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Umbrella is an emotional, atmospheric story following the journey of a lone, young, artistic woman who travels through a city in an attempt to reveal a painful forgotten past and to discover what exactly has happened to the world. It will play as a traditional puzzle-platformer but will heavily rely on the story to drive it's mechanics, art, and music.

Accompanied only by her umbrella, a young woman travels through a desolate city in search of clues as to why the world around her has become so empty and meaningless. With little to no recollection of her past, she wanders aimlessly through alleyways, sewers, and across rooftops in search of answers. As she makes her way through formidable obstacles and deadly traps, she begins to uncover fragments of her mystery. Slowly, she pieces together what’s left of her lost memories and begins to vaguely recall a time when the world wasn’t as lifeless. Our protagonist continues her journey but now fueled by an intense desire to bring color and beauty back into her dark world.
 
One by one, she brings color to both physical and mental obstacles that once stood in her way. As the world becomes more vibrant, it becomes clear to the player that the dark world, as seen by the protagonist, is not truly as it seems.



Updates

Animations



A demo scene we're working on right now in Unity3D:

(http://i.imgur.com/vlMY4ci.png)

Character concepts:

(http://i.imgur.com/mUWKgsa.png)

Spirit concepts:

(http://i.imgur.com/4te79KJ.png)

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Sounds like a cool idea. Just from the title card and description, the game seems to be metaphorically referring to depression. Dunno if that's intentional.

I like the sound of "bring(ing) color back" to the world. I'm imagining puzzles where solving the mechanical challenges simultaneously rewards the player by putting the scene back to color. It sounds like it could be fun to play on both of those levels.

The real deciding factor is going to be the quality of the puzzles. Hopefully you'll have some of those to show off sooner than later. The demo scene you've provided is pretty, but doesn't give any indication of how the game might play out. I can't even really pick out the platforms there.

I recognise this from /r/gamedev :) Really looking forward to where this game will go from the art style alone!

Definitely intentionally referring to depression. The entire game including it's mechanics are directly tied to the major story line. Good catch!

Regarding mechanics and quality of puzzles, I have a few puzzles mapped out on paper but nothing in code yet that can be tested. I am hoping they play as well as I am planning. I'll keep at it and update this and other dev logs as I make progress.


Thanks for the comment! I am in love with the artist right now ;)

Update 8/28/2013:

I was playing around with animating rain in the scene. Turned out pretty good. The gif here is an optimized file so a lot of frames are missing which makes the rain look staggered.

I also added a glowing vignette to the scene adding a much need ominous feel. Next, I'll be working on getting rain sounds and thunder/lightning flashes

(http://i.imgur.com/szntBcc.gif)

Updated Full version 8/30/2013 (http://files.lunarenigma.com/umbrella/flash/lightning4.html)

New concept art!

(http://i.imgur.com/Y8FegTY.png)

This is a major area in the game which will now feature 5 distinct Acts. Each act will represent a different stage of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. And each act will also have a distinct color palette and present unique obstacles for the player to overcome.

We'll be working on fleshing out this concept since it represents a major part of the game. We've also started working on in-game character mock-ups and will hopefully have something to show mid-next week.

Full-size version tiled vertically:

(http://i.imgur.com/HmD3boB.jpg)

looks pretty slick

Character Concept Draft 1

(http://i.imgur.com/GGGTYEF.jpg)

nice concept and great mockups :)

I found a pic/gif of the rain from this game on Reddit one day and couldn't find it again. So happy I found this thread!

A first draft of an animated Subway scene (http://"http://files.lunarenigma.com/umbrella/flash/subway2.html")

And a small update of the character concept illustration. Fixed her eyes and her right pant leg.

(http://i.imgur.com/mnxBUPa.png)

Cottage Exploration 2.0

Here are a couple high-concept pieces for the cottage scene which will open up the entire story. In the beginning when you say goodbye to your Grandmother to go pick flowers in the field, the cottage is in a peaceful state. However, when you come back after a pleasant day in the fields, the cottage is in a state of absolute ruin and despair and your Grandmother is no where to be seen.

(http://i.imgur.com/DknuJ3u.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/pyajztX.png)

I really dig the environments, they are top notch.
I also like the character concepts in the first post, but the new ones seem really off. I'm by no means an anatomy expert, but there's a lot of stuff quite wrong.

I made a quick Overpaint / transform + smudge mockup, I hope thats okay:
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk293/pnyx1/umbrella_op.jpg (http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk293/pnyx1/umbrella_op.jpg)


I like the animated scenes as well, although I would probably go lighter on the brightness change that goes on all the time, I find it very distracting. Especially as there is no reason for it in the scene.

Great concept art!

wow, so nice

Holy! You have an amazing artist, I absolutely love the art. The theme is interesting too, I'm really looking forward to seeing how you do it :monoclepop:

These concepts arts are gorgeous! I want more!

OH my, this really get's me excited (although the game seems about the complete opposite) but this looks very deep and there's nothing more that get's me into a game than an extremely compelling storyline/feature.

Following this for sure!