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Marwan's itch.io pageTheme inspiration
With the theme "passage", I found an interesting opportunity to design a game focused on the refugees. I was inspired with Jason Rohrer's "Passage" minimalism, and ended up with a text-based game closer to games like "Three Fourths Home".
Sensory info
N/A
Content info
It discusses a harsh topic: the refugees.
Extra Credit Challenges
Extra CC0 and CC-BY
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Comments
Thank you for the game!
Your game touches an important topic and is very sensitive about it, which I very much respect. I like how the illegal immigration problem is framed through personal drama. The writing is effective, and the whole interactive 3D scene helps to sensually attach oneself to what is happening. I also liked how in the dialog you can read the actual thoughts of the character you're playing and contrast them to the presented dialog options. This conveyed quite effectively the inner tension of the father, trying to calm down his son.
The sea, the sky, the composition of the screen, the sound effects and the text style all look very glossy and eye-pleasing, which contrasts with the whole subject matter of the story. I liked this contrast between calm and sunny landscape and tragic story, but maybe more could have been done to convey the main theme of the game through its audio visual elements.
Thank you so much for your words Valeriy, they mean so much to me after all the work i've put into these jam days. Of course it could be a better game, as always, and with the time (or lack of it) being a huge constrain. If you would like to suggest ideas to convey the theme of the game more through AV elements and so make a better game, I'd genuinely love to read them! Huge thanks.
I think that the easiest and most effective way would be to add sound effects that would reflect escalation of the events. I.e., tense silience as the boat rides with its normal speed can change into nervos chatter, accompanied by the dying engine hiccups, then turn into indiscriminate shouts and screams, as the situation worsens. Soundscape is very important in your game as it is at establishing sense of place, and it can do more to enhance player's sense of presence at the scene.
On the visual side I would stay minimalistic, but maybe add some visual detail to indicate boat's state as it stops (maybe, smoke coming out of the boat?)
Awesome. I'll totally consider your feedback. Thanks a lot.