They Shall Have Stars
An Atmospheric 2D Puzzle Adventure Game
Embark on a perilous journey as a family of four racing against time to stay ahead of a relentless religious cult. Guided by different wavelengths of light, you must solve intricate puzzles, navigate treacherous obstacles, and protect the vulnerable toddler in your arms. But it's not just about survival; it's about family bonds and moral choices. After each expedition, immerse yourself in captivating narrative moments, shaping the family's path forward and affecting the cult's hunters. Will you find sanctuary at the “Lighthouse”, or will you be captured in the gripping pursuit of 'They Shall Have Stars'?”
This has been a solo passion project of mine where I have functioned as Game Designer, Level Designer, 2D Artist, Illustrator, and Unity Developer. My next steps are to build a pitch deck and seek a small team with interest in assuming development roles to bring this game to market.
Character Concept Art
My character designs are inspired by the people of Melanesia, some of whom have naturally dark skin but blonde hair. They developed a gene for blonde hair independent of descendants of Europe. My illustration approach to is “interactive painterly concept art”. I’ve digitally painted my characters using Procreate on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil.
My goal is to convey strong emotions through subtle, slightly exaggerated yet realistic animation. A “less is more” approach leaves room for player interpretation, while also conveniently lightening the load from a game development standpoint.
The title of my game comes from a line in my favorite poem, “And death shall have no dominion” by Dylan Thomas. This poem is apropos as it heavily inspires both the narrative elements of my game as well as some of the rogue-like gameplay mechanics.
Animations using Spine 2D
The most cost effective way to create my animations has been to use the power of Esoteric Software’s Spine2D. It has allowed me to bring my 2D illustrations to life without the need of frame by frame sprite sheets or 3D modeling, which provides greater flexibility in terms of skins, but additionally drastically cuts down on production time.
I worked with 2D animators on Fiverr.com to rig and create over 15 initial animations per character and multiple skins.
Aesthetics
In Unity, I’ve created staging examples of atmosphere and effects, including one of the key game mechanics, the ability to switch light wavelengths to solve puzzles. All coding was done with a combination of Unity’s Bolt visual scripting and traditional C# coding in Visual Basic.
The environment artwork used here is reference artwork only (borrowed from the amazing concept artist Ismail Inceoglu) to set the tone of the intended visual style. It will not be used for final design.
Partner Up?
If you’re a member of the game design & development community and you’d like to collaborate on this project, feel free to shoot me a note via the Contact page. I’m looking to identify the following potential collaborators:
2D Game Artist
2D Animator
Level Designer
Unity Developer
Writer
Sound Engineer