SYNESTHESIA
Personal Work
It's a game concept design
In this game, the player takes on the role of a character who wakes up in a "factory" and finds himself trapped in a "Truman's World." The player must escape this false world and return to the real one.
During the adventure, the player will collect abilities related to the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch). These abilities will help players solve puzzles and advance the story.
As the story unfolds, the player will gradually uncover hidden truths and eventually realize that everything the protagonist has experienced is not real, that the protagonist, in reality, is still asleep, and that all of this experience was just a test. In the final moments, the protagonist will wake up from the dream, and the things that the protagonist has gained in the dream will correspond to the things that the protagonist has lost in reality
INSPRITION
Synesthesia originally referred to the interaction of the senses; some people can see colors through words or hear sounds.
My original idea came from a traveling experience, where in Kazakh people giving a child the ear of a goat means to make the child obedient. In many photographs, there are also many expressions of being controlled by covering the eyes, ears, and mouth. So, I thought of the five types of control corresponding to the five senses: obedience, blindness, covering the mouth, and false perceptions. Different senses experience different things, and these senses are interconnected. Thus, I want to do a double narrative where the player is find out that when they are gaining, they are also losing. In terms of game effects, based on the five senses, the acquisition of the five senses will choose to affect the graphics and sound effects.
The inspiration for the narrative and expression comes from games such as Inscryption , Pony Island and Raging Loop, which have narratives that focus on character interactions and emotions while making the player feel more immersed through meta-elements.
Game STORY
The game's plot will be divided into two sections: Fake Dream and Real Dream.
It all takes place in a world like <THE GIVEN>. The leaders set society to be the most efficient and low consumption [utopia]. Artificial Intelligence is used to keep such a system running, initially set up to survive a resource crisis. Still, after the crisis, when the original generation of rule makers is gone, the AI continues running such a system of rules that no one can change. To detect any anomalies or potential rule-breakers in society, the AI "Eye" sets up a virtual dream world and drags the player into this test.
As such, the game will be played twice; The first time, the player will enter a fake dream world set up by "EYE," and the player will need to escape from the fake dream world, gain the five senses, and gather information along the way to move on to the second round of the game, which is the real dream world.
In the real dream world, the player will use an alternative vision to see the entire story of the virtual dream world and things related to the outside world.
Each Dream Have five chapter, the scene draft below show the The first three chapters of the story
ideas & mechanical
In the game, gamer mainly will role-play as the main charactor and follow their sight to the the whole story. In the game, player could make the important conversation choice during each chapter, and use the spefic ability gained by the choice to see the hidden information in the game scene.
Each of the five senses the player gains will correspond to some change in the game's graphics, with the eyes corresponding to the colors and the ears to the background music. And the remaining nose and mouth will conform to some changes in the description of the scene. The last sense of touch only determines the final ending.
Meanwhile, after acquiring the five senses, players can freely adjust their state of image also the background music to get some hidden information, which will affect the options in the subsequent plot.
In games, the most common use would be the ability of the eye to change the base color of certain objects in the game, or reverse the color of the game screen to see if there is a hidden message.
Character design
protagonist
The protagonist, whose real name is Oxygen (the player can choose their own name), is codenamed Moon in the game, and in her dreams, she is a member of an orphanage and is good friends with Star, an employee.
In reality, she is one of eye's research and development staff, and her experiences are used by eye to create the dream world, so when the player enters the game it is also from moon's point of view.
moon's gender is not explicit, and in this world everyone's gender tends to be more gender-neutral in order to work more efficiently.
As the story progresses and the collection of the five senses progresses, Moon's appearance will gradually change into that of a sheep, suggesting that the world is not normal.
npc
The NPCs are star, manager, and assistant who are trapped in a virtual dream world with the player, and 4 guides controlled by “eye”, sun, elder, sister, and eye's spirit form.
At the very beginning Moon and Star will escape from the orphanage together, they will come to the forest with the help of an old man, and the sprite in the guise of eye will guide moon and star to save sun. they will meet sister at the church, and finally re-meet manager and assistant at the tower that leads to the ground.
In the game, star and sun are the ones who run away with moon, while manager and assistant can only be companions in the second round.
Also, their image changes when the protagonist gains the five senses
The game is divided into two large sections, which we'll call First Round and Second Round, represent the Fake Dream and Real Dream. Each round is divided into five smaller chapters, each of which has the corresponding five senses.Of the senses, only the eyes, ears, and touch are real or fake, and real eyes can only be acquired in the second round. Different options lead to different endings. The second round can only be opened after completing the special ending in the first round.
Game Flow
There are a total of 30 endings in the story, 26 of which are normal ends and 2 final ends (divided into true and fake), in addition to which there are two special ends, an option to give up all the senses in the first round, and a hidden ending that opens up after all of the first 29 endings have been reached.
Game Interface
and Scene Differentials
Concept Video
Music production
I'm more accustomed to arranging music in the score. The background music in the concept video was done by me using Muse Score. I envisioned the initial BGM in a music box feel, which could give the atmosphere an ethereal feel. The main instruments I used were Glockenspiel, xylophone, and vibraphone. The Glockenspiel and xylophone are used for the main melody, while the vibraphone and vocals are used to enhance the beat (similar to the presence of drums) and to control the atmosphere of the music
