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[seanographies]

A Divinity Simulator in First Person

You seduced me, God, and I let myself be seduced.

Story

A strange visitor intrudes the life of a family.

• I am making a game based upon a film called Teorema from 1968.
  
• See trailer:
  
  

• Meet the family:

Gameplay

Infatuate family members to fulfill their desires and reach divinity.

• Each family member has a unique desire with their own gameplay mechanic
• The player must correctly fulfill these desires to satisfy the family member
• Eg. Father desires to be nursed/cared for, so the player can achieve this through feeding him fruits to his satisfaction
• I've tried my best to not make this game a walking simulator and instead have interesting and unique gameplay mechanics
• The game takes place in and around their family home (backyard, pool, garden, farm area, gazebo/walking path area)
• During gameplay, family members will be around and inside their home conducting activities and going about their lives as normal - through implementing a timetable with a range of activities that can be conducted by the family members based on the hour
• Accordingly, there will be a day/night cycle with specific activities for each time - including a mechanic to speed up time as well

Aims

This will be my first 3D project and I hope to make a first person game that enables players to experience a mystery driven by the characters within the game that aligns with the game's story and setting. I chose to make a game based upon Teorema because the story and themes of the film resonate with my approach to game design.

I believe in the potential for games to be cohesive in the stories they tell with the mechanics the player interacts with to experience and enact change to the game world they are in. Furthermore, I believe that this can be achieved through simplifying mechanics and instead amplifying the changes they make to the game world and the characters within it, to create a sense of ambiguity that falls between linear and open gameplay. It's difficult to explain but hopefully the final product will achieve this XD


Technique

I will be using Unity to develop this game. I have already decided on an art style that is slightly grained with other post-processing effects implemented in Unity to make the game look vibrant. Also, I will be using the DOOM style of directional 2D sprites in a 3D game world, as I have most experience in 2D than 3D, but will be modelling infrastructure like the home and walls etc. with 3D assets through Blender.


Devlog

I've been a long time follower of devlogs on the forum especially those by Lucas Pope and this has inspired me to start one as well.

I have started this Devlog with the game about 70% done because I have freed up time to put effort into creating and maintaining a devlog with features I can already speak about and most importantly show because I am currently in the process of refining them.

I believe devlogs are not only a way to share my game and its development with the community but, it's also a way to articulate the game I am creating and to put my thoughts out there and create discussion with others to help ease the apprehension of developing games in obscurity. Feel free to leave your thoughts  as I get this devlog underway and I hope to share more of my game and discuss it with you all.

Gameplay Screenshots

[YogX]

Looks creepy

[seanographies]

Gameplay

I am currently in the process of refining the main gameplay mechanic of infatuation.

Infatuation

To help the family members satisfy their desires, the player must first infatuate them. This can be achieved through spending time with the family member, which increases their interest in the player until they reach a point of trust, then the player can begin their unique desire activity.

When the family member is infatuated to a certain extent, they will start to display their feelings towards the player.


Dad holding on to the player

Each family member has a unique way to show they are increasingly infatuated with the player. These visual cues will also aid the player to determine the extent they have infatuated a family member as well.


Mum wants the player to hold her hands

Staring

Another way for the player to determine which family members they have infatuated and to what extent is through the staring mechanic.

By clicking the Left Mouse Button, the player will face the most infatuated family member, and UI will display their progress with infatuating that family member and others.


Left Mouse Button is pressed and the player faces mum (the most infatuated family member), UI shows progress of the family members the player is infatuating which is represented by their faces and fills according to the extent they are infatuated.

Once a family member is fully infatuated by the player, they will guide the player to fulfil their desires...

[seanographies]

Gameplay

Once a family member has been infatuated by the player, they will reveal their desires to the player to fulfil.

Desires

The family member will firstly guide the player to a location to engage in the activity, as indicated by the direction they are pointing.


Mother is directing the player into the bedroom


Sister plays hide and seek with the player

Each family member's desires are unique, and have their own gameplay mechanics for the player to solve and satisfy the family member. I've tried my best to simplify these mechanics to make it feel intuitive and reduce the amount of prompts the game has to give the player to successfully conduct these activities, and encourage the player to recall previous desire activities for the family member to assist them with completing the current desire activity.


Brother wants the player to paint him

Once the player has successfully completed the activity, the family member's desires are fulfilled and they achieve a higher state of being that will lead to further desires for the player to assist them with satisfying until they reach the pinnacle of their desires.

[seanographies]

Features

The game will feature a Day Night cycle that sets its own internal game time. Additionally, as the family members go about their lives within the household, they will engage in various activities based upon this in-game time, which the player can interpret through the direction of the sun and moon. Furthermore, there will be a mechanic to speed up time, to allow players to engage with the family members in different settings and to make the game more interesting.

Day and Night

Essentially, I have created a timetable populated with activities that the family members will engage in throughout the day. On the basic level, activites are grouped according to a time slot and selected at random, but as the game progresses and the family members start to become infatuated with the player, their moods will change and this will be reflected in the activities they engage in.


