matter what kind of life you choose, you will gain something, but also lose something. When people grow up, they often have to choose between pursuing their dreams and society's expectations, and these choices often lead to some regrets. Therefore, regret in life is always inevitable.

Successes

During the development of the game, I tried to have a slightly mournful beauty. The whole game, from the graphics to the text to the soundtrack, is built on a slightly sad tone, which is why I named the game Dirge. Dirge is more than a game in this game, but also an emotional embodiment. Through this game, I want to express a kind of Oriental aesthetics of 物の哀 (pathos of things). The setting and character design of the game strive to reflect the eastern aesthetic, which complements the overall atmosphere of the game. The music will feature Zither as the main elements, recreating ancient Chinese customs. The textual description of the game strives to be delicate, as far as possible to show the inner emotions of the characters.

At the beginning of the game, I translated Li Shangyin's poem into a modern poem to stimulate the player's interest and desire to explore, and thus develop the story.

The end of the game is not set up as success or failure, but rather as the player experiences life's regrets and choices. I want Dirge to be a kind of spiritual place where players can find a resonance in the game and feel the beauty of the 物の哀 (pathos of things).

Challenges

I had a challenge setting up the background music part of the game. I tried to set up coherent background music in Visual Novel Maker. I chose to go through setting "Special Events" and set it to loop, but I failed. Finally, I cut the complete background music into 12 audio clips according to the rhythm changes and placed them in 12 scenes. In this way, the background music is well connected between scenes, and the immersion of the game is not broken.

Future Plans

In order to make Dirge accessible to more players, I plan to develop a multi-language version in the future so that players from different countries can feel the unique charm of Dirge.

In the future, I would like to iterate this game into a puzzle game where the player learns the story of the girl by exploring her room.

Summary

In Summary, Dirge is a game full of sad beauty, hoping that it can become a part of people's inner world, let us feel those unavoidable regrets and choices in life.

Reference

【1】陈福明, 2019. The Artistic Concept Research of Different English Versions about “Gorgeous Zither” from the Perspective of Gestalt. ML 07, 521–527. https://doi.org/10.12677/ML.2019.74068