Sammy In The Shadows is a work-in-progress cinematic platformer in the veins of Inside and Little Nightmares. Started as the more action-oriented first winner in Sofia Game Jam 2019 the team of Kvaba Interactive and I started to develop the initial idea into a more cinematic experience.
The major idea is simple and intuitive: Sammy is afraid of the dark. His only friend in the dark is his trusty flashlight which acts as the main gameplay mechanic in the game: light your way so you can progress to the end of the level. The flashlight and other light sources can be used in many ways:
light dark areas (which can't be tresspassed without a light source)
scare away enemies (use the flashlight to push them into a desired direction)
transform enemies into their true form (in the dark they are shadows but in the light they become unscary objects)
solve environmental puzzles (you can use this enemy who just got transformed into a chair)
The key things I did during this development:
- ditched the initial action-gameplay and designed a puzzle-platformer level from scratch revolving around using light
- did a creative direction for the overall theme, atmosphere and story of the game ("alice in wonderland" approach for a coming-of-age story)
- no speech and no tutorial: the gameplay was designed in a way that teaches the player how to play the game and leads the story naturally
- did an art direction for the overall look and feel of the game (dark, spooky, mysterious, mix of realism and surrealism, low poly, high-fidelity)
- did the level design and the puzzle design for all of the demo content
- I illustrated all the gameplay, story, direction, level design and puzzle design elements into a storyboard that could be understood by the whole team
- defined and fine-tuned all of the gameplay mechanics (basic platforming, push/pull mechanics, flashlight mechanics)
- created basic AI behaviour for the only enemy in the demo
- coordinated a team of two developers, one artist and one animator
