Space Bunny

Space Bunny is a pixel animation following an astronaut who is sent by Zovarion Corporation, tasked with finding a new planet due to their home planet's ongoing unhabitable issue. But after a ship malfunction causes an emergency landing, Space Bunny is forced to take shelter in an underground lab until the rescue team arrives. As they explore, they slowly uncover secrets about animal experimentation and unethical corporate practices.

About

Originally, my project was going to be a pixel RPG game, but I was not able to fix the interaction system given how narrative-heavy the project was. So I created an animation instead, though I did cut some of the scripts since the game was originally centered around finding objects in the room to uncover the secrets yourself. I combined a few evidence scripts together, and the animation is still about 20 minutes long. However, the animation is still true to the original concept!

Inspiration

The core concepts of my story were inspired by real-world issues surrounding animal testing, worker exploitation, surveillance capitalism, and the increasing use of technology to control behavior and productivity. Space Bunny’s, who is both a creation and a victim of Zovarion, represents how people can be shaped, manipulated, and discarded by systems, and these systems want it that way. How far away are we from Space Bunny?

Growing up in a town where cycles of abuse, addiction, and systemic failure were constant, it was hard to ignore how people become trapped in these types of environments. Whether through economic struggle, drug dependency, or generational trauma, there were few resources or opportunities to break free. The systems in place benefit from keeping people stuck, exploiting their labor or silence while offering little real support or change.

As a huge fan of surrealism, science fiction, and dystopian art and storytelling, I wanted to create a story that reflects these themes through a sci-fi lens.

Timeline

Week 1-2

Initial concept planning: story outline, world-building, research on dystopian themes, corporate control, biotech ethics.

Week 3-4

Early RPG development: interaction system planning, object-based puzzle design, basic asset creation.

Week 5-6

Game prototype development: programming early interaction system, basic object interaction tests, early scene with placeholder layouts.

Week 7-8

RPG prototype: coding object interactions, level layout design, early sprite creation for player, environment, and UI elements.

Week 9-10

Conduct playtests, gather feedback on gameplay and difficulty, and fix bugs.

Week 11-12

Continued RPG development: asset creation, expanding dialogue system, troubleshooting interaction bugs, building puzzle logic.

Week 15-16

Major pivot: transitioned project to animation to better focus on narrative depth and simplify interaction issues. Adapted RPG script into a linear animation script; combined evidence scenes into unified story beats. Added enemy sprites.

Week 13-14

Revisions and testing: struggled with interaction system stability, narrative pacing issues emerged in game format.

Week 17-18

Rapid animation production: used existing sprite assets, created key scenes, edited transitions, added dialogue and timing using Canva and DaVinci Resolve.

WEEK 18-20

Final presentation and critique with finished game. Gallery install and exhibition.

Explore my Gallery

Midterm Progress

Final Progress

Space bunny