Until The End of The World is a story telling game that tells the very last moments of five different characters' lives, each with the common theme of attempting the impossible. Players discover how these people's actions ripple out to reach each other, possibly even affecting the entire world. The game is purely narrative, with very little action sequences, with the player's objective being to guide each character with choices. The only places where action sequences are used is when it does not break the game's immersion, and enhance a scenario or increase a player's emotional investment. An example of this would be taking control of a character who's family has been murdered by a crazed maniac, and choosing which action to deliver to him in reaction. The player could mercilessly beat the brains out of him, take something from him, or restrain the character, instead calling the police to deal with him. This action sequence, and all decision making prompts, are performed in first person. All other parts of the game is seen from the third person. This is done to put emphasis on each decision the player makes, as these are the last decisions the characters will ever make.
All characters are living in different parts of the world when they hear the news of the world's inevitable end. They have a certain amount of time before all life will cease to exist, all dreams unattainable, and all wrongs be permanent. The player will take control of these characters, influencing all of their lives by switching between them to discover their stories and making important decisions. There is only so much they can do before the world comes to an end, but each of them has an impossible dream that they wish to achieve. The game directs players towards helping these characters witness their goals, but ultimately the player has free reign to explore the world's possibilities. Until The End of The World is sombre, unrelenting, tragic, yet hopeful. It tries to convey to players the 'light in the dark' sensation, feel the rippling effect of all actions, and allow them to experience the daunting inevitability of death. In a way, the game is an allegory to receiving a lifespan notice from a doctor. People can react with depression and melancholy, or feel all powerful, with time being quantifiable and real. It's an experience crafted to be delivered to players using a popular system of gameplay popularised by Telltale Games.
The final act of The Grand Chromanius Opera serves as the series's epiphany, gathering all of the collective elements from each game and concatenating it into one explosive experience. In act five, players are revealed to the celestial being responsible for all of the drama in the game: Who (pronounced Wo). Who is benevolent in its actions, and cherishes all within its domain, including the galaxies that it tends to. However, up in Who's kingdom there exists many other celestial beings who have grown weary of Who's conduct over the millenniums that have gone past. They regard the state of affairs in the kingdom of Who to be too peaceful and dull, thus they plan on creating havoc in the most devious of ways: destroying the universal balance in Who's galaxies. Informing Who that they wish to take a gander in one galaxy in particular, they fall upon the hapless maiden, Clementine. She became their vessel of ruin, with a fate weaved with misery and a voice plagued by tragedy. Her journey to space, her role in building an empire, instigating eternal conflict, and singing an endless requiem was all cog in the higher beings' machine of destruction. By the time Who discovered these wrongdoings, it was too late. The souls of all beings in the galaxy had been put to sleep, dreaming endlessly in Faux's otherworld. The collapse in balance was spreading to all of Who's other galaxies, and regrettably was irreparable. Much of Who's power was lost, and the other celestial beings began an uprising. Who had only one option, walking backwards in time and stopping the incident from ever occurring. However, Clementine's voice had reached Who too, but it was a gentle voice, the remnants of her soul. She assists the celestial being in its journey across time, which had gotten much worse after the time walking completed. Who arrived at a different string of time, but its power is kept at its kingdom. Therefore, it is at its most powerful just after time travelling, and is slowly degenerating due to the destruction on its galaxies. One can only wonder if Who will pull through and restore balance to all.
Act five is a concatenation of all of the game mechanics of the series, adding in time and mystery to the loop. Who is an entity that cannot be seen by denizens of its galaxies as it exists in a higher plane than them. Thus, Who can perform acts of divine intervention, changing the fates of these fragile beings, with each act impacting the balance of the world. Players find out that the events in all of the previous acts was the worst case scenario for this universe, and thus it is up to them to change the game's resolution and atmosphere. Each action that the player takes is reflected by the world, sometimes called the butterfly effect. Who has the power of possession, thus being able to enter the minds of living beings and influencing them. This means that players will be able to control Clementine during her pioneering journey on Earth, Hadell in his journey in space, Ella/Lea on her journey to survive, and Faux, if the world ends in disaster. All of the game mechanics for their relevant parts are kept more or less the same, but new features are added with Who's influence. For example, Who can give Clementine the power to personally change someone's heart using her songs. These sections would be performed as a sort of rhythm puzzle game, and is important for influencing the world's fate. If the player should feel that they have taken the wrong action in their string of time, they can time walk to certain checkpoints in time. But once again they reach another time line, which might have different properties, adding a rogue-like nature to the game. They retain their drop in power whenever they time travel, as its effects are taken from Who's kingdom, which exists in one string of time only. The player's goal is to relive each of The Grand Chromanius Opera's acts, changing their outcomes and the fates of the people that they centre on, establishing Who's kingdom if the galaxy is successfully balanced. They must return to their original time line and fight to reclaim their world. That is the legend of the Chromanius Opera.
