Relativity: An Empathy Game
Relativity was created in under three weeks with a team of five people for a Game Development I class project. Our prompt was to create a game about empathy, or rather to make our players feel Empathetic. The biggest feeling that our team decided we wanted to instill was the feeling of being lost, and disorientated, both physically and mentally (and as such the whole is game takes place inside the mind of our main character). Wth this in mind, we drew inspiration from the mind bending works of the artist MC Escher, particularly his portrait: Relativity. I even want so far as to build a accurate re-imagining of the Relativity portrait to serve as the large final level to our game. The main mechanic of the game is traversing through these gravity defying levels. When you enter through a doorway, you will come out another one located somewhere else in the level where the gravity is inverted or transformed. We used this core mechanic to deliver on our initial goal of disorienting the player and forcing them to try their best to regain their bearings and navigate to the end of the level. To somewhat help our players we also through in some bread crumbs on the "correct" path as well as created an NPC that you were "chasing" who would randomly appear in the level running along the right path.
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