Somber Situation
A downloadable Prototype for Windows
Introduction
Game Summary Pitch
Somber Situation is a top-down, 2D puzzle game where you play as “Xel”, a pixel who manages the inner workings of a phone.
Gameplay Overview
you play as “Xel”, a pixel working to maintain the phone he lives in. The player can use the different colors of Xel’s body to change flowers to either make the environment look nice or use as markers for navigation. The more information you gather, the more you, and Xel are able to navigate the terrain quickly to accomplish your goal.
r/Place 
r/Place is a reddit page, that held an event on April 1st of 2017, where every user of the page could place a single pixel on a canvas. Users collaborated over the length of the event to create pictures and community logos. On April 1st of 2022 r/Place returned with an even bigger community behind it. Along with that community, was those trying to create “The Void”, which attempted to take over the entire canvas and overtake other users’ creations.
YouTube Dark Mode
Dark Mode and Light Mode are different UI schemes catered to inverse contrasts of each other. Some people preferring dark mode, and some never venturing into their settings to change light mode. Light Mode has itself become a meme, and created a hilarious divide between the two user types. My first experience with Dark Mode was in the YouTube app.
Player Experience
In a small explorable world, the player will control Xel, and talk to the different emojis that live in the phone, as you try to deal with the crisis presented to you. The player must use knowledge they’ve gathered to navigate the environment in order to solve the problems Xel is tasked to fix.
Platform
- The game is developed for windows PC
- The game was ported for HTML5
Development software
- Godot Version 4.2
- Photoshop
- LMMS
Genre
Singleplayer, Pixel Art, Top-Down
Target Audience
The main target audience, are players who enjoy the world they play in, and speed runners who enjoy finishing things as fast as they can.
Concept
Theme Interpretation (It’s Spreading)
‘spreading’ interpretation – The expansion of a being, and the spreading of color to give an analogy of the same thing or “idea” can be used for both good and bad.
In the context of storytelling, there is often a contrast and similarity between the hero and villain. The void must spread itself to survive and Xel spreads color to keep people happy and help navigate his surroundings.
Primary Mechanics
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Mechanic |
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Flowers
A navigation marker or decoration that can be manipulated by the players walking over them to change according to the color that passed over it.
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Void
A spearing wall that grows and the player will need to take care of in a timely manner, or potentially be trapped in the light.
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Secondary Mechanics
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Moving Faster
The player can get more speed when running with the more people they talk to.
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Slowing Down
The player can choose to be more precise in their movement by choosing to slowly move across an area to either get a more precise color choice on a flower, or to traverse more efficiently.
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Art 
Sticking with a limited color scheme, the goal was to use colors that represented the pixels used in a phone and be distinguishable from each other across the different spectrums of color blindness. Black and white are colors that are hard not to use when worrying about maintaining contrast. But the use of a lighter “Dark Mode” black makes for a soft and easy look on the eyes.
Design
The design is meant to feel open, but apparent where you need to go. Like a reminder to Xel that he is free to go where he wants but he still has a job to do.
Audio
Music
Keeping in mind the game takes place inside a phone, and the music is being made by an artist with no background in composing, it was attempted to take inspiration from a familiar sound to phone users from the late 90s and early 2000s.
Sound Effects
I made a popping sound with my mouth.
Game Experience
Keeping a low resolution in mind, all the art assets including the UI were made with a 32x32 pixel size in mind, with the exception of assets that required a wider frame.
Controls
Keyboard
Arrow Keys / WASD - Movement
CRTL - Sneak
SHIFT - Sprint
F – Chat / Interact
Gamepad
Dpad / Joystick
Gamepad Buttons
Development Timeline
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
_________________________________________________________________________________________
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# |
Assignment |
Type |
Status |
Finished By |
Notes |
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1 |
Design Document |
Other |
Ongoing |
|
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|
2 |
Create player and wall assets |
Art |
Finished |
1/21/2024 |
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3 |
Main menu theme |
Audio |
Finished |
1/25/2024 |
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4 |
UI / Main menu |
Coding |
Finished |
1/24/2024 |
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5 |
Level theme |
Audio |
Ongoing |
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6 |
Simple player movement |
Coding |
Finished |
1/21/2024 |
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7 |
Complex player movement |
Coding |
Finished |
1/26/2024 |
Sprint & Sneak |
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8 |
NPC Interactions |
Coding |
Finished |
1/23/2024 |
|
|
9 |
Flower Interactions |
Coding |
Finished |
1/21/2024 |
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10 |
End Game Actions |
Coding |
Finished |
1/25/2024 |
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11 |
Player animation |
Art |
Finished |
1/21/2024 |
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12 |
Sound effects |
Audio |
Finished |
1/22/2024 |
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13 |
Pause menu |
Coding |
Finished |
1/26//2024 |
Bug* menu moves with mouse |
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14 |
Any extra polish |
Other |
Ongoing |
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15 |
SUBMIT |
Other |
Finished |
1/26/2024 |
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Download
Install instructions
Download the windows EXE file.
If windows tells your it's unrecognized software, click on "more" and then "Run Anyway".
Development log
- Somber Situation PrototypeJan 29, 2024
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