Image source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Do-I-have-a-soul-155...
The climax of the series is coming, with all of the foundations being completed with the fourth act of The Grand Chromanius Opera, which focuses on the mysterious consciousness of Faux. Players enter a dreamlike world filled with a strange haze and dark grey hues. The citizens of this world are numerous, chatty, and faceless. They go about their business in large towns and poor cities, gossiping about the latest song that propagated throughout this world, and about the never ending conflict. Down below the ground is a battlefield labyrinth, surging with monstrosities and treasures from another world. Rumours have it that they have been edging closer to the surface everyday, resulting in an atmosphere of dread surrounding these faceless people. Rumours also speak of a group of formless warriors that fight back against the demons in the underground maze, calling themselves the Chromanius Opera. Faux is one of these warriors, a recent recruit in fact, and is the character that the player will become. Faux cannot speak, or make any sounds for that matter, but can interact with physical objects. It also has no memories from before it joined the Chromanius Opera, only a shattered glass shard was found. The deeper Faux explores the dungeon, however, the more it remembers of some other world, one that is brighter and more colourful, but also teeming with strife. Faux is taught by other members of the Chromanius Opera the legend of Clementine, the woman with a brazen face and golden voice, the goddess that had ascended to this world from below. Their group's name is in her honour, and their objective is to reach her divine opera house said to be housed in the centre of the ground. Faux also follows this philosophy, but the more it ventures, the more reluctant it gets. What lies beneath is a dark history about a vibrant woman caught in the merciless web of fate weaved by a higher being. Just Who is it?
The fourth entry in the series yet again plays differently from its predecessors, borrowing the third act's level design and ramping it up to a full-fledged dungeon crawling experience, with a twist. The game uses a virtual reality headset to bring the action to its most intense, making players get up close and personal with the game's monstrosities, moving and attacking in true first person. To bring even more excitement to the player when playing the fourth act, the game intends to bring about moments of frenzy, tranquility, and flow with the importance of music. Music powers the player, making them more agile, more tough, and even more immersed. Timing attacks to the beat of the music triggers specially abilities, and playing in certain ways will change the tune to suit that playstyle. Additionally, there is a dynamic dungeon mechanic that extends the game's rhythmic elements. The game's dungeon changes and adjusts to the player's actions, whether they engage enemies head on, avoid them completely, or take a balanced approach. The dungeon should feel alive, while the surface world should be uncomfortable, providing mechanical hints at the game's narrative direction. But remember, there is always a half-way point. Reaching Clementine's hall is that point. How could it have gotten to this, from a humble story about a woman fulfilling her father's shoes?
Who knows, Who will tell you...in Act Five: Who
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The third act of the Grand Chromanius Opera picks up several years after the downfall of the galactic empire, with the climax of the opera house crashing down onto an unknown planet being the main point of interest. This planet is unique in that it has the peculiar property of disappearing from existence and reappearing in a different part of the galaxy. Tracking down the planet is thus a very difficult task, but a particular scavenger manages to land on its surface. Her name is Ella, and she stumbles upon the ruined vessel accidentally when running from pirates. Ella claims to be a treasure hunter, but is in reality a scavenger, living day by day with whatever she can get her hands on. Ella suffers from multiple personality disorder, having an alternate personality that calls herself Lea who is much more logical, eloquent, and polite than her counterpart. Upon landing on the wandering planet, the two personalities become distinct, sharing the same body but occupying the same space in the mind as well. They are drawn towards the ruined site of the Chromanius Opera, and are determined to explore it for a method of leaving the planet. Once inside, however, they discover that an eerie song can be heard inside their head. Lea remarks that the ruins are beautiful and wonderfully preserved, but Ella starkly states that she sees death and decay. It is revealed that they see different realities, and quickly discover that somehow, both realities are true. They must navigate through the spaceship, avoiding reality irregularities (creatures that shouldn't exist, but are formed somehow by the opera house), escaping prison rooms, and discover the truth about the Chromanius Opera's downfall. They are lead by none other than the opera house's legendary proprietress, Clementine. Ella/Lea experience a deadly lullaby that is bound to collapse the very fabrics of the world...Clementine's Requiem.
