Team Wright’s general goal is to educate people about the justice system and the existing laws that come with it in a way that can be understood by people outside legal professions.
This is the main directory. This is where all of the files are put regardless of location. We'll edit more of it soon.
-We are still under construction-
To Install The Game:
- You need to download RenPy https://www.renpy.org/latest.html
- Download our file as ZIP
- Unzip our file in the Renpy Folder Directory
- Launch Renpy and Play the Game
** Fursuit of Justice: An Interactive Visual Novel Game in Compliance with The Philippine Legal System**
Introduction
The world is continuously evolving, and this includes how we rule it. Existing laws change into other legal laws by leading governments as time passes. Based on Anthony D’Amoto (2011), the law is a state-enforced publicly declared standard of behavior, which is backed up by punishments due to transgression. The cycle continues until the present, when laws have a more solid foundation, and the concept of justice is further emphasized. Rendering to each person on what he or she deserves gives justice the reason to fight for (D'Amato, 2011). Everyone can have rights since they are backed by law. However, everyone can also be jailed due to the illegal acts proclaimed by the law itself. While numerous informal elements impact how individuals interact, contemporary civilizations rely heavily on law to explicitly manage human behavior (Katz et al., 2020).
Whenever something illegal, either alleged or conducted, happens, trials are usually held in a court to serve justice to people accused of illegitimate actions. In specific words, trials are conducted because they mediate conflicts between individuals, businesses, and government agencies. Courts are frequently relied upon to defend government limits. They guard against all levels of government abusing their power. They defend minorities of all kinds from the majority, as well as the rights of those who are unable to defend themselves (American Bar Association, 2019). This makes it fair for everyone, even for the accuser if that is the matter.
The Law seems fair for everyone, but it isn't easy to understand. It is argued that laws are complex systems since it heavily relies on different legal theories that include examples of natural Law, positivism, sociological jurisprudence, realism, critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, and postmodernist jurisprudence (Freeman, 2014). The argument for complexity is that law systems are complex systems. To better understand the Law, we must use complex insights to construct models that describe what Law is and how we should think about its fundamental nature and purpose (Murray et al., n.d.)—because of the complexities, defining how the flow of the trials in accordance with Law is not as basic for most. The most minor of lawful considerations to counter other lawyers will need the person's understanding of legal actions in court.
Informing an individual, whether an adult or teen, regarding the laws we have in our country is challenging yet possible. Some laws defend the most minor things that could be used against someone to file a case. Therefore, Team Wright plans to develop a game solely to inform others on how the rule of court works so as to give a bit of trivia on what specific laws restrict people from doing acts. While remaining informative, the developers intend to make the game easy to understand for future court reasons. Through fundamental concepts, the developers will ensure a good enough product for educational purposes while attaining specific objectives that give people the correct information with the right spark.
Background of the Study Laws were made in order to achieve international peace and political stability in order to achieve societal and economic progress (United Nations, n.d). It ordained a period of peace and a time of progress for all the different countries. The importance of laws has been shown by making its place on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG #16 Promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provides access to justice for all and builds effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels (Agenda 2030, 2021). It focuses on promoting peace and justice for everyone regardless of who they are and where they came from.
The ability to read and understand legal cases is one of the most essential skills law students must possess, for it is pivotal to their academic success in law school. Students must be able to fully retain the information and facts about each case, which proves to be a difficult task for a student new to the readings. The tendency is that a person may grow bored or miss out on important information vital to the case. According to Christensen (2007), as cited by Ariffin & Mohd Asraf (2014), students who are able to effectively and efficiently read judicial opinions are more likely to succeed in their studies. However, because of its complexities, defining how the court flows in accordance to law is confusing for most. According to Christensen (2007) in her research entitled 'Legal Reading and Success in Law School: An Empirical Study, therefore, sufficient training is needed due to the linguistic complexity of the legal language and the inherent intricacy in the process of legal reading (Ariffin et al., 2014), numerous law schools only provide minimal training on reading legal texts competently despite the importance of comprehensively understanding legal cases. This is a significant barrier for students who possess insufficient literacy skills or even students who mastered reading and studying the text in the simple "traditional" language.
Other than inadequate legal language reading skills, the same study highlighted that the student's attitude toward studying law is another hindrance to their academic success in law school. As stated previously, students have the tendency to grow bored reading or listening to legal cases which causes them to miss out on vital information about the case. According to Saiful who was interviewed by Ariffin & Mohd Asraf (2014), majority of law students were unwilling to put in additional effort and work harder as they perceived it as boring, time-consuming, and tiring.
The game will focus on exercising the law and order in court through the eyes of an attorney. Playing as the attorney, the players will be able to learn how justice is served officially in court with additional knowledge of existing laws. Promoting awareness and educating players on court meetings and true-to-life court cases. Understanding the Philippine justice system can be confusing as an individual may be confused as to where to start. To compensate for SDG #16, the user will play as a lawyer whose goal is to defend their client. By using existing laws to counterattack different arguments, justice can be served. If users can effectively grasp the cases involved in the game, the more likely we will be able to educate users on the topic of law. To encourage awareness of Philippine laws and court cases, the team decided to conceptualize FURsuit of Justice, a visual novel dedicated to educating its players.
