As I was now moving towards release, knowing the core part of the game was somewhat tested and working, the next thing I worked on was finding a better font for text in the game. Fonts are redistributed with games, so I needed to find a public domain font that game the kind of aesthetic I wanted. I chose a sans serif font in italic, as it felt a timeless choice that fits with the artistic style of the game. To make the text easier to read with the varied lighting, I used the very handy outline script of Unity3D, that adds a nice contrasting outline to the edge of text to make it stand out regardless of background.
The secret ending uses a terrain, something I have only used once before, and I wanted to experiment with painting trees and grass. After playing around with a lot of the painting settings and different sprites, I felt it really didn't give the atmosphere I wanted. It looked too real to fit with the rest of the game, and not real enough to give a hugely jarring contrast of environment that could potentially help to convey the message of the game. In the end, only two cherry trees remained, as these survived a mass deletion, and the pair close to each other had some symbolism to a relationship that I liked.
Something I had left out to this point was sound. As someone with sound design and audio engineering in their background, I love the opportunity to get into samples and Ableton Live to make assets. I have used Freesound.org for years, and it's a great community with a lot of really impressive samples. I needed a sound for each decision, to go along with the text description of each room. A sound cue could also make part of a player's memory of a path, but it also added to the distraction element of the game. Through the design of these sounds I could also give more description and background to each decision, going beyond the limitations of the simple graphics I used.
The ambient sounds of the environment evolved and changed over time depending on the amount of life remaining and player metrics. An intimidating drum loop was used that gets louder as the player is dying, to add to the rush. A machine noise loop was used to help give an unsettling atmosphere, something inspired by David Lynch's sound design. Something about industrial noise in the wrong place is so effective at invoking this kind of feeling. When the player starts playing the 'wrong' way, I decided to add a squeaking machinery loop to add to this unsettling feeling, perhaps encouraging them to go back to the 'right' way of living, or showing certain players that they are making the kinds of choices that lead to an alternate ending.
I wanted to release the game in as convenient a way as possible, so I decided to build for WebGL. Being able to build games like this that can be played in a browser is amazing. I spend time making the assets as compressed as possible to keep the game size small, and for hosting I set it up on a github page. The bandwidth available through a Github page is great, and as the game has been compiled, I'm not worried about having the files available on a public repo. The delivered WebGL version means all these compiled files are available anyway.
I released the game through facebook and messages to friends. Many of them played it through a number of times, though I haven't had a good chance to talk with them about it since release.
One friend who played it said that it made him depressed, and he asked if there was a way to play it with a positive ending. He got the car/house/wife, but the results still made him depressed. Of course I mentioned he could try playing a different way. He said it was one of the most unique games he's played, which was really nice to hear.
Another friend mentioned it seemed 'arthouse' and that he thought it was cool, but it didn't let him play in the high action, high speed way he wanted. This friend has particularly strong opinions, so I expected as much.
At a bbq, other friends briefly mentioned how they played the game, and how some were able to get the car/house/wife and others couldn't. They were all scientists, and I wasn't surprised by the way they played the game, they just did what it said to do.
I will discuss these experiences and my reflections on the game in the next post.