The gameplay of the third act is a heavy mesh of several game mechanics, first borrowing the secret mechanic of the second act, platforming. Players are introduced to simultaneous platforming, where they must run, jump, grab, and push through levels that have two states. Each state is valid, and reflect actions taken in either. Pushing a button in Ella's reality could open a door, but simultaneously drop a chandelier in front of Lea in her reality. Players must be fully aware of both states to make it past the ruin's traps and puzzles. However, it does not end there. Soon enough players will encounter reality irregularities, enemies that attempt to possess Ella/Lea on sight. Players will have to platform with stealth in mind, avoiding these mysterious creatures in both states, and defeating them by pulling off tricks by manipulating each reality. The game can be seen as a variation on the metroidvania genre of games, as it includes elements from it as well. There is no detailed map or helpful objective pointers to guide the player, and several times they will run into dead ends or escape room situations that can only be passed after gaining a certain power or item. These powers and items may only seem to assist in the player's simul-platforming experience, but in reality, they have a second purpose, which is revealed in the game's second half. Ella/Lea's inert abilities are the Key to uncovering the truth about the Chromanius Opera, the dreadful voice in their minds, and the fate of Clementine.
Reality becomes broken...in Act Four: Faux
The second act of The Grand Chromanius Opera follows directly after the climax of the first act, this time revolving around the character of Chris Hadell. Hadell is the son of the opera house's proprietor, Samuel, who is Clementine's partner. Samuel managed all of the financial, structural, and business sides of running a successful opera house, and had Clementine's deepest trust. After going out into space, however, Samuel started to change. He noticed the influence that Clementine had over the creatures living in the galaxy and wanted to use it for his own ambitions. Becoming the forefront of galactic peace was the vision Samuel proposed to Clementine, which she agreed to reluctantly. From then on, Clementine did not sing for crowds of music lovers, but instead performed in "Peacekeeping operations" which bolstered alliances between space folk and the Chromanius Opera. Before long, Clementine realised that her voice had been corrupted; it no longer held the tenderness and power it used to have, thus she abandoned it. But it was too late, the Chromanius Opera's forces were too strong, they had become an empire. Samuel knew that having power was a catalyst for conflict, and prepared for it by training the opera house in the arts of war. Special exercises were saved for Hadell: Samuel intended for him to carry his legacy, becoming a super soldier capable of uniting the galaxy under one banner. Players follow Hadell's uncomfortable journey, seeing him grow as a person, watching the Chromanius Opera rise to its zenith, then come crashing down.
The real time strategy elements of the previous act (which was the hidden third mechanic of the game) comes into full effect in this act, making it the main mechanic of the game. The game's story is told through a campaign mode, but multiplayer game modes are also available. During the campaign, players go through several chapters each with their own missions. These missions are held on maps that are set on certain planets, with each planet having different properties and inhabitants. Most of the real time strategy components of the game are very traditional, but of course, new mechanics are thrown in. Players participate in live ground command, meaning that they go into battle with the rest of their army. This is done in first person, they have no third person top down view of the battlefield. They have only access to a map from which they can make strategic decisions, live in the combat zone. This means that players will have to balance out their actions depending on the situation. At times players may focus on leading strategic skirmishes by guiding their army from a safe spot, but other times they will have to get their own hands dirty, rushing off to assist their forces. Hadell is a super human brawler, a buccaneer if you will, thus he fights melee only. Of course, he has counter measures to enemy ranged weapons, and is generally much stronger than an average unit in his fighting force. Players should feel the calculative, reactionary sensation of a RTS; the rush, tension, and excitement of a beat-em-up; and the freedom, grandness, and curiosity of an open world RPG. Like the previous act, Hadell's journey has a second phase, changing up the game experience after passing the midway point...It's an all out war for this tragic hero.
The fall of Chromanius Opera lies in Act Three: Ella/Lea
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The Grand Chromanius Opera is a huge game project that aims to bring together all kinds of game mechanics into one cohesive experience that is told in five acts. Each of the acts are sold as separate games that contain different mechanics, becoming crazier and more extravagant as the acts go on. All games share the same universe, and focus on telling the story of a single character in that universe. Alone, these games are interesting and contain unique mechanics and themes, but together, they form a grand experience worthy of being called an Opera.
The first act focuses on the journey of Clementine, Valery Clementine, as she struggles to found her own travelling opera house, the Chromanius Opera. Chromanius was the name of Clementine's father who was sent off to the first great space war when Clementine was only fourteen. His passion for singing epics was inherited by Clementine, but he was never able to accomplish his dream of starting his own company. After not hearing from her father in ten years, Clementine decided to take on her father's legacy and finish his life's work. Clementine's opera house manages to be successful enough to tour around the earth, but that is only the first step in Clementine's ambitions. She plans to take the songs of earth to space, uniting cultures with honest stories, crafting a vessel to carry the house. That is her ultimate goal, and is the player's main objective for the first half of the game. In space, Clementine finds that opera can bind the hearts of sentient beings, and begins to amass what she believes to be a band of honest, song loving folk. That is, unfortunately, not the case in the end...An empire is formed.
