Project Hide and Seek, what is it?
A competitive game, where the player has to hide orbs and find the opponent’s orbs. The observation of both the environment and the opponent is key to victory.
So far, it’s a game for 2 players, but it might be interesting to push it to 4 players.
A few details about the avatar.
The player’s avatar is a ball of smoke, like the black smoke in the TV Show Lost. It leaves a trail of smoke in its path, and has no front or back. The idea behind that is, again, the observation. The player can know if the opponent was there a few seconds ago. But if the player looks directly at the opponent, the player can’t know for sure if the opponent is looking back. Again, it’s all about observation, doubt and mind game.
A few details about the system.
Once the player drops one of her / his orbs, this orb appears for the opponent only after a few seconds. It means that if the player chooses to follow the opponent, as a strategy, the player is still forced to pay attention to the surroundings in order to find the orbs.
What is the state of the development?
So far, I have finished the core gameplay. It might need some polish, but I am pretty satisfied with it for now. All it needs for an early Alpha test is some feedbacks on the UI.
The avatar is done, minus a few tweaks, but this will come with the feedbacks from the Alpha test.
The orbs are currently in development. I could launch the Alpha test with the placeholders, but I am afraid that it would disorient the testers.
The level design is done at 50%, I have a lot of ideas, some are already implemented, but the area of the game is pretty wide (approximately 1 minute of travel to cross it in both directions, without sprinting), so the level building is really taking me a lot of time.
Speaking of the level building, I am no 3D artist, so I have to cope with free assets from the Unity Asset Store for now. If you’d like to see one of your 3D assets in the game after playing the Alpha test, don’t hesitate to ask me, it would be a great help.
What does it look like?
So far, it does look like a programmer prototype, since it’s exactly what it is. The artistic direction is chaotic and senseless, but like I said, I am no 3D artist. But the intent for the ambiance is to have something that looks like a crossover between Dear Esther, Miasmata and Lost. I really wanted it to be a twisted, gloomy, devastated environment. The idea is to focus the player on the observation. Too much color, too much movement, and the player could be lost or distracted. So the game is rainy, grey and shadowy.
Great, but when can I expect to play it???
Well, I expect to have a playable version, for a closed Alpha test, at the end of the month of February.
First, I’ll test it myself a lot, to fix all the bugs, and I am pretty sure I’ll find an awful lot of martingales in the level design. Once I am satisfied with the build, I’ll organized tests with a few people, so don’t hesitate to contact me when the Alpha test launches.
