Mo Phi: The Ghosts Within

At its heart, Mo Phi: The Ghosts WIthin is a human story of immigration, and a story of adolescence. In the game you play as 13–14-year-old Isabelle as she leaves her home in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand for the last time as she moves from Thailand to Melbourne, Australia. With a white father and a Thai mother, Izzy struggles with her mixed race identity. Throughout the game, you play as Izzy as she struggles to integrate into Year 8 at her new school in Melbourne, and through her eyes you experience the universal struggles of teenagers in the modern era.

As a game in the Interactive Fiction genre, gameplay will primarily consist of walking around, dialogue, interacting with objects, cutscenes and dialogue options. (In a similar vein to games such as Until Then, Last Time I Saw You, A Space For the Unbound etc.)

The prologue will take place in Thailand as the mixed family of the protagonist prepares to depart on their move back to Australia. Our game is deeply rooted within the City of Melbourne and will feature iconic Melbourne landmarks such as Flinders St Station, the hustle and bustle of the laneways, and the iconic chiming of the trams as they rattle down the track, which will all be fully illustrated and explorable within the game. A large portion of the game will be set within a school setting and the surrounding areas as the game chronicles the authentic and chaotic lives of children growing up and rising through the school system. We aim to realistically portray adolescent experiences with a touch of maturity from our unique perspectives as people who have recently experienced the age of our character. Through this, we hope to both relate to people of that age, while also opening the eyes of others to the thought processes and common experiences of adolescents in the modern day.

Inspirations:

Comments from the team:

Personally, I was inspired to create a work of interactive fiction after playing Polychroma Games' 'Until Then', a story of Filipino high schoolers everyday lives suddenly turning to the supernatural. The gameplay, pacing, storytelling, and emotional resonance of the story and the pure realism and relatability I felt to the dialogue inspired me to challenge myself to create something similar. Another more recent inspiration are works such as Takopi's Original Sin, works that outline our fragile human morality and how we are influenced by the world around us, as well as the sheer harm and brutality children can inflict upon one another; the hidden pains of adolescents around the world, often to be let out only online for those with nowhere else to go. Especially with recent government legislation around social media, I felt it more important than over to highlight the place it has had in our lives, both positively and negatively. Highlighting those perspectives and experiences as someone experiencing them is something I would like to do while I still hold the unique perspective that I only currently possess.

As for me, I myself have a white father and a thai mother, so from there I am able to stem my own experiences and qualia which is projected into the story. I find that I have some general knowledge with Thai culture, especially music such as Molam which is prevalent in the Isaan region, where we have chosen to set the prologue of the game. Regarding other media, I am inspired by post-modern and meta-modern fiction, and I enjoy the sense that whilst I am able to understand that while I am viewing a piece of media, I am still immersed in its world. 

I was inspired by my own personal experiences of ealing with harsh social dynamics in schools and the struggles of learning languages. In an artistic sense, i wanted to create a feeling of nostalgia (expressed through colours) for the home of our main protagonist (Isabelle) as that is where I'm from. Korat is a more muted place with gold in their temples and beautiful mountains, a few hours away from the main city; creating closer dynamics with classmates in small schools. However, when Melbourne presents itself in the story, it will be expressed with more vibrant colours; a similar way to how tourists may visit other countries. Through this game, I want to keep improving the ability to demonstrate how the social/physical environment around you affects how you feel and the way you think.