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[matwek]

I've been using my free time to try and produce a handful of mini mobile projects over the course of several months. The first of which can be found here...
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57614.0

But as this second project has reached the point of looking for feedback, I thought I would post it up here.

The Game
Waking up in a long abandonded world the player takes on the roll of a souless computer AI trapped in the body of a simple robot.
Using basic choices and branching paths the player explores the world and learns a little about their surroundings. At the end of each adventure, depending on your actions, the AI will experience an event that causes them to 'learn' a human emotion... Sadness, Joy, anger etc...

But the end of the adventure will also trigger the return of the AI back to the start of the game, and place them in a new robot body.
Players then experience the same world and same locations for a second time, but this time through the eyes of someone(/thing) who is experiencing a new emotion for the first time.

During each playthrough the player will gain and loose various different emotions, each creating different combinations, which lead to different story experiences.
The game essentially never ends, instead the player has to decide when they have experienced an ending that they're happy with and decide to end the game by not restarting.

Each playthrough should only take about 5-10 minutes, but with 11 emotional combinations and 3 endings each, thats potentially 33 ways to play.

The Art
I work with a programmer and a writer (who will hopefully post here as well), but I designed the game and created the pixel art... With some help from you guys here in the Tigsource Pixel Art Topics (JW5K especially).

Here are some of the locations we have in the game...

The demo is finally ready.
There is a feedback form attached to the demo, but feel free to comment here if you have anything specific you want to mention.

With so many choice combinations it can be tricky to track all the bugs, so it would be a great help if people could point out anything we've missed.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/12dbviom2d6g7yy/Electric%20Sleep%20Demo%20Build%205142017.zip?dl=0

[lobstersteve]

oh, i saw your mockups here, cool to see that you are making something out of them
curious to see more

[maxl]

I have seen (and liked) your tilesets on twitter a few times! Can't wait to experience them in a game. 

[skaz]

I really like the pixel art. I'm also very interested in the game premise, will follow with attention!

[Skeledork]

Really nice, I've seem some great effort pushed into this

[HoffmanIV]

Really vivid colors and great detail in the shots you've posted so far ... I love it when text adventures have as much effort put into the graphics as the story! I really look forward to seeing how this goes.

[Frogs_Milk]

Dig the premise. Would the aesthetics of the world shift according to the last emotion "learned?"

[bacon]

Really dig the art! I do think they look a little too similar though - maybe slightly shift the palette in each?

[matwek]

Thanks for the encouraging comments.
The game takes place in a relatively small area, so I guess some of the locations have turned out a bit similar.
The plan was to release this game with a quick turn around and then use what we learnt to make something along the same lines but more ambitious. This game will have 20 locations in total but I would love to do much more variety for a spiritual sequal

[andyfromiowa]

Beautiful pixel art.  Also, intriguing concept overall.  Please keep up the good work. 

[TonyManfredonia]

Very unique concept.

11 emotional combinations, I think, is what's intriguing me most! Keep up the awesome work. Definitely very beautiful from an artistic standpoint, as well!

[matwek]

Very unique concept.

11 emotional combinations, I think, is what's intriguing me most! Keep up the awesome work. Definitely very beautiful from an artistic standpoint, as well!

The standard emotions you can acquire are...
- Neutral
- Fear
- Anger
- Joy
- Sadness

but they can be combined to create different experiences...
- Fear/Anger
- Fear/Joy
- Fear/Sadness
- Anger/Joy
- Anger/Sadness
- Joy/Sadness

I wanted to add more but with each new emotion you also have to cover every new combination, so adding one extra emotion would lead to having to write out at least 5 new playthroughs/stories.

oh and I also received your email. I'll reply to you later in the week if thats ok.

[pturecki]

Nice pixelart so far. Idea for a game is very cool, but it could be hard to implement it well. So, fingers crossed I'm looking forward to see how new emotions will influence the gameplay.

[TonyManfredonia]

Very unique concept.

11 emotional combinations, I think, is what's intriguing me most! Keep up the awesome work. Definitely very beautiful from an artistic standpoint, as well!

The standard emotions you can acquire are...
- Neutral
- Fear
- Anger
- Joy
- Sadness

but they can be combined to create different experiences...
- Fear/Anger
- Fear/Joy
- Fear/Sadness
- Anger/Joy
- Anger/Sadness
- Joy/Sadness

I wanted to add more but with each new emotion you also have to cover every new combination, so adding one extra emotion would lead to having to write out at least 5 new playthroughs/stories.

oh and I also received your email. I'll reply to you later in the week if thats ok.

Aah, I see!  Very cool, indeed. It's always awesome to hear some gameplay insight.

Also, no problem in replying later this week . I'll await to chat with you then!

[matwek]

Mockup of our full layout. We may add more as we go but this is a good base for the scope of the game...

[wurthers]

I love the art and the whole concept behind the game! Can't wait to see some of the writing and how you handle the branching paths.

Will the different locations in the game correspond to specific choices by the player to take on the various emotions? Your locations appear to be platform-based. Do you plan on having that feature in your gameplay or will it be more guided/directional based on the text-choices the player takes?

[SolS]

Beautiful art! Following

[Beyond]

Nice art

[maruki]

I saw this on twitter and I thought those were simple environment mockups, I didn't think they were going to become an actual game. Super cool, I'm going to follow this here as well.

[matwek]

Thanks for the appreciation guys, hopefully we'll have some of the text to share soon. Although don't want to give anything away.
The branching paths is going to be a very simple affair to begin with. This game is largely being used to test to waters for something a little larger.

Everything is being kept to bare minimum to maximise the chance of getting a finished game out quickly. Basically we're aiming for the exact opposite of feature creep.

Will the different locations in the game correspond to specific choices by the player to take on the various emotions? Your locations appear to be platform-based. Do you plan on having that feature in your gameplay or will it be more guided/directional based on the text-choices the player takes?

Most paths will be a simple 50/50 choice with a clear direction, but the paths do criss-cross and overlap each other as you move through the layout. So its more like a spiders web for routes than a branching path system.

You will be able to visit any of the locations regardless of 'emotion', but you may have to take a different route to get there.

The images are intended to be purely cosmetic, more like a picture in a book than a playable area, but we're considering adding a bit of animation and maybe the option to pick paths by physically moving a character.