Emotions: Grief, desperation, hope
Moodboard:
Inspirations from point-and-click adventures (Putt Putt, Monkey Island), small creature games (Moss, Rain World), text-based adventure games (ZORK), The Tale of Despereaux, the intro montage to Up, the animated Hobbit adaptation from the ’70s, and the Taiga biome in general.
Directions
These share the same concept (you play as a myopus) but differ in execution.
1. Point-and-click adventure game. Nature is brutal (like Rain World) but you must brave it to save your life mate. There are no words or dialog, only natural sounds of the forest and animals. Fun comes from being crafty and figuring out how to progress in unique ways. You feel the narrative as an emotional experience more than you understand it as a story.
2. Text-based adventure game. Obviously this would be all words in contrast to the previous one. Easier to create different branching and interweaving paths since you don’t have to make screens and assets. Bleak, but lots of humor. Introspective, internal monologue. More of a traditionally narrative adventure. The fun comes from pushing the limits of what the game will let you do (why yes, I would like to eat the poison moss).
3. 2D platformer with de-emphasized platforming like Braid. More of a focus on puzzles than jumping and enemies. Maybe some stealth/avoidance mechanics (again like Rain World). The fun is classic achievement. Focus on presentation, graphics, music. Maybe the narrative comes through in text snippets you unlock through finding secrets?
