Genre: Walking Simulator
Built with: Unity, C#
Development Time: 1 Week (First Version), 1 Month (Updated Version)
Team Size: 1 (First Version), 3 (Updated Version)
Roles: Writer, Lead Designer
A Walking Sim created in Unity.
This game is exactly what it says on the tin- there is no "Graphics". The player has to navigate a 3D space by using text on the walls to make sense of their surroundings.
Pre-Production
There were 2 main inspirations for this game: "The Book With No Pictures" by B.J. Novak, and a location in Earthbound called "Lumine Hall", where the main character's thoughts was being projected onto a wall.
The game was based on my own experiences in art school- The NYU Game Center was a part of NYU Tisch. I had gotten into the school without (what I perceived to be) good artistic talent.
In my eyes, because I didn't have any digital drawings or graphic design works, I felt as though I had gotten into the school because I got lucky. I was surrounded by artists who knew how to draw, and I myself struggled with picking up a pencil because of that.
In my eyes, because I didn't have any digital drawings or graphic design works, I felt as though I had gotten into the school because I got lucky. I was surrounded by artists who knew how to draw, and I myself struggled with picking up a pencil because of that.
Every class, I had wondered. What am I bringing to the table? How can I use my perceived weaknesses to make my own brand of games?
Thus, the development of The Game With No Graphics began. The game is a "What If?" scenario, in which I ponder, "What if I just gave up making games with graphics?"
I wanted to tell my story about feeling like I was behind everyone and how crushing that can feel. But despite all that, we are individually unique, and snuffing our talents away is not the way to grow as an artist.
Game Design
I set off making my game with no graphics by toying around with the Unity light system. This is pretty obvious, but when there's no light, nothing gets lit up...except, for some reason, Text Objects. One thing lead to another from this realization- I could make a maze with text on the walls that could guide the player. This naturally led me to decide the best way to view this trick in game was from first person.
The level design was a challenge - I wanted to make sure I didn't go too overboard with placing text objects everywhere, but I also didn't want the player to get lost either. I also wanted to be sure I didn't make the whole experience JUST walking down a hallway and reading words on a wall, so I tried out some interesting illusion puzzles as seen in the GIFs above.
The level design was a challenge - I wanted to make sure I didn't go too overboard with placing text objects everywhere, but I also didn't want the player to get lost either. I also wanted to be sure I didn't make the whole experience JUST walking down a hallway and reading words on a wall, so I tried out some interesting illusion puzzles as seen in the GIFs above.
The maze like design informed the tone of the game's story, where the player character has to figure out how to get out of this doubt they have.
Due to how simple the mechanic is, which I go over down below, most of my time was spent making content, such as the levels and the dialogue.
With the lights "on", you can see what's really going on with the level design - lots and lots of cubes. Because the level was never going to be lit up like this, I didn't have to be too clean.
Programming
There's only really one mechanic in the game - Walking around. Of course, that didn't mean I had to skimp out on making sure the game didn't have some damn good walking mechanics. It was fun for me to focus on making sure I was able to nail down a single core gameplay mechanic so that it felt good to control. Plus, this being a prototype I had to make in a week, I couldn't force myself to work on much else.
"Art"
Even though there's no "art" in the traditional sense, I still paid careful attention to how the text was laid out in the wall, and also tried to play around lightly with some color as well. The font I used was a fan made font that's based on the one used in Earthbound. It's one of my favorite to use due to how fun and video game-y it looks.
I also made sure each piece of text was spaced apart well, and that the reading experience wasn't too draining. This required a lot of cutting, but this was all in service of the player.
I also made sure each piece of text was spaced apart well, and that the reading experience wasn't too draining. This required a lot of cutting, but this was all in service of the player.
Later on, I would help produce another version of this game for a class on narrative design. This updated version was worked on with 3 people and contained a more fleshed-out narrative written by me.
I faced an interesting situation when re-working with others. The two other teammates have different interpretations of the story in the original, which I was glad to discuss with them. We had a mix of optimistic and pessimistic opinions about the general story, and how we wanted to showcase that in game. We decided to bring that into the story by having 2 opposing viewpoints talk to each other.
At the end of the game, the player has to choose between 3 different endings, all of which are equally valid.
I was happy that this game brought a discussion about the dangers of comparing one's artistic talent to another. I felt as though by having different viewpoints, the game felt more well-rounded than before.
The Future
I've had people talk to me about how this is one of their favorite games that I made, and I'm glad for that. I do feel like I don't have any new ideas for this game, so for once I consider this to be 100 percent complete.