DOG DAYS – It’s Ukraine Not A Game

This game was developed as part of the „It’s Ukraine Not A Game“ student project at HTW Berlin in 2023. Our aim was to bring Polina Zvezdohliad’s narrative concept to life using Unity as our game engine. The game is now available to play on the website:

https://ukrainenotagame.com/home

In DOG DAYS, we shed light on the experiences of domestic animals within the Ukrainian population amidst the turmoil of war. The game immerses players in the daily life of a dog left behind as its family is forced to flee. Through interactive gameplay, we aim to convey the emotional weight and emptiness that these animals endure during times of conflict.

We invite you to explore the prototype on the website, along with other games created as part of this supportive movement.

Project – Creating a simple and website-friendly prototype

What I did – Visual development. Except for the uncoloured lowpoly assets and the dog, that were bought from an Ukranian artist, I created the more detailed assets and textures, painted the comic panels/decals/menu art and tried to establish the mood in the scene via concept art, that then was adapted by our talented VFX artist in-engine.

Assets and Design

Before I present to you the In-Game screenshots, I quickly like to show what assets were created solely for this game, since we had to use a lowpoly asset pack as well. Our idea was to create set pieces or locations inside the flat for the players to explore – but how could they be easily identifiable without being „too different“ than the lowpoly assets. My idea was to incorporate a comic-style, with cell shading-like elements and PBR materials, that I created from the ground up. I then painted inside Substance Painter scratches, markings and highlights. This elevates the assets from the uncoloured lowpoly surrounding, but also gives it a bit more flare – this is the world the dog sees, and being in stark contrast with the war outside helps to bring our idea across.

All the assets I created for the game. Presented in Unreal, since I plan to sell them on the Marketplace as well.

Very important was also the inclusion of comic strips – due to the limited capabilities of WebGL, we had to focus on different ways to convey the emotion and story we wanted to tell.

The first two pictures show the first day the player experiences. A new day, the dog is peacefully sleeping on his bed. Once the player goes to sleep and finishes Day 1, a new set of panels appear. A few days pass, and the once full bowl of the dog is now empty.

The left picture enhances this story thread. The next one on the right is the continuation point of the player. Once they get control of the dog again, the whole flat is engulfed in a hellish red light – a sign of war and chaos, that happens on the street outside.

The last set depicts the end of our dog. The flat gets bombed and his favourite toy, MYKYTA, falls from the now gaping and burning hole, that once was the flat.

I initially created the comic panels with different layers and animated them inside After Effects, to create this parallax or 3D effect. Sadly, WEBGL doesnt allow video integration and so we had to use the stills inside the web-built.

Screenshots

In the beginning, the game is bright and the dog is looking around for it’s family.

Strangely, the flat is desolated and untidy.

After a few days gone by, war reached the city – fire and gunshots can be heard outside the flat and red glow turn the once safe home into a scary place.

The end of the game is tragic, but sadly shows the reality of thousands of domestic animals.

2023