Ama's Lullaby (demo) - Sci-fi adventure game with hacking

Hi there!

Many years ago I posted on Tig Source forums about Ama's Lullaby, a game I'm still working on at the moment, as an indie developer. It was about the release of the first prototype, used to demonstrate the features of the game for a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. It worked quite well, but the funds collected were clearly not enough for a game of this scale. Seven years later (last month...), a first demo was released!

So, what is this game about? Let me show you!
In a hurry? Here is the demo link Wink

Game Jolt or Itch.io

Ama's Lullaby is a point-and-click (& type) adventure game in the style of Westwood Studios' Blade Runner (1997, PC), set in a space colony, and featuring a command-line based hacking system.
It focuses mainly on high-quality visual atmospheres and soundscapes, dialogues and interactions between characters, as well as on replayability: every new game session should offer a different experience.

Following an outer space expedition led by an artificial intelligence, you're in the shoes of Ama, a high potential teenager who loves technology. Ama has been appointed by the AI as the mission ambassador. But when she finds out the actual reason of her presence in this colony, and notices the strange behavior of its inhabitants, her world suddenly falls apart.
By using Ama's laptop command-line based system, you will infiltrate the network set up by the AI, in the search for the truth. But should all your discoveries be made public? Every choice will have consequences, and Ama will quickly become an easy prey for her opponents...

Platforms
PC, Mac, Linux

Languages
English, French

Point-and-click in a pre-computed & realtime 3D environment

For most of your actions (moves, dialogues, inventories, fights...), you’ll be using the mouse, just like in all point-and-click games. You’ll need the keyboard, however, to open menus: the idea is to reduce the user interface to a minimum so that the screen remains free for a movie-like experience. The use of pre-computed 3D for the game environment enables to shorten massively the time necessary to create the graphics as well as to increase the amount of details without reducing the game performances. This also makes it possible to work more freely with lights and textures in a movie-like style, without depending too much on the game engine. However, the environment will also be lit in realtime and will react appropriately to your actions and to collisions.

Hacking

Ama's main weapon is her laptop. Created by machines, the colony is ruled by numerous networks, either independant or connected to each other. By logging in to these networks, Ama will have access to almost every resources. For this purpose, you will have to enter simplified command lines with the help of the visual monitoring. You may launch programs, connect to protected networks by forcing their firewalls, copy or delete files.

But you’ll have to act on a strategy: when they notice that someone is trying to hack them, the opponent networks will react! They’ll attempt to track Ama's position to stop her, or to corrupt her own system by every possible means.

In addition, you’ll have the possibility to personalize Ama's laptop components to improve its performances: for instance, changing the cooling system of the computer enables the use of overclocking to increase program execution speed.

There is still a lot of content to be produced (3D & dialogues), but most of the game's functionalities have already been implemented (tech & graphics pipeline, gameplay, saving system, localization, UI, game mechanics...). In the end, despite a total development time that may become a part of video game history (!), the project has the merit of not being subject to any outside pressure. The number one priority is still to deliver the best quality possible, as promised at the outset.

So, if you want to give the demo a try, check it out on Game Jolt or Itch.io!

Any feedback will be welcome, thank you!

Marc