Somestory Protodemo Collection

Long before healthier habits entered my life, there was a narrowly lit path of artful passion that drew me towards the creation of playthings. At the time of inception, my mindset was very driven by an exploratory desire. This project was meant to be a refined gateway where I could develop through that path. Unfortunately, great complications arose in my personal life, and this project never saw the light of day. With that said, I still have very fond ideas of this vision, and I'm sure bits and bobs will seep into my current and future projects.

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These demos are from a time before I understood the value of version control (I'm actually really lucky I found them). As such, they've certainly collected a lot of dust. Some parts may be broken or unpolished, please tread lightly!

Perhaps one day I will rebirth this endeavor, and then everything will be shiny and new! ^_____^

Edit: I've since found a heap of source code of one of the more developed versions of this game, it is likely I will return to this at some future point!

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Art Tech Demo

Now, I didn't cognitively choose to make a demo demonstrating the art direction of the game, but looking at it from the time of this writing, this state of the project showcases a great pivoting point in my work. This is when I first began to think about visual aesthetic as a critical system within the play experience, instead of as a separate component.

Controls

Arrow Keys : Movement

~ : Toggle Debug Mode

1 : Toggle Pause

2 : Toggle Debug Display

3 : Toggle Per Frame Garbage Collection (..This Is Actually A Guess)

Notes

The shifting borders came out of a desire for integrating a grounding sense of humanity/reality to an otherwise psychedelic world. The overall effect makes the game seem more like a window to an other-world that the player is peering into. This leads to certain gameplay implications. It's not just a purely visual effect. The player can actually move into these shifted regions, and objects (if there were any other in this scene) would be moved accordingly as the walls shift. This further strengthens that link between the player in reality and the world within the game; what I am seeing is affecting that world.

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Gameplay Tech Demo

I suppose I wanted a game where my weapon actually hit and bounced off enemies appropriately. From there, I grew the idea through a very organic process, based almost purely on what felt right.

Controls

Arrow Keys : Movement

A : Swing Clockwise

S : Swing Counterclockwise

~ : Toggle Debug Display

1 : !Do NOT Press When Debug Display Is Active! (Demo Will Crash)

Notes

You'll likely want to first activate the debug display. Now you can see the little gobbers! Don't worry, they can't actually harm you; but, you can harm them!

There are actually two types of swings. A lesser swing, which has traveled less than 180 degrees before impact; and a greater swing, which has traveled more than 180 degrees before impact. If you harm one of the gobbers enough, they'll get little-yellow-dizzy-spheres swirling around them. Smack em' with a greater swing to send them flying off the screen!

This simple combat system was meant to lead to lots of different mechanics with the world. For example, spheres that do not get dizzy but move towards the player can effectively be juggled by swinging the bat back and forth. Exploring similar 'zen' mechanics was meant to be a large part of this game.