When a damaged ship is detected near an orbital refinery, a crew of medics, diplomats, soldiers and engineers must board the vessel to prevent it from causing more damage. But the ship is of unknown origin, and the SOS in a language never encountered. Who are these aliens, and can they be reasoned with before it's too late?

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Miscommunique (A working title) will be an adventure game after the style of older cartridge-based games, using the Bitsy engine. Players will take on the role of an engineer, and interact with the environment and other characters to ascertain the damage on the alien craft. But be warned: there may be aliens still present on the ship, and they may require medical attention, or might be a hazard themselves. Use caution and tact, as your personal translator will only grow through interaction and study.

This is my first entry on Itch.io, as well as my first videogame period, and I am hoping to have at least a small section of this game ready by the time the jam is complete, if not the majority of it. I've chosen the Bitsy engine because it most closely resembles the level making tools from other games i've enjoyed, and has logic that allows for simple or complex designs, including animation (after a fashion). My primary goals in the first week are to get the rooms laid out, transitions sorted, and some key dialogue and set-pieces made. After that, I will be working to make the pixel art more polished and nuanced, though i've never done pixel art before, so that might not go how I plan it to!

In all, this will be a story about doing your job in the face of overwhelmingly alien circumstances, and trying to be the best person you can be in the face of an alien race with little in common. If time allows, I plan to implement a rudimentary form of dialogue interaction and choice, beyond the simple "Interact -> Dialogue is Spoken" chain that Bitsy is designed around.

I'll be posting periodically on here, but for now, let's just get to the grindstone and start designing rooms for the ship you start on!

A few hours in, and i've got three areas sorted out! You'll start out in engineering, where you'll go through a quick interaction with some other characters and some computers. Once finished, you'll head up to the command deck for your briefing on the strange ship that appeared!

I have to say, though it was daunting at first, I actually forgot to eat once I started delving into the pixel sea that is Bitsy's tile creation. I'm using a hack of the Bitsy engine that allows it to use 16x16 sprites, so I can squeeze a little more detail and use out of my environments. Obviously, i'm no master at this, but i'm happy with the result thus far!

It may not be clear in the above gif, but when you go up the stairs, I wanted the lower level to still be visible, just not accessible. I think the tiles i've chosen may be a little too complex in shape, which might make it hard to know what exactly you're seeing here. Regardless, i'm happy i've fleshed out this much in such a short amount of time (Especially for having never used this system!)

Onward and upward!

Absolutely love the look of this!

                                         -Vol

The graphics are beautiful! I love the limited colour scheme.

this is such a fascinating premise! i really dig that you chose bitsy for this as well--something about the concept and aesthetic mesh really well. i can't wait to see how the design of this plays out.