The game will be a visual text game where users have to input the choice they picked. Visual novels are interactive fiction genre featuring a text-based story with a narrative style of literature and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals, most often using anime-style art or occasionally live-action stills (Carrera, 2019). A text-based game utilizes a text-based user interface, i.e., one that uses a set of encodable characters. The "text adventure" genre is a kind of video game genre where the player’s interactions primarily involve text (IFTF, n.d.). The game was inspired by Pheonix Wright and one of the first text games: Classic Cave Adventure. The Pheonix Wright game where players have to defend their defendant correctly. The player will have three lives to support the defendant and losing these three lives will immediately put the game into game over, forcing the player to restart or go to their recent checkpoint. The player will be given numerous hints to support their claims. Hints will be provided via finishing a minigame successfully. The game is essentially a roleplaying game or an RPG. RPG is a genre of video game where the user controls a character that undertakes a quest in an imaginary world (Techopedia, 2020). RPG is a broad genre with many sub-genres. Most famous RPG games are action RPGs, but our game is best described as an adventure RPG. This is because our game puts emphasis more on the narrative or story of the game rather than the action elements. In summary, the team wishes to gamify the learning legal interactions and processes in a way that users can have fun while learning.
Problem Statement Students who are interested in learning law often struggle with the initial information regarding legal topics. There is an existing struggle when it comes to reading and comprehending legal language. This is a problem because students are expected to be familiarized with the legal system and laws that come with it. This is also a problem because it leaves the individuals clueless with the rule of law which is fundamental to SDG #16.
Objectives of the Study:
General Objectives
Team Wright’s general goal is to educate people about the justice system and the existing laws that come with it in a way that can be understood by people outside legal professions.
Specific Objectives
Team Wright’s goal is to promote true-to-life laws and court cases in the Philippines that give the player awareness. They also hope to make the game easy to understand to spark the user’s creativity while also inserting some jargon. The team hopes that it may encourage individuals to follow the law while also defending themselves against the law.
Scope and Delimitation of your study
Providing an alternative means of introducing concepts of law and making it entertaining is the main aspect of team Wright’s goal. In other words, the game mainly revolves around the concept of law. With visual novel as a medium to attain the goal, the team hopes to make it easier to understand laws. This will target undecided students, teachers providing alternative ways of learning, gamers that want to enjoy the narrative aspect of the game and people that are avid fans of the light novel genre. The team would limit the target users to as old as 15 years old and above for its users. This is for the team to establish a maturity content enough for the said age bracket. A mature audience is a prerequisite because they are mostly the ones who can grasp the concepts of law (Edu Vic Gov, 2021).
The development's limitation is that laws that it's also only laws applicable to the Philippines. The Team plans on creating a game that simulates the Philippine court since the justice system in this government requires attention. Another reason why the developers prioritized the Philippines demographic is that the developers live there. People from other countries can play the game, and other countries may relate to the stated laws.
References:
Ariffin, A., & Mohd Asraf, R. (2015, November 8). The challenges in the reading of legal cases: Lecturers' perspective. Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/17944919/The_Challenges_in_the_Reading_of_Legal_Cases_Lecturers_Perspective
Agenda 2030. (2021). Goal 16: Promote peaceful and Inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development. Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten EDA. https://www.eda.admin.ch/agenda2030/en/home/agenda-2030/die-17-ziele-fuer-eine-nachhaltige-entwicklung/ziel-16-friedliche-und-inklusive-gesellschaften-fuer-eine.html
Ameircan Bar Association. (2019). How Courts Work. ABA. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_related_education_network/how_courts_work/court_role/#:~:text=They%20resolve%20disputes%20between%20people,who%20can't%20protect%20themselves.
Carrera, J. (2019). What are Visual Novels?. Electra Street. https://electrastreet.net/2019/11/what-are-visual-novels/
D’Amato, A. (2011). On The Connection Between Law and Justice. Northern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=facultyworkingpapers The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. (n.d.) Frequently Asked Questions About Interactive Fiction. https://iftechfoundation.org/frequently-asked-questions/
Edu Vic Gov. (2021). Mature Minors and Decision Making. Education.vic.gov.au. https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/mature-minors-and-decision-making/policy
Freeman, M. (1994). Lloyd’s Introduction to Jurisprudence. 0421690208. https://philpapers.org/rec/FRELIT
Katz, D. M., Coupette, C., Beckedorf, J., & Hartung, D. (2020). Complex societies and the growth of the law. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73623-x
Murray, J., Webb, T. & Wheatley, S. (n.d.). Encountering law’s complexity. Taylor and Francis Group. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/law/introductionComplexitytheoryandlaw.pdf
Techopedia. (2020). Role-Playing Game (RPG). https://www.techopedia.com/definition/27052/role-playing-game-rpg
United Nations. (n.d.). What is the rule of law - united nations and the rule of law. United Nations. https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/what-is-the-rule-of-law/