In development: Octave

Another semester, another game. Actually not only one game, but possibly three games to be handed in at the end of the semester which I'm already starting to stress about a little.

The first one I will introduce here is the biggest project called Octave and developed in a six man (and woman) team. What is the most interesting part about this project compared to the project last semester is that it has to be in 3D and that everyone in the team will have clear roles and responsibilities. A bit like a tiny development studio.


My role in this team is lead designer, writer and 2D artist. I'm quite happy about the first two roles as they were the ones I had originally hoped for and as we didn't have any 2D artists as such in our group, I was handed that role as well.
So responsibilities are mostly write material for the game, including setting up the game narrative, writing dialogue as well as writing in-team communication in regards to the game, in other words I'm responsible for writing almost everything in the development.

We have another designer in the team who is given the task of being both level and gameplay designer meaning that he will handle and produce all the smaller bits of the design and work out how exactly those things communicate with each other. I, as a lead designer on the other hand, have a more overall role of creating and securing a unified look and feel to the game. That is not to say I won't get involved in the other fields, I just won't be responsible for making it function in practical terms.

I predict it will be a gruelling development phase of about 3-4 months, but we'll make work.

Anyway, here is a short description of Octave and a piece of concept art I made:

Travel inside the mind of troubled composer Octave Hertz Hobbman, explore the depths of his creativity and the darkness that hides within it.
Use the unique recital battle system, where you, the player, creates and recites music to combat inner demons and restore the sanity of Hobbman


Octave is a third person action adventure game that places heavy emphasis on the musical world of the main character, Octave Hertz Hobbman. A unique recital system gives the player the opportunity to recreate powerful music to dupe and defeat enemies as well as manipulate the environment.

The dictator (on hold)

I have decided to put the dictator on hold for now. Something that unfortunately happens too often, where I start a project and end up putting it on hold (sometimes definate, sometimes not).

The reason why is mainly that I suddenly got busy with two game projects in spring semester and a programming project (likely also a game). And frankly juggling around four digital games is no fun.
The other reason is my insecurities as an artist. I want this game to look good (better than the ones I've made before) and in order to do that, I either need to find an artist or become a better artist myself, both of which will take time.

It's always a bit of a downer when you have to put a project on hold, especially one where you actually have put in some work rather than just conceptualising. But I am however working on a new and physical game, where my programming skills aren't needed and art consists mainly of graphic design, so this will be a nice break from all the digital games I have to make this semester.

Here are some backgrounds I tried to make for The Dictator:

And a walkcycle for the main character:

HeroNet

I developed this game with a great group of people during the Nordic Game Jam last weekend, where we had 48 hours to make a game. Funny enough I went to the board games track thinking I didn't feel like spending a weekend with tired and grumpy programmers (an they probably didn't want to spend a weekend with a designer/artist looking over their shoulder waiting for stuff to get done). But somehow the game ended up more perhaps more digital than boardgamey.

HeronNet is an augmented reality game that requires you to sign up at heronet.dk in order to become a true reallife superhero. The goal is to accumulate either prestige or notoriety, depending on whether you wanted to be a superhero or a supervillain.

So the rules of the game is to sign-up and then create deeds on the website, which gives you an URL, which then in turn you need to spread out. The catch is that you need to spread it out anonymously, since superheroes can't expose their true identity. So perhaps you could do good deeds such as giving out free candy and leaving you URL at the candy, people would then go to the URL and give you either prestige or notoriety. If someone knows your true identity, they can go to the website and expose you, destroying your hero profile and collecting all your points.

Our goal with the game was to create a game, people were always part of (like Assasin) but without inducing fear and paranoia. And also make people do small good deeds around and spread a little happiness.

We didn't win anything at the game jam, which was expected I guess, since it was probably disqualified for not being a boardgame, but we had comments on the fact that it would a really interesting social experiment, so I suppose that's cool.

But anyway, humanity is suffering while I write this post, so go the heronet.dk and create your hero... NOW!