Gameplay wise, Act One of The Grand Chromanius Opera focuses on three main mechanics. Players have opera performances, which is a blend of a rhythm game and a first person shooter. The performance is a rhythm sequence at its core, with notes that players have to play in time with the song, but what is different is that players have to be accurate. Notes fly at the player from all angles of a dome that surrounds them. They change colour over time to express when they have to be shot. If timed poorly or missed entirely, the performance goes down and news will spread across the world. A successful performance is crucial to maintaining the opera house's economy, which is the second part of the game mechanics of The Grand Chromanius Opera. Players must strike deals with investors, choose how their funds should be spent, and manage the opera house like a real company. During these parts, players have access to a map with events, important individuals, industry contacts, and much more. The player's success relies not only on their ability to perform well during the operas, but also in managing a living and breathing fledgling company. In space, however, the third mechanic is introduced...Binding hearts is not an easy task.
The story continues in Act Two: Hadell
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Shallow Grave is a new take on the zombie genre of games by making it an all out war between four zombie warlords. Players play as hive mind zombies that have the power to influence the instinctual behaviours of zombies to bring them under their control. Controlling these masses of undead, players will have to find and convert the other three warlords into their slaves. Once converted, they become allies and must work together to hunt down the remaining warlords. Conversion is done by 'killing' the unit, forcing them into a shallow grave to be revived into an ally. Initially, warlords will have no companions, and the map will have neutral zombies scattered all over. These zombies will attack warlords that they spot, and may possibly swarm and kill them. Thus it is critical to plan out targets to convert, making sure not to draw groups in the beginning of the game when warlords are at their weakest. Each conversion grants more damage, health and speed to the warlord, eventually making them strong enough to take on hordes of zombies at once. There are different warlords to choose from, each with their own unique abilities, stats, and growth patterns. As an example, the Predator warlord can jump 40 metres into the air, leap at foes, and has strong melee damage, but quite low health.
Gameplay is match based, with the objective of each match being to convert all the other warlords, or being the last one alive. There are several maps that contain different terrain and zombie layouts, unique boss zombies that players can attempt to convert or bait, and different hazards such as armed humans, animals, or traps. Shallow Grave is meant to be a competitive game with a unique spin on the zombie genre, hopefully catching the attention of zombie lovers and competitive players alike.
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Dream Eater is an action platforming game where players enter the dreamscapes of mental patients to eat their nightmares in an attempt to cure them. Players will have to navigate through the bizarre and dangerous dreamscapes, avoiding deep sleep creatures and pits using the limitless potential of dreams. Once players strengthen their control over lucid dreaming, they can achieve things such as flying, making portals, spawning tanks, and arming themselves with impossible weapons. However, as players increase in their capabilities, so too does the severity of their patients' illnesses. More often will the dreamscapes feature impossible geometry, seemingly impassable levels, and absolutely terrifying monsters. The game should make players feel uncomfortable, bemused, and in awe over the twisted environments that spawn from the minds of the insane.
The game is chapter based and narratively driven. Players enter the life of a Dream Eater, a person who can enter and influence dreams. The particular Dream Eater that they play as is a wanted criminal who extracts information from people and sells it, but was captured by a specialist organisation. To make him repent, the Dream Eater is forced to enter the minds of a variety of test subjects for an experiment to see if the mind can be altered through dreams. The reason they chose this man is because he is experienced in infiltration and exfiltration. Causing damage to the host's dreamscape can result in their death, which inevitably leads to the Dream Eater's death as well since they will be trapped in oblivion. Thus, it is the player's goal to navigate through each level while causing the least amount of destruction as possible, saving their destructive actions to dealing with deep sleep creatures only. In essence, Dream Eater is a platformer that involves mind-bending levels with a level of action that scales with the narrative.
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Handle It! is an endless turn-based combat game that uses the active time battle system against an eternal wave of monsters. The game is a new take on the endless runner genre by having players instead attempt to survive as many waves as possible. Handle It! retains much of the core features of endless runner games, such as purchasing upgrades and taking perks before starting runs, but also introduces fresh new mechanics to ensure that the combat system works over an infinite amount of time. First of all there is a leveling system, allowing for concurrent growth, and mid-run upgrades. This is done to create the effect of progression, which can be used to determine the success of a run. The player's characters gain experience points from killing the enemies they face, which will level them up after reaching certain thresholds. With each level players can invest in unlocking a skill from a custom skill pool, or upgrading those skills to achieve better results. The skill pool is decided upon before the player starts a run, with additional skills being discovered as the player plays the game.
