In this devlog, I’d like to introduce some of the locations that serve as the setting for 1daYs.
In the previous post, I briefly talked about what kind of game 1daYs is. This time, I’d like to talk a little more about the places the player will pass through during the day.
The locations I’ll be introducing this time are places you’ll also be able to visit in the demo: the front of Minsu’s house, the bus stop, and the schoolyard.
These are not especially grand or unusual places within the game.
However, in 1daYs, they are the first places a high school student encounters on an ordinary morning commute.
They may be everyday scenes that people pass by all the time, but because of that, even small changes can stand out a little more.
One thing I focused on when creating the backgrounds for 1daYs was making them feel like places that could actually exist in an ordinary neighborhood.
Since the game is set in Korea from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, I also wanted to capture that atmosphere.
Alleys lined with detached houses, old walls, utility poles and overhead wires, small shops, street stalls, bus stops, and roads leading to school.
These may feel very familiar to some people, and a little unfamiliar to others.
But I felt that the sense of everyday life in these places was important for shaping the atmosphere of the game.
Even when a day turns out differently than usual, it often begins in ordinary places like these.
The front of the house is where Minsu’s day begins.
This area was created based on the feeling of a detached house in a typical Korean alley.
In some ways, this kind of scenery hasn’t changed all that much between then and now.
A low wall, small items placed in front of the house, a gate with signs of long use, and the little traces of daily life around the yard.
I also wanted to include the slightly untidy feeling of a neighborhood alley.
Of course, both then and now, apartments make up a large part of Korea’s residential environment.
But for the opening scene of the game, I felt that a detached house in an alley suited the atmosphere better than an apartment.
It felt more natural for showing the feeling of leaving home in the morning, and of a day beginning somewhere inside a neighborhood.
And to be honest, I also thought it would offer a bit more visual appeal for players outside Korea. :D
The bus stop is a common roadside place that you can still find almost anywhere.
If anything has changed, it might be that it’s now easier to check when the bus will arrive, and the way people pay the fare has changed a little.
A bus stop sign by the road, small shops and street stalls nearby.
I wanted to use these elements to create the atmosphere around a bus stop.
A bus stop is a place for getting from one place to another, but it is also a place where you can easily run into someone.
You might meet someone by chance, or end up heading in the same direction without exchanging many words.
And sometimes, certain encounters are hard to avoid.
The bus stop does not appear very often in the game.
But since it is one of the starting points for the events of this day, I think it can be considered an important place.
The school is the central location of 1daYs.
It is also the place where Minsu, a second-year high school student, spends most of his time from morning to afternoon.
The schoolyard was created based on the kind of school scenery that many people in Korea can easily picture.
A wide dirt field, the school building, a podium, pull-up bars and other exercise equipment, and students coming and going.
Schools today often feel more modern and polished, but I think schools back then had a slightly rougher and more plain atmosphere.
The school background was heavily inspired by my own old school.
The buildings and schoolyard have changed a lot now, so it is hard to picture what they used to look like, but the school in my memory was close to this.
In the hallways, in the classrooms, and in the schoolyard, everyone is living through their own day.
School is the place where students spend the longest part of the day, but at the same time, it can also feel quite closed off.
Because of that, rather than focusing on large changes in the background itself, I felt this location should focus more on who you meet there and what kinds of stories you hear.
The three locations introduced this time are all very ordinary spaces.
The front of the house, the bus stop, and the school.
As game backgrounds, they might even seem too ordinary or predictable.
But in 1daYs, these ordinary places are quite important.
I see this story not as something about a huge incident in a special place, but as something closer to slightly unusual events happening within an ordinary everyday life.
That is why I wanted to create places that felt like they could really exist, rather than places that were especially beautiful or dramatic.
An old wall, a worn sign, small objects by the roadside, the dirt ground of a schoolyard.
And by the time this day comes to an end, I hope the places that first seemed ordinary will feel a little different.
In the next devlog, I’ll start introducing some of the characters who appear in 1daYs.
The first characters I’ll introduce are the students of Class 2-7, Minsu’s classmates.
They are the people closest to Minsu during his day, and they are also at the center of the events that unfold.
I hope you’ll look forward to learning more about them.
And as always, adding the game to your wishlist is a huge help for development.