Here are some development videos to see the process.
EARLY TRAILER (rough cut for the team)
Early level design with AI behavior.
Early gameplay demo
Camera system
Camera state can rotate different perspectives ( i.e top down, close-up, eye level) and different types of tracking/ panning (fast, slow, moderate, panning with rotation, rotation only etc.) The camera can be used to create different types of mood and frame the character to enhance the atmosphere of the game just like cameras used in films.
ABILITIES
A version of this ability was explored. Lynn had the ability to absorb light at a range.
Testing out the figure of light. Created by emitting particles from the vertexes of the character mesh.
In the deep is an interactive underwater world that uses Game Engine software Unity to create an immersive and interactive environment. In the deep explores the joy of discovery of spaces beyond our imagination and helps to bring a piece of fantasy to life with the help of MAN.
This writing is merely a form of rambling, a rambling about games if you will and it does contain some spoilers. Be warned.
I find myself struggling with this for the past few years and I must admit that at times I wonder if it is true. I sometimes struggle with whether there is a place for games in Art schools at all. With the closing, down of the IM games department it is difficult not to feel slightly demoralized, though that problem might have to do more with staffing than with the medium.
What I struggle with in a deeper level is how I lack in the ability to justify this medium that I love so much as something more than entertainment, to change the idea that games are some sort of interactive film or story/role-play driven art installation. Games are both, and yet they are neither. At the heart of games, beneath its interaction and its story likes a more crucial ingredient. The element of play.
Games give players some agency, enough to make them feel that their choices matter but limited for the plot to happen. Games are not purely storytelling mediums; they are experiences that they players have because they not only tell a story but give you the freedom to choose it
What separates a game from a work of art is it’s creating an environment for play and role play. In art, you are the audience or a participant. In film, you are a viewer. In games, you are someone else, you play as someone else.
In games, you are the player.
There’s is no other medium that allows you to pretend to live someone else’s life or make a choice in someone else’s story the way games can. Empathy in film is different from living another person’s dream. The camera, no matter how close, is limited to one path that always ends the same way. In art, the story belongs to you. Games however hold the delicate balance between the two. It enables us to learn skills that are deeply complex, solve problems using those skills, make choices with consequences as means of testing those skills and games allow us to do it through play.
In the 2012 game Journey, you experience an entire game, an entire journey without words. If you are lucky, you will find a companion that is basically another player from some other parts of the world. A stranger who’s only means of communicating with you is using one button to create one kind of sound and particle effect. The game does not allow words or names or sharing of life stories because it understood something about human connection in games that no other medium can replicate. Humans form bond when they play together. The mechanics of the game is merely to explore. But the action of doing so together allows us as human beings to create a connection through means of play.
I think Life is strange also showed us a different way play allows us to form better and stronger bonds. Throughout the game, you as the character Max must constantly save your friend Chloe from dying using your abilities of time travel. The gameplay forces you to have to constantly look out for her, rewinding when she dies and be on the edge, worrying for her. The game takes an even heavier toll when it forces you to choose between Chloe, someone whom you spend so much effort keeping alive and the town. At that point of the game you have invested so much emotionally trying to keep her alive that it is so difficult to “do what is right”.
I don’t think I have ever encounter any experiences even remotely close to that in an artwork or a film. The weight of my choices and my actions in the world can only be felt to the way it is through the means of games because I am not looking at someone else’s story. Agency has made me guilty of those actions.
This is where I feel that games are the most powerful
Play is perhaps the key defining element for what makes a game, a game. Play and story have set on sides of the fences for a long time. A long time ago some people argued over narratology and ludology. I believe that now it is commonly accepted that a good game, in its most refined state, understands that the mechanics of the game needs to work with its story. The mechanics exist because of the story and the story helps to explain the mechanics.
I think the recent release by Play dead studios, Inside did such a fantastic job. While a huge part of the narrative is told in its background, it is the mechanics of mind control that fascinates me the most. The game shows us a dystopic world where ‘drone’ like humans exist that are treated like slaves and controlled using helmet like devices. This was one of the most fascinating part of the game as it spoke volumes about the core theme of the game. Control.
We begin to question through a series of puzzles the extent of this mind control and we realize that a drone that is being controlled can also control another drone. Our mind wanders about the possibility that maybe our character is also a drone, controlled by someone else out there.
This narrative is taught not through words, not through dialogue, but through play.
Mechanics and narrative needs to go together for a game to be meaningful and effective. Play is necessary for us to learn the rules of this world. Story is a result of our experiences, our choices and their consequences. None of these can be thought separately from one another and none of this can be thought of as less or more important.
And while it is tiring to just think about the complexity of crafting such a medium, I am reminded that such games do exist, even when stripped to its core. A flash game called Loneliness managed to achieve a deeply emotional moment with me, using its mechanics as a means of storytelling. It’s meaning is derived purely off its gameplay. Each supporting the other to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Games has its own language and to be literate in the medium requires one to acknowledge the simplest of truths. That games are neither film nor art.
