## Nancy Drew: Dread of Time > [!info] VFX Design Doc > **Student**: Nikita Stulikov > **Instructor**: Leon Johnson > **Web document**: [Personal website](https://nepobjedivi.website/VFX_NancyDrew) > **Task**: Design 2 VFX effects integrated into the game world of an assigned franchise > **Game**: [Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock](https://store.steampowered.com/app/31880/Nancy_Drew_Secret_of_the_Old_Clock/) (2005) > **VFX**: (1) Time is a circle (2) Time is up > ![[DESIGNS/Nancy_MP4_Mov.mp4]] ## Design Intentions **Story** To demonstrate two VFXs, a scene from Nancy Drew (hereinafter ND) game is simulated in Unity. In this scene Nancy discovers that her friend Emily was gaslighted by her assistant Jane. The assistant wanted Emily to think that there're ghosts in Emily's family mansion. In this way, Jane planned to buy her mansion for next to nothing. Nancy finds a secret entrance inside Emily’s room that leads into a dark passage within the mansion’s walls. There, she discovers a narrow gap in the wall back into Emily’s room. Nancy realizes that Jane used this opening to scare Emily with sounds and optical tricks. At this moment, Nancy encounters one of the optical illusions, which catches her off guard. **Simulation** 1. On start, a sequence of images changes on the screen, simulating player movement in the original ND game (a point-and-click adventure without a physical simulation of player controls). The screenshots are taken from the original game. 2. At the last screenshot, Nancy sees the opening in the wall. Two dialogue lines appear in the UI, and play as audios: (A) "Now this case is a cake walk! I now how Jane tricked Emily into thinking there're ghost in their family mansion. I can't wait to tell about it to..." (B) "Wait! What's that!?" Many thanks to Eva Lisovskaya for giving Nancy her voice. 3. A clock SFX plays 4. Two VFXs appear on the screen, inside the narrow gap in the wall. **VFX 1: Time is a flat circle** > “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.'” - Nietzsche F. (1882) The Gay Science, §341 The model of time as a circle iterates through the human history and circles back to Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Greece, Heraclitus saw the world to be "an ever-living Fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out" (fragment 20, translated by Burnet J., p. 134) In modern Japan, Heraclitus’s vision of the world is re-expressed in the Dark Souls series, where both gameplay and the meta-loop never cease to repeat. If everything has already happened innumerable times, and will happen again and again -- there is no surprise in the future. Perhaps this is what Nancy saw through the gap in the wall. **VFX 2: Time is Up** > "Anxiety about death must not be confused with a fear of one's demise. It is not arbitrary and chance 'weak' mood of an individual, but, as a fundamental attunement of being-there, it is the disclosedness of the fact that being-there exists as thrown being-towards-its-end" - Heidegger M. (1927) Being and Time. D.2, ch.1, s.50 Time is the enemy that pulls us towards the end. If there was no death, would there be any deadlines, time constrains, or limits at all? Everyday life is fundamentally concerned with being on time. Time-management is a useful skill. But when it comes to the ultimate deadline, the best it can do is dismiss its boring facticity. ![[ATTACHMENTS/NancyVFX_.gif]] **Artistic Choice** - Particles for each VFXs are custom *vector images* with a "*Rasterize*" effect (Adobe Illustrator). Vector graphics fits the intention to create easily readable shapes. Rasterization effect brings them closer to the old (2005) visual style of the ND game. - A 2D image in a 3D environment looks out of this world. Similarly, when Nancy uncovers secrets in the game, it's dark dungeons and passages. The way they contrast with bright and cozy game's environment, emphasizes the importance of associated story bits. - There are four clock images (2nd VFX). Their *image sequence* made with ezgif (images > gif > [sprite sheet](https://ezgif.com/gif-to-sprite))) is integrated into Unity to simulate the movement of arrows. - The *palette* aims to be both mysterious and ominous. Red in a detective story associates with blood. Blue adds contrasts to red: a strange calmness. Purple joins red and blue. Besides, this colour is traditionally associated with mystery and evil in game design. *Emission* adds a ghastly feeling to the effects. Nancy Drew series have featured ghosts in other games. The ghost in the "Castle Malloy" is blue. And the ghost in "Thornton Hall" is red. See the Reference section - The *pacing* of the 1st VFX (arrows) has a slow speed of a hypnotic pattern. It adds to the ominous feeling the scene tries to evoke. The 2nd VFX (clocks) appear with a delay to let the player focus on the "arrows" VFX first. Bursts of "clocks" synchronize with the clock SFX. The 2nd VFX tries to evoke dread and panic: particle bursts are fast, and the arrows on the clock move chaotically. - However selected themes for VFX are more deep and serious than ND games usually use, the series was criticized for the lack of depth and awareness (e.g., Thornton Hall controversy). Suggested themes aim to complement and even rebrand the game towards more thoughtful narratives. **Consideration** Current visuals make obvious the presence of a topic that I didn't explore: menstrual cycles. All human beings have a biological clock but females have a stronger connection to biological time due to the female sex anatomy. I don't find the time and place appropriate to explore this topic. And as a man, I cannot be confident about preventing an appropriation. ## Credits - Voice acting (Nancy Drew) -- [Eva Lisovskaia](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-lisovskaia-bbb2b1276/?locale=en_US) - Font [Paytone](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Paytone+One?query=Paytone) ## Reference **Literary** - John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1920) - Nietzsche F. (1882) The Gay Science - Heidegger M. (1927) Being and Time. **Ludic** - *Banshee from Castle Malloy*