visual structure final

This is a simulated gameplay animation of a game based on the book A Wrinkle In Time.

This is the written pitch explaining the concept behind it:

I envision Wrinkle in Time as a psychedelic minimalist game in which the player must use their intuition and skill to "tesser" their way through the story using the movement of strings, initially from a point of darkness and echoes that progresses into figurative forms and mathematical spaces until it reaches an ever sharpening fidelity of an extraterrestrial environment based around micro and macroscopic natural textures.

BASIC GAMEPLAY CONCEPT
I plan on making an animation that would depict a semi-play through of the game. The game would rely on gesture controls, for example the player would move their hands through the air to direct their cursor and use their intuition to find a point, which they would then reach out towards the screen. These points are somewhat subtle and hidden, making them a little difficult to find. The environment will begin in the dark void where the protagonist can't move very much, can see even less, but can still hear the faint echoes of her baby brother, CHARLES WALLACE and her new friend, CALVIN. The player will be guided by sound alone to find the place to reach out to, however, the success rate of this first non-visual level will substantially increased. The remainder of the levels will require the player to spot visual cues and reach for them. When one is found the player's cursor and the visual cue hereafter referred to as a "goal point" will be visually tied to a string that interacts dynamically with the player, connecting their hand to the goal point they recently found. The string is elastic but only to the degree the level requires (playtest). The player then has to use the length and elasticity of the string to search for another goal point without breaking the string from overstretching or becoming cut. When two goal points are connected, they will be drawn towards each other, like a tape measure rolling up. The player can then give little shoves to the points as they move around in space, trying to get them to pull into each other without their speeds pulling them apart. It will take skill for the player to guide the directions of these points while simultaneously managing their speeds and keeping their string intact. When a successful connection is made, a clearer ambient echo back in some vague sound will occur as if the player were calling back to the lost friends and family. Every connection will be accompanied by a slowly transforming environment and an ever more clear, loud, and present call back.

The player will be depicted by a haunting monochromatic figure of a young girl, but as the player completes more and more levels getting closer and closer to her friends and family, the camera zooms in gradually over the player's progress, nearing the back of their avatar's head until it locks in position at first person view. It is at this point shapes of moving figures become perceptible and recognized as speaking to the player directly. The natural environment around them is still unclear (think kaleidoscope). The goal points then become letters and the game goal becomes using the mechanic to form simple words like "me" and "you." Then as faces begin to be recognized, the goal points will become words connected to form sentences, like "Where am i?" and "Are you here?"

After this stage of the game, the options to string things together will become much more limited as the player then strings sets of scripted sentences together, moving up the linguistic chain of order, until the alien world becomes crystal clear and the game transitions seamlessly into a subtitled cut scene.

PLOT DEPICTION OF GAME MECHANIC
Throughout the book, the plot offers different opportunities to reuse this mechanic in novel ways. On the visit to Uriel, the connection mechanic might then be used to form and lock constellations in the sky to activate the next tesseract to the medium's ice world. It could be used again to search out the terrible truths of the situation in her crystal ball. It could be used against IT to push CHARLES WALLACE out of his trance as a competing AI. Then again to speed time in the right direction to enable her father to tesser them out of Camazotz and into awakening on Ixchel. FURTHER then to find the right word to describe the Ms. W's, and finally back to Camazotz in a frantic race to shout "I love you." To rescue the mind of MARGARET's little brother.

*some graphic elements are copyrighted by andy gilmore http://crowquills.com/

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• FINAL
• audio