This thesis project is the result of a joint effort by the following graduates:
Eleni Zakynthinou (Artist)
Sarah Marcussen (Artist)
Sofie Kjær Schmidt (Artist & Unity Developer)
#Inferno : Project Description
A teaser for a witty and contemplative story-driven puzzle game addressing the classic tales of sins and human pitfalls in a contemporary context, where social media trends, internet culture, and advanced AI technologies make it difficult to decipher right from wrong. Real from fake. Even for those who are divine.
Loosely inspired by the epic divine comedy piece Dante´s Inferno written by the Italian author Dante Alighieri in the 14th centruy, the goal of this project was to explore how an existing story world can be re-imagined in a contemporary context, in the form of a digital game. With a focus on visual design and visual embedment of narratives, the project offers a witty take on the classic by diving into aforementioned contemporary themes about social media culture in an ancient setting of Hell.
As for now, the game offers the player a brief explorative journey through the sins of an oblivious influencer; who 'wakes up' in Hell to face the true grim side of the impacts of her actions in life. With a simple flow of mechanical puzzles, the goal is to shine light upon the truth to progress.
In the future, we would like to re-assess the form and format of the game project in its totality. We want to flesh out the story world even further and study how we can harness the great potential that we believe the story idea holds for making a fun and interesting narrative gameplay experience.
Level 1: "The Guru's Greed"
While we shared the responsibility of settling the overall direction for the gameplay, art style, and story world of the project, we split the production of levels between us.
I was in charge of level 1 "The Guru's Greed".
In brief, the level addresses scam companies’ and influencers’ desire to make money at the expense of others’ wellbeing, by selling life-style products to consumers with the promise of their vitality boosting properties. The goal is to make a fortune, no matter the cost. The level thus tackles the issue of being blinded to see the truth because of one’s desire for goods.
