Reality is Most Definitely Inaccurate in the LIEbrary
GameTextures has been proud to take part in every game jam that Unreal has had for the last year. Coming out of these events are a wide array creative ideas and even crazier executions. The 2018 Epic MegaJam was no exception!
GameJams in general are a phenomenal way to test your skills both solo and as a team. GameJams usually operate with time limitations and allowable assets, forcing participants to find the most creative solutions they can to get a working prototype out before the end.
Since we were one of the sponsors on the Jam, we wanted to take a look at the winners and promote some of their work! This is the first of the winners we are looking at, look forward to more in the coming weeks!
LIEbrary is a fast-paced party game in which you can play with up to 7 other people (4 is recommended). The game takes place in a library where reality is broken and nothing makes sense. In order to win the game you must eliminate your opponents by throwing items at them. Every player in the game is invisible. If they don’t hold an object for more than 7 seconds, they will be visually revealed via particles to others
A simple UI leads to a simple UX, you can join your friends in the game or host it. I would heavily suggest grabbing some friends for it since the game is not designed to be single player at all.
The game is Built to be a LAN game, so set up for some couch fun or everyone link up for a good old fashioned LAN party and throw books at where you someone is. With that in mind, I just ran around chucking pieces of scenery and testing out the mechanics of the game on my own.
The level design is simple and clean, two rooms with an interesting layout. The setting is the image that comes to mind whenever you think of an old library with plenty of objects to break your line of sight. The environment is beautifully laid out and nearly every object is able to be interacted with. It easily sells a small university library or something a bit more personal in a mansion. Georgi (one of the artists and the level designers) has an interesting breakdown article that covers how he built this out!
Movement is smooth and collision feels good, nothing has an overly exaggerated hit box. It’s not quite realistic, but the feel of collisions fit within the stylize aesthetic of the game.
The hanging lights turn on when you bump them, making them something to avoid or to use as bait for the other players. It makes for a simple, yet effective way to add some light strategy and stealth elements to a game that I very much enjoyed the mechanics of.
There are certain other mechanics that are in place to show where a player has been or is without showing their exact location. The particles you see in the GIF as well as whenever you jump and the player shadows are good indicators so avoid the lights if you can! Physics interactions across the board whether it is the hanging lights mentioned above or them seeing you actively picking up objects.
You can download the game by following this link, make sure you follow the teams exploits in the future!
LIEbrary was developed by the team “Don’t Shout at me” made up of five students from Bulgaria. They are currently studying at BUAS in the Netherlands.
Hristo Enchev is the team’s technical designer. Growing up playing games left Hristo with a critical eye towards the inconsistencies and mechanical problems that games always seemed to present to the player. Now grown but still an avid gamer, they have the ability to fix the things like that in their own work.
Hristo believes strongly in coherent and polished game experiences, and looks to the coursework at BUAS to advance their abilities and strengths with the end goal being to be able to create fun and fair experiences for all kinds of players.
You can check out Hristos Portfolio and his Blog Here!
Take a look at his Twitter and follow his progress there!
Tervel Gueorguiev is one of the artists on the team and has been interested in game art since they were young. Curiosity drove them to investigate the hows and whys of video game art and graphic design. That drive to be a part of that creation grew, and they found themselves dedicating more and more time to it, columinating to the current course of study at BUAS.
Georgi Simov studies Game Design at BUAS with the rest of his team. Gaming from a young age, he always enjoyed the seeing the people behind the works he loved be inspired by the work and the process that lead to a final, complete, game.
Georgi is driven to communicate his ideas and views with those viewing his work. He believes strongly that games have incredible potential in the future and hopes to contribute to showing that one day.
You can check out Georgi’s Twitter and Portfolio!
Another artist on the team is Joan Tassov, whose main drive is to constantly be learning and improving their art. A second year student at BUAS, they are happy with the coursework and they enjoy taking on challenges with their fellow students. World building is their one true love and being able to do that as a job is their dream for the future. An incredibly strong outlook involved with that is their views on improvement and critique.
“One of the biggest tips that I have learnt is to embrace the fact that everything can be Improved. Even if you think that it is completed, that feedback from peers is usually a great way to see things which your eyes are probably ignoring.” — Joan
You can check out Joan’s Portfolio here!
Last but most definitely not least comes the programmer, Vasilen Aleksandrov.
Vasilen was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria and was introduced to computer games by his father before he was even eight years old. He has enjoyed programming for video games with his peers but his dream is different.
He’s looking beyond earth. He hopes to one day be a part of one of the many teams that are fueling the drive off of this little blue dot and exploring everything our solar system has to offer before driving ever outward.
I wish the students the BEST of luck in the future, if you like what you see then make sure you follow them or support them however best you can. At their stage of coursework they are looking forward to internships and the like so if anyone is interested make sure you get in touch with them!
