Hello again. I’ve been on a hiatus for some time to focus on finishing Illucinated for the upcoming IGF submission deadline. And I am glad to announce that I have been successful. Illucinated is now called TRAUMA. A tiny Website is available here. But most importantly, here is a (slightly blurry due to SD-Quality capture) gameplay video:
The game is very close to being finished. I’m currently working on some minor interface details (save game management, cancel buttons, etc..). Also, there is still an intro and some other animation work to be done. After that, it’s testing & bugfixing, prepping everything up for the web (preloaders, error management). I’m confident that the game will be released this year.
Until then, check out the Screenshots. I have also a Flickr album with some older behind-the-scenes photos.
If you like, you could help a Indie Game Designer by spreading this among your friends. Also, I would be very glad to hear some feedback from you. Please, do go ahead!
hello,
first of all, congratulation for having finished your game !
The gameplay remind me of photosynth (from the microsoft lab).
There is some interesting idea (especially at the end of the video).
on the negative side : the sound (when you hover or click on a photo) gets on my nerve
and the level looks “empty” (but may be that’s on purpose, because of the story)
Good cool on the Photosynth thing. It was certainly one of my inspirations.
Thanks for your suggestions as well. The emptiness is certainly welcome. Also, there is very little I can do about it at this point anyway. ;-D
But I heard remarks about the sound effects from other people as well. So now I’m definitely going to take a second look at them.
Looks great, can’t wait to try it.
Nice job !
[...] Majewski submitted TRAUMA to the Independend Games Festival (IGF). The good news are: in any way, this game will be available for free in a Flash-enables browser near you by the end of 2009. [...]
Congrats!
So this is what happened to Illucinated!
The game looks great – I really like the intriguing sense of space, constructed of photographs, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.
Wow, very nice style and presentation. Everything seems to fit together perfectly, sounds and visuals have a great feel to them. Looking forward to release.
Really excited to play this, Krystian. The trailer is wonderful.
Wow, I’m really overwhelmed by the Feedback. Even though I’m just one of over 300. Thank you, it really helps to keep up the motivation! ^_^
I’m blown away by this! Excellent concept & execution, Krystian… my congratulations.
It reminds me very much of the film Memento but with a sinister Resident Evil style edge… can’t wait to play it. Best of luck with the launch & competition entry.
Hey, very interesting game. I too really like the atmosphere and emotional quality the game seems to exude. Reminds me of Another Code (Trace Memory), in a good way, of course. I’m looking forward to playing it, and I congratulate you on completing a game of your own. No easy task. I noticed something I think is pretty interesting at the 4:20 point in your video. The narrator says that she “needs to find a sphere without that sign.” It’s interesting to me because you (presumably intentionally) cut out one step in the puzzle process. The traditional puzzle design would normally involve Step 1. Figure out what you need to do. and Step 2. Do it. You cut out the first step by explicitly telling players what they need to do (find the sign), rather than either assume it was obvious or force them to discover what it is they needed to do. Personally, I’m a fan of this decision. So many puzzle games, like Myst and Riven, are basically impossible because you have no clue what you’re supposed to be doing. Your game tells players what to do, removing the opportunity for frustration, while still leaving them with the task of finding the solution. Additionally, this seems to fit in snugly with TRAUMA’s design, which seems to me to be a hunting, finding, or seeking game. Great job and best of luck.
Mmh, mouse gestures… :/
My experience with mouse gestures in Darwinia is not very good (haven’t finished it yet btw).
I often have to try several times to get stuff like air raids or missiles. (Ok, I admit I mostly played it while on a train with an old laptop so there was a little bit of lag between mouse movement and drawing, as well as some shaking of the table.)
At least, the gestures in this game seem relatively simple.
Still, I hope there will be an alternative.
Gestures can be nice (I enjoyed Firefox/Opera mouse gestures for a while), but they shouldn’t be mandatory.
A point-and-click adventure game is about solving logic puzzles, following a story for me, not about drawing with a mouse.
@Finn Sharp observations. Yes, I enjoy the Cing games a lot. I believe they were subconsciously an inspiration for TRAUMA.
You analysis of the gameplay is spot-on. I give away a lot. I don’t want people to get stuck because of some silly details.
@KIAaze: Oh! Skepsis! Very good! I understand your concerns. I was also not happy with the gesture recognition systems in Darwinia. They better in Black & White, but only marginally. Trauma is different however. Unlike in Darwinia or Black & White, the gestures don’t need to be made too frequently, they don’t need to be timed and failure to perform them does not penalize you in any way. Also, they are mostly much simpler. I believe you will find that because of the mentioned differences, the implementations come out very differently. I afraid there will be no alternative input methods. The concept pretty much hinges on it. It’s not a traditional point & click in that sense either.
Hi must say I love the look of Trauma, and as I’ve noticed a few people mention, they second I saw how movement works I immediately thought photosynth!
I look forward to giving it a play when it’s available, as it looks very interesting for the structure of a game
incredible trailer!