The game should be fast-paced, attention-heavy, but quite casual. There is not so much strategic depth in the game, but the 'endless waves' dynamic provides unique challenges and solutions to be had. If the player feels like they are struggling, they may purchase buffs and special characters from the game's cash store. Costumes and visual effects can also be obtained from the store, but these have no effect on the gameplay and are purely aesthetic. Ideally, players should attempt a few runs, see the faults in their strategy/preparedness, improve themselves, and then try a few more runs. Each individual run should take 1-5 minutes, making it an ideal game to play if some idle time is available. To summarise the game more simply, players fight through an endless horde of enemies which continuously assault the player's party using an Active Time Battle turn-based combat system similar to Final Fantasy, constantly improving and seeing how many waves they can clear.
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A virtual reality narrative experience that focuses on time travel, specifically venturing into the past to discover the life of one man. Players explore the countries of Burmecia and Hellenstag on the continent of Duecidion, the only significant landmass above the sea on a futuristic earth. The game starts at the end of the human race, as well as its beginning. While it is impossible to save humanity from extinction, scientists have finally found the means to travel back in time. The United Union of Governments in Duecidion plans to send specially trained assassins to kill off the dictator of Burmecia, Roman, while he was still young, as they believe he was the primary cause of the end of the earth. Upon hearing about this plan, Roman sends his own agent to prevent his death, you. The player is a silent foreigner from Burmecia's neighbouring country, Hellenstag, who has lived their life as a prisoner. This makes Roman's decision very strange, and stranger still is what Roman tells the player about his appointed task. He asks only to judge this wicked world and his sins. Players then arrive at different time periods by using their time travel device which requires an Old Day's Effigy to activate. The player's goal is to discover the state of the world during each time period, attempting to find Roman, and locating an Old Day's Effigy to continue on their journey. They uncover the truth behind the dictator, experiencing his story, and eventually encountering his youngest self. At this point Roman reveals a plot twist, that he and the player are one and the same. During the game players also run into a man with a simple but satisfactory life, Vogel. The young Roman offers two options, take the last Effigy and become Roman, or stay in this time period and become Vogel.
Those Were the Days aims to get players emotionally attached to a bleak world and come to understand the difficult journey of a hated man. They do this solely with exploration and conversation, getting into dangerous situations and witnessing beautiful environments. The game would primarily be an experiment on the power of VR, and would be successful if players relay their experience with others.
Image source: Bastion
Level Prompts is a rapid terrain building exercise that provides for players a map editor and a prompt for a level to design. Players will have to use the resources that they are given to construct a scene that they think best describes the level prompt in the shortest amount of time as possible. They are restricted to a time limit so that the game doesn't go on for too long, finishing before this time limit rewards the player with points. These points are used to compete with other players taking the same prompt. Points are awarded for time, use of space, use of resources, beauty of design and relevance to prompt. The last two point criteria are judged by other players and provide the most points. After a player finishes their level, they get to judge a random match of Level Prompts.
There are two variants of a Level Prompts match. There are friendly matches and hostile matches. Friendly matches are the standard Level Prompts match where the objective is just to build the best level possible. Hostile matches, however, involve players causing harm to each other by inflicting terrain disasters and spawning units into their map. Players are only allowed to perform these actions every so often, and should design their levels to be resilient to these harmful effects. Prompts for hostile matches are primarily about building a level that is durable and can react to outside influence, whereas friendly prompts cover a much larger range of subjects.
Level Prompts aims to be a pseudo-game that can help level designers practice their skills while having fun by adding a competitive element to the task. It is also an effective creative outlet where players can show off their personalities in a tangible form.
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Stick It! is a role playing game that is a sticker lover's paradise! The goal of the game is to gather the largest collection of stickers possible and stick them on whatever the player wants. To do this, players will have to complete jobs, earn money, and attend conventions. There are numerous conventions, offline and online, that players can attend, but only the online ones have the much anticipated Stick It tournaments. During these tournaments, players are unleashed into a sprawling city with the goal of sticking their three most favourite stickers on a place that they deem fit for the tournament's theme. These themes are open to interpretation and widely vary. After the Stick It tournament ends, an anonymous photographer is chosen to take photos of the hopefully vastly spiced up scene. These photos are then judged by all players, with the best one rewarding whoever's stickers are in the frame. It is supposed to be a frantic and fun event that captures the essence of stickers.
