A Stained-Glass Window
Our game will tell the story of a trans woman on her path of self realization, discovery, and acceptance. Gameplay will be typical of the platformer genre, with more of a focus on puzzle solving than on dexterity. We will tend to use psychedelic and abstract artistic styles to tell an emotional and engaging story. As the story progresses and progress is made, new mechanics will be introduced and the character art will become more concrete.
Our game will have an intense, introspective, and cosmic tone. We wish to evoke an other-wordly (near trippy) sensation of finding yourself throughout the game.
Our game endeavours to tell the story of the main character, particularly their emotional journey, largely through artistic means. At the start of the game, the player character will be very abstract and un-human. As the game progresses and goals are achieved, the art for the character will become more and more person-like and realistic (although maintaining a pixel-art style). This conveys the story of personal growth and finding oneself we want to tell.
This will interact with a planned feature: at the start of the game very few mechanics will be available, even standard platformer mechanics like moving left or jumping. In this way, growth and progress will be represented mechanically.
We want the game environment to maintain heavy abstraction throughout the game to represent various emotional conditions and components of struggle and personality. We don’t want to root the game in realism, apart from the personal discovery narrative. For example, the starting level will be almost entirely black and somewhat simplistic so as to tell the story of being stuck in a depressive episode.
Colors will tend to be bright and colorful, almost psychedelic, to create an engaging visual system and convey emotional aspects.
Types of Fun:
- Narrative: story will be central to the player’s experience. We want to give many different types of players a character to whom they can relate, and an emotional connection to that character
2. Sensation: we will have a very psychedelic game theme with engaging sound and visuals
3. Discovery: metroidvania style ability-zone unlocking, as well as easter eggs
