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Since long time ago, in my head gave turns the idea of making a game of type “walking simulator”, a game styleDear Esther, Everybody´s gone to the rapture, Proteus or the Witness. This game style is much focused on the artistic design and screenplay, two points of the design of games that interest me especially. In addition, the “walking simulator” often require little programming due to its litlle interaction options, making it easy that I can do the game alone, since my knowledge in programming are practically non-existent.
But as often happens to me almost always when I put a game, what I intended that at first it was a simple idea, is has become more complex over time. It took me quite some time mulling over the idea of a “walking simulator”, but it was a too abstract idea, I should give it a reason to play, give a meaning. It was clear the genre of the game I wanted to make, but, what I want to to tell with the game? How do I want to would be the gameplay? Without having clear two so relevant points of a game design my desire to do a “walking simulator” were just in that, a desire, if there were no a reason, a “why” and a “for what”.
Little by little I got to define my idea of game and with each idea design became more complex. The first thing I got to define was what would different to my game of others of its style and I found it by chance. As usual, the inspiration is when you are not looking for. I don’t know why reason googled pictures of the Faroe Islands, some islands known to most people because its selection of football, without much quality, usually participate in the preliminary rounds of the European Championship. But when we learn geography in the College independent countries as Faroe Islands or Malta we go unnoticed and become unknown gems.
Well, Faroe Islands are islands located in the center of a hypothetical triangle formed by Iceland, United Kingdom, and Scandinavia. They are known for the incredible beauty of its landscapes and the less fortunate and traditional hunting of pilot whales. If you are looking for images of Faroe Islands I recommend to do a specific search like “landscapes of Islands Faroe” to avoid you the grotesque images of the deaths of the poor whales.
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Photographs of these Islands seemed to me really inspirational and I thought ‘I want to make a game based on those landscapes’, and then I remembered that “walking simulator” that long time I wanted to make. But of course, Faroe Islands landscapes are much with huge cliffs and other marine formations, the next step was logical: the navigation would have a fundamental role. I have always loved games that offer the possibility to navigate, as pirates of the Caribbean: the game (which is not based on the films) or Zelda: Wind Waker.
The vast majority of the “walking simulator” tend to be in first person, as this is good for the immersion, but as Hero´s Journey will focus much on navigation it seemed to me a mistake can not see the ship from outside, in all its glory, in fact, to see the boat with a beautiful landscape in the background is a delight to navigate in games. Therefore, surely when I create the game I include the ability to change between the first and the third person and let freedom to the player to choose how he wants to see the world that surrounds him in every moment.
T0 see, this is one of the great lures of a “walking simulator”, as I have already said, the screnplay and art are two of the great attractions of this type of games. Surely I will include something of interactivity in the game, challenges to be overcome and puzzles, although I’d like to avoid the concept of death. I don’t want to make a complicate game, but a game that contemplate and enjoy, introducing the interaction as a method to entertain and to add the component of challenge, a really important thing to keep the attention of the player. Ultimately, what I want is to let the player enjoy majestic and grandiose landscapes and discovering of the story calmly, while also appealing to their capacities, the player should explore a vast sea filled with islands in which will reveal secrets that will help him to understand the history.
Anyway, I don’t want to reveal nothing of the history or character design, perhaps I relate small details of the game in following development /indev journals, but in any case I want to keep the mystery as much as possible, so that all players can enjoy the incredible secrets that will hide Hero´s Journey. At the moment it’s a game in their initial phases of design, with more or less developed ideas in my head and a single concept finished, both black and white and color. Hero´s Journey is a project in active but posed a medium or long term, that I will be developing at the time do more simple games and which will be presented in next /indev. I hope that this project has been you in your interest, and I will be glad of any feedback you wish to provide me.
Game inspired by: Dear Esther, The Witness, Ico, Zelda: The Wind Waker
NOTE: THIS IS A MANUAL TRANSLATION, BUT IS POSSIBLE THAT I MAKE MISTAKES, SORRY FOR THIS.
