By Jason Xu and YT Wong (FEIT iAmbassadors)
With the UTS FEIT Tech Festival 2025 right around the corner, it is an excellent opportunity to highlight an amazing talent from last year’s Games Showcase.
The annual Tech Festival Showcase celebrates innovation and technology from creative UTS students over 5 days ranging from categories such as Artificial Intelligence, Games, Robotics, Software, Cybersecurity and Civil and Environmental Engineering.
We spoke with students Joaquin Enrico Yambao and Natalia Ysabelle Tang, who are both studying a Bachelor of Games Development and made the game Scarlet, Silence, Sunrise – a murder mystery set in an idyllic countryside town where things aren’t quite as they seem. Players take on the role of a detective and get to the bottom of the village chief’s murder. This thrilling game won runner up at the Games Showcase and was a standout game crafted with passion and creativity.
Where storytelling meets game mechanics
Joaquin, who took on the role as both narrative designer and technical implementation assistant, experienced the hefty writing that comes with creating a murder mystery game. However, the real struggle lay with implementation and user interaction.
“Designing the mystery was a whole beast. Converting into dialogue and text for a player was another.”
Writing a murder mystery game often comes down to the three key challenges of intricacies of Narrative design, balancing player freedom vs story and creating believable characters.
Some intricacies which make a complex narrative include crafting believable clues, red herrings, and layered storylines, forming a wholistic narrative. Grasping a balance between narrative and player freedom is another struggle in that designers need to provide players with meaningful choices while still keeping a coherent narrative. Lastly and most importantly, crafting believable characters, the team made a fantastic effort to create realistic characters that match the scenario. It often comes with character development which requires greater planning to implement.
Technology at play
To bring their vision to life, the team leveraged several applications and technologies.
The team used Unity to develop the game, a versatile game engine which enables seamless integration of gameplay elements and visuals. To organise collaborative scriptwriting and drafting dialogues, they used Google Docs and Miro for efficient teamwork and editing.
To implement the script, YarnSpinner was used in conjunction with Unity to handle the conversation UI. These technologies were the backbone of the project and allowed the team to deliver an engaging player experience, combining engaging narrative with technical precision.
A visual and narrative fusion
Scarlet, Silence, Sunrise not only has a great narrative, but is also a demonstration of visual artistry. Natalia, the Environmental and Character Artist, brought the characters and environments to life through carefully designed illustrations. They worked tirelessly to ensure the visuals captured the mysterious tone of the story.
This journey was not without its hurdles. Natalia faced great challenges in balancing visual consistency and refinement, especially with the tight deadlines. Despite various constraints, they worked hard in maintaining a consistent attention to detail. Their dedication has resulted in an immersive world with an entrancing player experience, bridging the gap between art and narrative. Bringing forth a brilliant gaming experience.
“We also added some visual polish like the sparkle effects when the player is near a clue,” Natalia said, demonstrating their attention to detail.
Behind the scenes: preparing for Tech Fest
Tech Fest is not just about showcasing the final product, it’s also about the meticulous preparation leading up to the event. Natalia and Joaquin put a lot of effort into this showcase, ensuring every detail was carefully planned.
To improve the games’ performance and showcase them more effectively, they applied several enhancements. Not only did they fix numerous bugs, but they also prepared some merchandise to give away, including printouts of the cutscenes, stickers, charms of the main character, and their business cards. These additions made the showcase more interactive and memorable for attendees.
The impact of Tech Fest
While the Games Showcase is only a one-day event, the lessons learned, and the confidence gained from presenting in front of industry professionals and peers had a lasting impact.
“I really enjoyed getting to talk about my work in the game, it was nice hearing people compliment my art!” said Natalia
Displaying their hard work and validating the project at Tech Fest was an incredible source of encouragement for Natalia and Joaquin. It inspired their enthusiasm for future developments on “Scarlet, Silence, Sunrise”, for applying their experiences to other upcoming projects, and enhanced their passion for creating games and stories.
“Participating in the tech festival reinforced my passion for making games and stories,” Joaquin added.
One compliment that particularly stuck with Natalia was from an attendee who said her art reminded them of Temmie Chang’s work in ‘Undertale’, a popular indie game. The attendees loved their game merchandise, which led to the team selling many copies at the event.
Words of advice
Here is some advice they gave to future participants as an experienced Tech Festival presenter:
- Be well-prepared: always be ready to introduce and discuss your project. It not only shows your understanding of your work but also offers a great opportunity to meet industry professionals. In addition, ask questions about things you’re curious about as it is a key opportunity to learn and build your network.
- Passion and effort matter: make a project you’re passionate about and put in the effort. It will feel very rewarding when your work is appreciated by others, especially after you have spent a lot of time on it
“Be well prepared and ready to talk to game developers and ask them lots of questions. Even the most introverted game developer could talk to you for hours about their game,” Natalia advised.
Tech Fest 2025 starts 23 June
The Tech Festival offers many exciting events and activities ranging from hackathons to workshops. Registration for Tech Festival events are open now – check them out at the official site for UTS Tech Fest.