You may be wondering how stickers are created in Stick It!. Well, the answer to that question is the fan base itself! The game provides the tools needed to craft or import stickers while also making sure that it does not have a large learning curve. Everyone should be able to create their own stickers, but they require resources to accomplish this. However, after they have successfully developed their stickers, they can trade them or even sell them to others. As this game is built for PC platforms, having steam workshop integration would be optimal for the success of the game.
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General: A Sky of Fish is an unusual real time strategy game in that it has the army battling component of RTS', but none of the base building. Instead, players are only allowed to construct an army with a finite amount of resources before the start of a match. The game takes place in a mythical sky, where fish swim freely, and often contest in wars. There are three main factions of fish that occupy this space: the Cloudfish, the Warlocs, and the School. Each faction has their own personal traits and ideologies, diversifying them as fish and causing conflict to ensue. Battles occur between two of the factions, or even all of them at the same time, in a free for all bout. Each faction has their own win conditions and lose conditions, meaning that there are two ways of emerging victorious in an A Sky of Fish match. Players can aim to fulfill their win condition, or seek to force an opponent's lose condition.
Expanding on Mechanics: Players construct armies for the faction they wish to play in the army construction section of the game, saving them to presets to use when queuing for matches. All factions start with the same amount of resources to spend on building their army, but their individual units are obviously unique. Players are allowed to spend as much of their resources on army construction as they like, with remaining resources being available to use during the match. Things you can use resources on during a match includes hiring mercenary fish, capturing and sustaining points of interest, and casting powerful faction skills. Apart from standard units, which you could have dozen of at a time, there are heroic fish that can be added to the player's army. These heroic fish have unique abilities and more stats than normal, but also cost a lot more to include. During an actual match, players control their units much like they would in other real time strategy games, commanding them through one of several maps that they play on. These maps are spherical, much like the maps of Homeworld, as they take place in the sky. In each map are several points of interest, such as abandoned air factories or sunken blimps, which may be valuable for the player to capture. There are also clouds, many many clouds that drift past the playspace. These clouds act as a sort of fog of war, providing cover for units inside them, thus making them hidden. Effective use of these ever changing clouds will give players tactical advantages that can help them win the game.
The Factions:
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General: Graphick is a puzzle game with an unusual theme; focusing on big business espionage of the highest caliber: graphs and charts. Players assume the role of a specialist informations analyst who has the uncanny ability of processing data at lightning fast speeds and compiling visual representations of the data beautifully. However, underneath this analyst's very high demand skill set lies an information dealer who sells all of the company secrets he can get his hands on to competitors. A rise in the appearance of information moles makes this man's job more difficult, in fact, almost getting him killed. After being hospitalised from the Big Blue Corporation's attempts to silence him after he discovered some very disturbing secrets, the analyst strives to undermine the company that ruined him by uncovering the truth. To do this he needs to get back into the field, improve his game, and show the world the power of graphs.
Mechanics: The game is a logic puzzle, explicitly the game's objective is to process the demands of a company and then dig through their information to compile graphics that provide them with just the right data that they need. However, what players will have to manage are their suspicion levels. When first being hired to a company, they are under heavy surveillance due to the threat of information moles. If they attempt to access company data that they don't have permission to, they will be fired immediately, thus facing a game over. Players will have to gain trust by successfully creating graphs for their clients, and then using that trust to dive deeper into the darkness they will discover valuable pieces of information that they can sell. Creating graphs in Graphick is not modeled after the real world activity, but it is instead stylised to make it fun and accessible to a wider audience. They are mainly made by dragging and dropping unlocked information onto a template, with hints and tips given throughout the game about how to maximise client satisfaction with orderly graphs. Players can use the money they receive for selling information to buy digital assistants that help them evaluate their graphs and suggest pieces of data to include. Graphick plays sequentially in chapters that are divided into individual levels. Each chapter is set in a different company, and at the end of every chapter all information gathered by the player is sold after they receive new job offers. Their goal is to be rehired by the Big Blue Corporation and take all the dark secrets that they hold.
Graphick aims to be a game that offers a unique experience and setting that appeals to lovers of information and organisation.
General: Lanki is an interactive puzzle game developed for the Nintendo 3DS which focuses on an imaginative child's drawings. Players enter the life of a seven year old girl who imagines the adventures of an odd creature called Lanki, an animate line. Lanki loves to roll, but often rolls into dangerous situations. The girl helps Lanki out by drawing platforms that guide his path, making sure that he gets to his destination safely. She does this by drawing on a piece of paper with crayons, each colour symbolising a different type of platform. Once she finishes with Lanki's little misadventure, she shows her parents her artwork, who judge its creativity and vibrance. This same process repeats for a year of the girl's life, and she gradually meets new Lankis along the way.