Night time, the moon glows purple

The 2D sprites withn the game will be affected by shadows during night time as well.


In the garden at night


The backyard at night

Activities

There are a multitude of activities which are aimed at keeping the player engaged with the game, as well as realistic enough to establish a routine in the lives of this family.


Family at the dining table


Rooftop


In the study room


Sister at the mirror

Divinity Mode

Time flows when the player wants for it.


Time speeds up when divinity mode is enagaged.

[seanographies]

Visual Style

I have chose to use the DOOM style of rendering objects in 3D with 2D sprites for the family members and items that do not require much detail. I find this technique to be time saving, as I am still learning the basics of Blender which I am using to create the 3D objects for the game.

Sprites

To create the illusion of objects composed of 2D sprites look 3D, the object must rotate its sprite renderer to always face the player (aka Look At function in Unity).

The method I have used to achieved this in Unity is as such:

• The character game object determines which side of its body the player is looking at (Front, Right Side, Back, Left Side)
• The sprite render selects and displays the appropriate sprite based on the above
• A child game object of the character game object contains the above mentioned sprite renderer and is constantly facing the player

As a result the following is achieved:

2D directional sprites while the character is standing

The most important thing is that the direction that the character faces is preserved, so that the character's sprites which are always looking at the player matches the orientation that the character is in while moving.

The same has been achieved for when characters are sitting (Although their sprites do not rotate to always face the player, as it looked a bit weird when I was playtesting it):
http://i.imgur.com/r7FagRW.gifv

Update

I have spent a lot of time reviewing the premise of the game and it's story, to keep the game on track and to critically evaluate if I have successfully conveyed this through the gameplay and mechanics. I'm about 80% finished, but now is the time to slow down on development and begin to conduct a lot more rigorous playtesting, as well as to record these playthroughs to create an archive of footage that I can use for when I make trailers for the game.

Slow Down

It's important to slow down and reflect when developing games, especially as a single game developer creating the entire game, sometimes the mind becomes too task oriented and is constantly finding features to add, things to implement, code to optimize etc. and it is very easy to be stuck in this cycle. Therefore, taking time to keep a notebook to collate ideas and articulate them will help in keeping on track, critically evaluating the game, and provide the time and medium to reflect on what you are doing and ultimately, create a game that is not only comprehensive but is focused to the extent that it can be reduced to a single premise or a few principles.

[seanographies]

Storytelling

Its been awhile... but the game is about 95% done.

I have spent the majority of the time since the last post living in a pandemic.

Also, I have completed all of the gameplay and levels. The game essentially tells a story in two ways:

• Implicitly through exploring the household and the activities of the family members
• Explicitly by taking part in the desires of the family members

The problem is that most players may miss the link between the first two modes of storytelling, and this is why I have included a third

• Interrupting the gameplay to play a scene

By disabling a gameplay mechanic for one of the characters, in the same way that a cut scene does so, it forces the player to observe and understand what is going on. Also, alike cut scenes by doing this it slows the game down a bit, and allows the player to 'digest' what is going on. However, unlike a cut scene, not all gameplay is disabled, the player can go on completing the game but with the other family members. Therefore, having just gameplay scenes rather than cut scenes not only serves as a way to tell the story but slow the game down, allowing the player to either continue with the game or take time out to observe and understand.

Guests
The way I have implemented this in the game is through having guests which visit a family member at certain times of the day. Each will have their own special activities that they will engage in with the respective family member for a certain duration, after which the gameplay mechanic for the character re-enables.

A young man arrives in a car


Young man walks in


The girls have come to play

[Sp1ke]

It is interesting. I like graphics. It looks like bad trip on acid or something   

[seanographies]

It is interesting. I like graphics. It looks like bad trip on acid or something   

cheers, hopefully it ends up being a good trip

[seanographies]

Devlog Videos

I have recently been uploading short gameplay clips on youtube, which I had originally made for screenshots and GIFS for the posts on this forum. I have been thinking a lot lately of how to increase my reach and share my progress with the game more widely.

I think short gameplay clips would be a good idea to show how the game actually plays besides just text and images/GIFs.

Although, I wonder if it would be worthwhile for me to add some commentary over these short devlog videos, possibly like how Tom Francis does. I guess it all depends on if I get any views on my videos at all... if anyone has any experience with this I would like to know how helpful it is to make commentary devlog videos explaining your creative process etc.

Here are all the videos I have made so far:








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxV9sukKzVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PU8-MsRV_A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4uOKF2-0nQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oor5FXwqMGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYKzLeHkrrU

[seanographies]

Teaser Trailer. Planning to release the game in the new year.

[seanographies]

Had a lot of fun making this trailer. Got a voice actor from Fiverr to make it a bit more professional. Hope you like it!

[Alain]

Hey there, Divinity is an interesting game it seems! It brings back memories playing Façade for game studies classes

[seanographies]

And we're off!!

DIVINITY is coming out in November on Steam & Itch.io.

Wishlist it now on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2158820/DIVINITY/