Still Waters

I participated in Global Game Jam 2013 with Ruud van Boerdonk (Creator of the award winning Resonance game during the GGJ of 2010). Forming a great team with Geert Nellen, Thijmen Bink (both founders of Digital Dreams game studio), Thomas Kalksma (Sound artist of the no.1 game during the same jam) and Sander Doomen (Digital Dreams intern). I was picked for my skill in 3D animation.

Warning: this video contains bad language!

We had a great time freezing in the far corner of the HKU Hilversum. We made it halfway before concluding that our game lacked.. well gameplay. Where we had made a first-person simulation of drowning (while bleeding) in a shark infested spot at open sea, we had not thougt about how not-panicking was fun. There was a game mechanic where moving a lot would bleed you to death, but not acting was a boring way to win the game. Feeling defeated, most of us went to sleep. I myself recreated the concept to add a fun element.

Where the game was initially designend to have the player keep calm while sharks where about, we found out that not-acting came very naturally to the player. This, however, was quite boring. Therefore I created a mechanic where sharks only came closer while you didn’t see them. Simultaniously, the breathing mechanic said that you would bleed faster while looking underwater. The more you bled, the faster the sharks approached while you where above water to catch your breath. Catching your breatch required for the player to slowly tap the triggers on the controller.

This mechanic would create the tention we were aiming for. The player had to act calm while knowing that sharks were approaching. This forced attempt to stay calm and the delicate timing between catching your breath and holing it would create the tense experience we associated with the heartbeat theme. A very solid concept. Sadly, the game was never finished due to too little remaining time.

I created the rigs and animations as can be seen in the video above in 3DSmax 2011.

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