Mechanics: Lanki is mainly played by interacting with the 3DS's touch screen, allowing the player to draw platforms out in real time. During each level, players see Lanki roll around on the top screen, slowly making his way towards an objective. The bottom screen contains the entire map for the current level, and players can zoom in and out to focus on specific parts of the map. The level will have certain paths, obstacles and traps pre-generated to provide the general layout of the level which the players need to add to with their crayons. Different crayon colours create different platforms for Lanki to interact with, which includes but is not limited to walls, bounce pads, speed zones, and giant fans. Once drawn, platforms cannot be removed for the duration of the level, meaning that players have to plan out their platform placement to successfully clear the level. Since Lanki is a line, he cannot roll properly to begin with, and must rely on gravity to fall and tumble. When new Lankis enter the girl's life, the player can combine them to create new shapes, such as a + Lanki or a triangle Lanki, both of which can roll more efficiently than a line.
Narrative Depth: Since Lanki's adventures reflect the state of mind of the girl, each level contains hints of the girl's emotions and thoughts. As players progress in the game, they will discover the girl's story, and understand why Lanki exists and grow in number over time.
Lanki aims to be a fun and casual experience that radiates an air of playfulness and imagination.
Image source: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/young-girl-drawing-with-crayons-royalty-free-image/100612320
Maxwell's Steam is a mazebuilding game with a twist. The player takes on the role of the architect engineer Maxwell who has been given the task of constructing a complex maze outside of his city's gates that is capable of stopping robots from getting in. These robots have certain movement patterns which players must learn to manipulate so that they walk to their deaths. However, every so often a human will attempt to enter the city to escape the robots, going through the exact same maze. These humans are valuable to the city, and should successfully survive the maze at all costs. Unlike robots, they do not have absolute judgement and unflinching wills. They are emotional creatures that will run at the sight of chainsaws and dark alleys. It is up to the player to construct a maze that can lead robots to their doom, but humans to safety.
Players progress in the game by finishing days, gaining resources to research new structures and expand the maze. Humans that enter the city can provide their services, increasing the incentive to design a proper maze. During certain days, unexpected events will occur, prompting the player to actively modify the maze in real time. These events exist to add tension to the rather static task of mazebuilding, as well as test the player's knowledge of the game.
Image Source: http://jonhodgson.deviantart.com/art/Marvels-of-Science-and-Steampunk-291184113
Black Swallowtail is an online multiplayer player vs player hunting game that relies a lot on survival and analysis skills. Each match lasts up to 65 minutes and spans seven in-game days and nights. The game is held in a giant forest that is surrounded by a large dome. Over time, the dome will shrink, making the playing space smaller and forcing player encounters. Each of the six players in the match are tasked with eliminating all other players, except for one. Each player is bound to one other player, but they do not know who this person is. All they know is that their partner started with the same randomised equipable item as them. If a player kills their partner, they both die, but if their partner dies from another player, the survivor can still win the game. Black swallowtail is thus also a game of deceit.
The forest and its abundant foliage provides very good cover for players, thus promoting stealth and observation. There is a degree of base building in the game as well, as well as resource gathering. Players will have to craft their own weapons and form encampments to survive the coldness of night. The game is in first person to promote immersion, and so that meeting other players feels more intense. Players can communicate with voice chat or text, which can only be received by other players in a certain radius around them. They have the option of confronting other players directly and asking them which item they started with, or observing them from a distance to see which starting item they will equip and use. These items are unique, and cannot be crafted (but can be picked up), so it is the only sure clue to discovering partners.
Black Swallowtail aims to be an intense game of survival, reconnaissance and trickery.
Image Source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Black-swallowtail-butterfly-mask-286906624
The Sun, The Fury, and The Moon is a strategic card drafting game that uses three decks, each containing cards with different effects. The goal of the game is to remove as many tokens from the opponent before all decks have been emptied. The three decks contain the following: aggressive cards (The Sun), monster cards (The Fury), and supportive cards (The Moon). Aggressive cards and monster cards must be played immediately upon acquisition, whereas supportive cards can be stored in the player's hand for use anytime during the game. Monsters have a damage stat which determines how many tokens are taken off the opponent each round, a class which determines which cards can affect them, and sometimes a unique property such as gaining damage each round. Aggressive cards are used to influence monsters in play, or the opponent, with immediate effects. These can be one time effects, or passive field effects, and are meant to augment the game in several directions. Supportive cards are mainly played to help the user in some way, whether it be by restoring lost tokens or denying an opponent's card from activating. The fact that these cards can be played at any time adds to the malleability of the game state.
