AdventureX 2017 round-up: Part 1

Selling Sunlight

Your world no longer rotates, and this has had devastating consequences. One half of the planet is in eternal darkness, whilst the other is scorched by blistering sunlight. In the narrow strip between these two states, life struggles to go on. Given the strange nature of this world, the cult of sun worship has become a powerful force. You have transgressed against this religion, and face punishment as a result. Your name and face have been taken, a feat achieved by affixing a magic mask that covers most of your face. Should you try to tell others of your past, the mask burns you. Yet you are also a merchant, a trusted trader between towns. Will you be able to get people to see past the mask and work to restore your life?

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Developers CoseBelle describe Selling Sunlight as a narrative role-playing game, but there is no fighting to gain experience points. Instead, your actions and words serve to shape your character. The graphics feature a soft hand-drawn style, depicting a world which appears to have Arabian influences. The main character is robed, with the spiky mask covering most of their face. To make it clear who has punished you, a symbol representing the sun forms the centrepiece of the mask, situated right over the character’s eyes. Others have more traditional fantasy appearances, such as a bard friend who invites you to a nearby festival.

Control of the game is done entirely through the keyboard. The demo started with me returning to the guild house, finding my friend there. The first stage of character-building took place there. It is possible to respond to dialogue in either a friendly or gloomy fashion, with multiple responses available for each. I took the friendly approach, eager to see my friend and join him on his journey. This took us to nearby Green Hamlet, where a major festival was to take place soon. Here a second feature, the bartering sub-game, came out. You can either accept a merchant’s price, or seek to drive them down. Again, friendly and gloomy approaches are possible, but different merchants are more open to different types, requiring experimentation to find out what works. The demo also set up the story well, with some fascinated by the mask and others wary of what it meant.

Selling Sunlight isn’t set to rise until sometime in 2019. In the meantime, more information can be found on the game’s website.

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Elemental Flow

A woman that just wanted to grab a morning drink at her local coffee shop finds herself transported to a strange world. This place is populated by spirits representing each of the classic elements: Fire, Air, Earth and Water. With their very different approaches to life, the four groups have come into conflict and trouble is breaking out everywhere. With her unique perspective, perhaps this new arrival can resolve the problems and find her way home.

Having taken a new approach to dialogue mechanics last year, Tea-Powered Games have introduced a new innovation this year for Elemental Flow. The environments are 3D in overall appearance, though the objects within them appear to be flat panels facing the screen. This fits in with the otherworldly setting, as does the light but semi-realistic art style. The character close-ups you get in conversations are more like watercolours, with the spirit characters appearing faceless. The music backing up the demo was largely percussion-based, though with a smattering of piano.

The mechanic introduced in this game is simple in concept, but proved surprisingly difficult to master. Using a console controller, I moved around and initiated conversations with other characters, during which the four action buttons each represented one of the four different elements. These had a unique effect on your approach to the conversation, be it forceful talking or sympathetic listening. The goal in each conversation is to fill a bar showing you have reached “understanding” with the other participant. At first, simply holding down the “Fire” button achieved this goal for me, but later conversations needed a variety of elements, as wearing yourself or your counterpart out ends the conversation without consensus. With spirits of different elements reacting differently to the elements you apply, a surprisingly complex system soon arose from a simple concept.

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With a release date still be determined, more information about Elemental Flow can be found on the developer’s website.

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Bury me, my Love

In Syria, a country riven by conflict, a young couple is torn apart by the ongoing unrest. When a bombing attack kills her sister, Nour decides she has to leave the country at all costs. Her husband Majd is unable to leave, but is willing to see his precious wife safely to a new home. Thus begins the story of a long and dangerous journey, with the loving couple only held together by the thin thread of a communication app.

Bury me, my Love is the result of a collaboration between developer The Pixel Hunt, digital design studio FIgs and television station Arte. The inspiration was a true story, reported by the French newspaper Le Monde, of a couple separated in a similar way, maintaining contact through mobile devices. The title is from an Arabic expression meaning “Take care,” as in “Do not die before I do.” The presentation is similar in appearance to the WhatsApp messaging system, with you, playing as Majd, receiving messages from your wife. These are mostly text in nature, but can include pictures such as selfies showing how she feels about your last message. These are presented in a line-drawn art style, with the colours mostly reflecting the dry, arid nature of much of the Syrian countryside.

Interaction is performed by selecting from a list of possible responses to messages received from Nour. In the section I played, a taxi that had promised to take her onwards suddenly upped its price dramatically. Ways of keeping the price down or finding alternative means of continuing the journey were discussed. An element of danger also crept in, as armed men arrived at the bus station she was in and started checking people’s papers. The conversations between husband and wife are naturally written, and convey the story and atmosphere well. For the convention, the game was running in fast mode, meaning that dialogue was continuous. In normal play, there will be a suitable delay between messages when Nour is travelling or otherwise occupied.

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Bury me, my Love is already available for iOS and Android devices. More information, including a browser-based playable prologue, can be found on the game’s website.

Girth Loinhammer’s Most Exponential Adventure

Things have not been going well for Dungeon Lord Girth Loinhammer of late. He filled his subterranean domain with dangerous traps and a variety of monsters, as was expected of him. However, something appears to have gone wrong with his advertising. The “Knights” and “Princesses” arriving appear to be expecting a wholly different sort of dungeon. With despair looming, the time has come to make a decision. Will he stay moping at home, or will he head out into the world seeking adventure? Little does he know what varied tales these two simple choices will lead to.

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