The Game

Play as a robot archivist, saving sounds and stories from glitched ruins. Explore, sing, and solve puzzles in this wordless, tiny open world.

Controls: WASD to walk, E to interact, SHIFT to sprint, left-click mouse to play sounds

Please turn sound on since this is a sound-based exploration game.

Week 1 Recap

Our team just completed these prototypes for week 1 (pre-production phase). Our goal is to create a vertical slice within 10 weeks and publish on itch.io. 

Process

We first brainstormed in a Miro board, wrote a narrative script, and then used those to explore mechanics, sound direction, and art style. We created puzzle mockups, placeholder assets, sounds, and early mechanics.

Prototypes and Playtests

This resulted in 3 prototypes:

• a game using 2D art in 3D space
• same game from a top-down perspective
• a comic prototype

We also ran playtests, where we asked questions like:

• What do you think about the art style?
• Most frustrating moment or aspect?
• Your favorite moment or aspect?
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t?
• If you could change, add, or remove anything, what would it be?
• What were you doing in the game?
• How would you describe this game to your friends and family?

2D in 3D Space Prototype

The uploaded build is the 2D in 3D space prototype. Here's a video if you can't play:

Playtest feedback:

• Liked mysterious atmosphere / ambient fog
• Liked 2D art in 3D style
• Got stuck, add jump (might lend to exploration)
• Wanted to sing alone
• People felt really good about making the NPC happy and hearing the full song
• Issue with ground collision and player NPC visual overlap
• Will explore with different camera angles (to fix overlap / get cinematic feel)

Top-down Prototype

Playtest feedback:

• Limited points of interest in view / in the distance
• Limited sense of scale
• Doesn’t inspire as much exploration with limited view space
• Did better address player/NPC overlap
• Still good, just might lend better to 3D space

Comic Prototype

Playtest feedback:

• Stylish movement (made in Adobe XD)
• Could be cool for exposition
• Can improve prototype beyond basic panning (comic is unrelated placeholder)

Preliminary Concept Art

Lastly, Erica made some early concept art since everyone loved "round boi", the player character. Because of that, she designed the character like a recording mic. Everything here is subject to change though.

Next Steps

• Focus on 3D perspective
• Further develop art and narrative
• Explore a more dynamic camera
• Build out level design
• Add jump ability
• Add singing by yourself
• Add recording mechanic
• Iterate on sound collection mechanic and puzzles

Time to scope and put on roadmap!