Nightlight is a single player, 3-dimensional side-scrolling game. Using platforming and obstacles, this is a puzzle game that requires the player to interact with and adapt to the game environment in order to progress and complete the game. Our team consists of Clara, who will be leading Nightlight’s art direction, Issac, who will be in charge of programming, and Tammie, who will be in charge of game and level design. We are looking towards 15 to 20 minutes of gameplay time. Within this short span of time, we want a narrative that is impactful.
The main concept of our game is fear. Fear exists in the lives of everyone, be it conscious or unconscious to an individual. We feel that fear is a wall that prevents us from experiencing our true self. Upon understanding and accepting it, we can then be ourselves. Nightlight’s story will be told without the use of any dialogue and rather to be interpreted through the player’s interaction with the environment. The main gist of the story now is that (a) it begins during the evening, (b) players play as a little girl who is lost after an earthquake separated her from her family, (c) she has a fear of darkness and uses types of light to solve puzzles, (d) she overcomes hazards and difficulties through her journey, (e) she finds her way back home. Initially, our idea of fear is that it changes its size according to the brightness of the environment. When it is very dark, the girl’s movement becomes a lot slower as her fear paralyzes her. Our team is still looking at various ways to portray her fear, and exploring other types of fears. We also intend for our little girl character to be relatable to players by giving them a feeling that we have all had at some point of time in our lives – vulnerable, lost and alone. This feeling of loneliness is enhanced by our non-verbal storytelling.
Our team wants the final product of Nightlight to be highly immersive and atmospheric. Hence, our aim is for Nightlight to be (a) fun using interesting game mechanics, (b) meaningful so that our players have a takeaway after completion of the game, and (c) visually appealing. We will be using light and darkness as a game mechanic, affecting the mobility of the girl (be it due to being overwhelmed by her fear of darkness, or that her vision is impaired by the dark hence walking slower). For the visuals of Nightlight, we are taking inspiration from games such as Inside and Journey, and working towards using low-polygon assets in our game. Nightlight will be developed in Unreal Engine, and we will be using other programs such as Maya, Mudbox and Photoshop.
Find at least 3 projects that you can use as reference for your own project. These are works done by other artists or designers that will help illustrate the direction and inspiration of your project proposal. Describe clearly what aspect, technique etc. of each sample work is useful for the development of your own project proposal.
2.Project Reference
3 projects to reference from:
Abzu
Although our game generally takes place in the evening to the night, Abzu utilises low poly models with focus on colours and minimal texturing is something we hope to achieve as well in the aesthetics part of the game. The usage of lightning in their game is something we can learn from too and would like to incorporate into the game especially since we focus quite a bit on the light aspect on the game.
Inside
Atmosphere and colour palette wise we are leaning more towards a darker desaturated environment, much like Inside’s. The camera angle and how it shifts despite it being a 2D side scroller game gives more dimension to the environment in the game and is something we can consider incorporating into our project. There is certain point in the game where the background interacts with the foreground; such as having to avoid light which originates from the background, breaking the static idea of the background is just a background and is something that can add on to the game as well.
Limbo
Like Inside, puzzles to solve as the character progresses through the game is part of what we can look at in terms of gameplay. In limbo, there’s also the aspect of the blurred foreground although it gives more dimension to the environment, it also serves as to block out or obscure part of the player’s view at times of the environment. This is something we can consider incorporating into our project as well in terms of gameplay or telling of the story.
All three games do not use dialogue or words to tell their story but mainly through images and the environment, how the character interacts and reacts with certain things in the game as well as the mechanics. There is also the element of exploration, encouraging the players to figure things out on their own to progress through the game instead of giving directions to players.
Perhaps for me the greatest take away from teamlab was the mentality in which they choose to approach their art.
Ar t that makes people happy.
Teamlab’s ideology is a response to the modern world looking into the art world. It is a reaction to the instagram culture, to the generation of people who grew up with digital technology in the palms of their hands. It is not just ‘cool’ , or ‘fun’.
Teamlab’s art, unlike most art nowadays, is relevant.
While unlike certain art works, teamlab doesn’t simply strive to say big things with big ideas and big words, it is a reflection on the old , blending in old Japanese aesthetics and values into modern technology to create a harmony not quite often seen. It is inclusive, anyone can enjoy and appreciate what they have created. It social. We do not simply frown in front of a canvas wondering what does this mean, while projecting our own thoughts on to it. Teamlab simply ask us to come together and enjoy.
I have heard artists respond to that idea with a kind of rejection. Some might argue that art is supposed to make you think, not make you happy. I can understand where these people are coming from, yet i disagree with them.
The act of thinking need not to be a traumatic experience that is disturbing. In the serene world that was so beautifully constructed, I found myself wondering and reflecting about the beauty of the world, slowly watching water level rises with a warning of what is to come. I left the space a second time feeling just as amazed as the firs time I’ve seen the works. It is not the merely that the works were interactive, but as a whole the works provided insight into a world carefully crafted in the minds of these amazing people, and they continue to rebuild and reconstruct this worlds.
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