Submissions by joshuasavage tagged firstperson

Summary:

In Reflection is a first person puzzle game based around perspective, personality and mirrors. Players find themselves in purgatory, the place between Heaven and Hell in the afterlife. As each soul enters purgatory they are given a challenge they must complete to redeem their soul. Failing to do so results in the soul being sent to hell. The player character arrives in purgatory after being hit by a car and is assigned the challenge of finishing a maze designed by the overseers but he must do so while only looking through a mirror they have provided him.

Gameplay:

Players begin by taking a test with the overseer designed to gauge their personality, this would likely be based off of the Briggs-Meyer personality tests. They are then placed in a procedurally generated maze populated with a variety of puzzles. The maze is different every time it is started to provide a unique experience for each player.

The player can only see the maze through the mirror (the maze appears as an expansive white plane when viewed without the mirror. Players will navigate the maze constantly walking backwards to accommodate for this fact.

Players navigate the maze and solve puzzles by altering the way they see things through the mirror. In this world perspective reflects reality and the mirror has a fixed perspective similar to a living painting. For example from a start position down in the mirror is down in reality however when turned 90 degrees the down in the mirror is now the players left, based on this the player now appears to be standing on the wall and as perspective is reality they are in fact standing on the wall. Perspective is reality here and so players will manipulate the maze by altering the positions of the mirror to help them overcome obstacles. Additional puzzles will be present such as other mirrors which you can adjust the position of, using the reflections like a kind of periscope to effectively teleport through space.

Throughout the game players will interact with a variety of denizens of the maze populated based on their answers to the test taken on the start of the game these denizens will be roughly be based on isolated traits of the personality the player portrayed in the test at the start of the game, exaggerated to accentuate the singular nature of them. Denizens can be allies; offering hints and working through puzzles with the players or they can be enemies chasing the player through the maze, scaring them and trying to harm their progress. However all interactions with denizens will shape the maze and the players story as they progress.

Mindset:

In Reflection aims to put the player in an open state of mind by breaking down the traditional boundaries associated with perspective, players should feel like their eyes are constantly deceiving them and they should feel out of place in an entirely foreign world, to accentuate this feeling it would be ideal to use a sterile white environment splashed with colourful out of place set pieces.

By breaking up the traditional ways of thinking about space and our environment the game hopes to put players into an introspective state of mind which when combined with the positive interactions with the mazes denizens should lend a meditative state to game play, while the negative interactions with the nastier denizens should lead to exhilarating chases and high tension encounters.

Ultimately the game aims to make players think about how they approach the world in an entirely new way.

Highlights:

● Tailored player experience, each player will have a unique experience not only in the maze but how they interact with the different denizens present

● Unique perspective based puzzle solving which challenges players to look at directions and space in new ways

● Classical choice based conversations with impacts on the world and the players progress

● A meditative game experience designed to leave players introspective and thoughtful