Where do you feel at home?

Here are some concepts. They help me to fix ideas. I came across an older entry in my sketch book. It said: "feel at home." 

This made me remember, what I'd been thinking about, when I wrote it down. Whenever I thoroughly enjoyed playing a game, it (the game) was capable of really making me feel at home. I don't know how else to describe it. It just felt right to be in that game world at that time. To give an example of this feeling: Zelda, Link to the Past. Also Monkey Island 1 and 2. 

I am trying to achieve this "home-effect" with my game. So, I am wondering what the secret ingredients are, to generate the home-effect. I guess it's a mix of graphics and atmosphere and the fact that the game-world is for one part familiar and cozy and for the other part new and strange. Any other ingredients out there? I would be interested in hearing your ideas.

Also, what are your home-games?

Secret Message

Erik Svedäng posted a secret entry in his blog:

It made me want to post a secret message too.. 

Who knows what it means? 

Where is my Poster?

Here's a poster design of Where-Is-My-Heart-Game. If you have a huge printer, or you own a standard printer and you're willing to use tape and scissors, you can pin this 3 x 2 foot poster to your wall. For the large dimension version (pdf format) be sure to follow the text link. The thumbnail image only points to a small png-version.

I did it, tape-and-scissors-style..

Other IndieCade 2008 entries

I was looking around the web in search of my IndieCade competitors, and found cool stuff..

Here is a platform game called "You Have to Burn the Rope". It's about burning ropes and letting a huge candelabrum fall on a huge boss monster. Cool stuff! 

Another entry to IndieCade is ColorDots. This game is about order and chaos and being fast about cleaning up, which is an activity I usually try to dodge. But this game actually makes cleaning up a fun thing.

The game Errantry might also be an IndieCade entry. I haven't figured that out yet..

Back to searching for more competitors now..

Artistic Statement

Interested in the ideas behind Where-Is-My-Heart-game?

For the IndieCade release I wrote a few words about what my goals and intentions are, with this game. It all started with a hike in the woods..

The Relativity of Reality

I was studying the effects of different colors. With this color choice I got pretty close to a "swamp world" feeling. (Also it reminds me of the classic GameBoy colors a little.) 

I am playing a lot with color effects lately. As an example, when Gray is picked by the player, colors could drift to a specific configuration. With this visual feedback the player gets to see, how Gray views his surroundings. This is maybe one way to convey his biased outlook on reality.

Comic Panel Effect

Already played the demo? If you have difficulties, making heads or tails of the comic panel effect, then this older blog entry might help you understand.

In future versions these panels will actually have effect on the game-play. For the IndieCade release I'm afraid I didn't have enough time to add any of this in a convincing way.