The card drafting element of the game occurs at the start of every round, with players choosing a set of cards to add to a shared drafting pool. The amount of cards in this set depends on the player's favor, a numerical value that is influenced by certain cards. Players may choose cards from all three decks to add to their set, up to their amount of favor. As an example, if a player has 3 favor, they could choose 2 aggressive cards and 1 monster card to add to the pool, or 3 supportive cards. All aggressive and monster cards are revealed in the pool, but supportive cards stay hidden. Players then take turns picking a card from the pool to add to their side, the first player being the one with the least tokens. After this drafting phase, any additional game effects will come into play, and the amount of tokens to take from each player will be calculated.
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UUDDL-RLRBA is a comedic action puzzle game that focuses on utilising overpowering cheats to overcome an impossible game. Playing through the game, players experience the story of a simple young lad called Maverick who has too many games but too little time. The games he plays are too difficult since they require a certain amount of time invested in order to overcome their challenges. To solve this issue, he cheats! Maverick has great fun when he cheats, defeating any and all obstacles that the games present. However, Maverick was caught by the Fun Police, an intergalactic organisation that actively seeks out practitioners of what they deem as 'harmful fun' and locks them up in pocket dimension prisons. There they attempt to rehabilitate fun offenders by forcing them to accept that cheats cannot win all games. Maverick, however, stands his ground and attempts to break an impossible game.
Players will have to manage their arsenal of cheat codes in order to advance in UUDDL-RLRBA. They will be challenged to think of the right combination of cheats to overcome the game's many seemingly impossible hurdles. These cheats include invincibility, infinite money, secret characters, 1 hit kills, and much more. You may be thinking, "Why don't you just have all cheats on?" The reality is that the Fun Police aims to debilitate their targets by programming devastating reactions to cheats by all of their objects in their game, meaning that having all cheats on at any given time would result in at least one of them triggering a nasty event. It's up to the player to find solutions to this unfair situation, exploiting certain specificalities of cheats and finding bugs in the game.
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Will of Iron is a 3D action game about manipulating magnetism to defeat giant metal golems. Humanity has been driven to the edge of extinction by golems that have suddenly risen from the depths of the earth, seemingly programmed to bring balance back to the earth through mass extermination. Cities have been razed, countries toppled, every bastion of human ingenuity crushed by these sentient beings. Save for one, the experimental floating city of Norgoktas. It was the product of the scientist Somme's brilliance and madness, channeling the repulse force of electro-magnetic energy to lift a significant landmass. It was a crazy idea that turned out to be humanity's last sanctuary. The city is powered by wind turbines and solar panels, but food is difficult to grow. Thus, ordinary people that volunteered to live on Norgoktas must now become warriors, wielding experimental weapons that can cut into the golems and tools that can manipulate magnetism. They are sent down to the surface to pave the way toward establishing a fortress, securing resources, and scouting for survivors. They are the Eisernen Willen.
Will of Iron plays in third-person and is mission based. Each mission is conducted on the surface of the earth in different zones. There are specific objectives that players must meet to clear the mission. Throughout the game, they will meet several metallic golems who instinctively try to kill them. Most of the time, players will have to outmaneuver them and run away as their weapons are still experimental and their skills are lacking. However, through various narrative elements, the player is forced to slay a golem or face certain death. From that moment on players will be assigned more hunting missions are are given new tools to help them defeat the golems. Successful use of these tools will be vital to defeating these seemingly impenetrable beings, the game intends to give the player many options and full control of this action-packed end-of-the-world experience.
Image Source: https://joht.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/golem_vs_mech_by_keepwalking07.jpg
Odoro! is a heavily narrative focused rhythm game that can be seen as a video game musical. The game delivers the story in a similar fashion to Japanese visual novels. The twist is that everyone in the game is gung-ho about singing and dancing, revolving their whole lives around it. What would've been dialog heavy event options before will be transformed to a mingling of gameplay and narrative. One of the main failings of song-based rhythm games, in my perspective, is that most of them are simply about getting score and achieving mastery; its a purely mechanical game element. Odoro! aims to bring some narrative context to playing these kind of games by linking it directly to an overarching plot. Now, success in playing these songs will decide the fate of the protagonist, spurring them on in a branching storyline system.
Expanding on Mechanics: Odoro! follows the style of play of games like guitar hero and DJ Max, but it expands on this system by incorporating specific objectives to meet, as well as different parts of the song to play. Players will mainly be doing vocals, but may also carry an instrument to add the their song, having them choose between singing or playing during the performance. Their choice of play and accuracy will be reflected by the progression of the story.
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