Me Before You

A 3-D mystery-solving game that makes people aware of the consequences of social issues including but not limited to cyberbullying, poverty, school violence, and domestic violence.

“Me Before You” is a 3D horror mystery-solving game that addresses social issues including cyberbullying, domestic violence, school violence, and poverty. At the beginning of this game, the player, playing as Kaitlyn Martinez, wakes up in an abandoned school, not knowing what is going on. When she explores the campus, she encounters several “ghosts” who scare and harm her. By solving puzzles and investigating the school, Kaitlyn gradually realizes that these “ghosts” have all been victims of social issues. They have lived an unhappy life due to others’ dereliction of responsibilities or unkindness, and that is why their souls continue to wander around the place after their death. They want justice. By punishing the ones who have harmed them and recognizing their innocence, Kaitlyn feels extremely sorry and finally appeases the deads. Their horrible appearance fades away and their souls are finally released.

**Inspiration -**
When I saw the news of a girl’s suicide caused by cyberbullying, I was upset. The girl was a patient suffering from cancer, but she still decided to show positivity to the world when she recorded her daily life and treatment in the hospital. Despite the disease, she was hard-working, energetic, and smiley. However, people on the internet questioned her, as they asserted that she did not look like a patient at all. They accused her of faking the cancer and performing to the audience. I watched the girl transform from a passionate and optimistic youth to a depressed one. I decided to create a video game to address cyberbullying and other social issues.

Characters Design:

Kaitlyn Martinez - Heroine

Kaitlyn works as a special detective who solves problems to appease unrested souls and send them to reincarnation. Whenever she enters the worlds created by one or more unrested souls, she forgets her mission so that she can make the fairest decisions based on the situation. She is intelligent, decisive, and compassionate.

Josh Thomas - School Violence

Josh would be a perfect friend –– he is helpful, kind, trustworthy, and caring –– if he has not been a little heavy. Only because of his body build, he receives all kinds of mistreatments all school. He has no friends; people all laugh at him. They make him do extra work for them without a reason, take away his belongings, and paint his desk with rude drawings and words. Unable to deal with these anymore, Josh commits suicide in the school’s bathroom.

Samantha Smith - Poverty

Samantha is born into a very happy but poor family. She has a younger brother who is still in elementary school and her parents have low incomes. To support her family, she has 5 part-time jobs. Her only dream is to get into a good college, get a good job, and make a lot of money in the future. Unexpectedly, one day when she arrives home, she finds out that her father is coughing nonstop. They then detect lung cancer in his body, and everything has changed. They are already poor, and they become in debt after borrowing money from everyone possible. But they still cannot pay the hospital bill, and her father passes away. Samantha cannot feed the rest of the family or pay back the debt. She eventually dies because of hunger and homelessness.

Andrew Lee - Domestic Violence

Andrew is a victim of an unhappy family; more specifically, he and his mother are suffering domestic violence from his father. Mr. Lee not only drinks but also gambles, losing all of his money and releasing his anger by hitting his family. Throughout the years, Andrew’s mother has been diagnosed with severe mental issues. One night, her mom becomes completely hopeless and burns the whole household. None of the three survives.

Estelle Young - LGBTQ/Cyberbullying

On the very next day after Estelle realizes that she is a part of the lesbian group, she cuts her hair short. She is one of the brave and admirable ones, as she comes out and stands up for the LGBTQ community not only at school but also on the internet. However, she gets resented and receives countless hate comments on the internet. She also gets bullied for her homosexual identity at school.