![\"screenshot01_big\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/screenshot01_big.png\" "\\"Life,")
<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always had imagination, but I was never able to express it. I\u2019ve tried writing, drawing, painting\u2026 but nothing would ever come out the way I imagined it. So, you can imagine how happy I was to finally see something that matched what I wanted.<\/p>\n
But then what? Well, I must say I don\u2019t really know what happened, or how it happened, but I came up with this abstract experience that would represent life, or at least my way of seeing it.<\/p>\n
At first, you ended up being on this platform, with those forms on the sides and this monolith, you could walk everywhere (and fall\u2026 so I add to add collision walls), the sphere and the cube would start to get animated, and that was it. So I added messages.<\/p>\n
The first one was \u201cYou must leave everything\u201d, and the cube would go up and down, as if it was endlessly falling. This was meant to represente physical posession and some other things.<\/p>\n
The second message to appear was \u201cYou must forget everything\u201d, while the sphere would start to pulsate and a heartbeat sound would appear. It represented the feelings: love.<\/p>\n
Then you\u2019d continue to walk towards the monolith, and it would end with you looking up with a last message: \u201cPress Enter if you are ready.\u201d
\n Doing so would make the title screen appear with the title: \u201cLife\u201d. An indication to \u201cPress Enter to continue\u201d figured on the bottom center of the screen, and pressing enter would restart the game. That was it.<\/p>\n
But being able to move and look around felt wrong, so I ditched the Unity\u2019s default Character Controller package and I wrote my own script, deciding that the player would only be able to go forward. I thought it would be useful to give some indications of what the player can do, even if the game was awfully simple, so I added a message at the beginning (\u201cYou can only go forward.\u201d) and with that my \u201cgame\u201d was finished.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s only a day later that I understood that adding that message was the best thing I could do. When you play the first time, it\u2019s just a simple tutorial message, but when you play a second time, it can mean something else: \u201cYou have to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what I wanted my game to reflect, because no matter what happens in your life, moments will always replace other moments; you\u2019ll have to leave places or objects you hold dear in your heart, you\u2019ll love and you\u2019ll leave or be left, but then you\u2019ll do it again, and again, and again\u2026
\n Discovering that, I knew I had put myself into this thing in more ways than I had thought.<\/p>\n
And some people seemed to understand it; or at least understand something in it. But mostly everybody told me that my game was lacking of gameplay or that it wasn\u2019t really a game (which I totally understand), so I guess it\u2019s more like some kind of interactive experience. So, in the end, even if my interpretation of \u201cminimalism\u201d wasn\u2019t quite what people seemed to want, and if it\u2019s not even really a game, I\u2019m proud of it. Plus, the message it carries is exactly what I needed myself, so it unexpectedly managed to help me.<\/p>\n Making games as a therapy, why not? So, thanks Ludum Dare, and congratulations for everybody who won<\/a> just by making a game! :]<\/p>\n Remember: you can only go forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Originally posted here<\/a>.)<\/p>","time":"May 2nd, 2013 11:43 am","title":"Ok, So I Guess It\u2019s More Like Some Kind of Interactive Experience"}
\n But yeah, some people seemed to like it, and my game even had the honor of being listed on Indie Statik<\/a>, the author of the article referring to it in rather kind and positive words.<\/p>\n