DARKDAWN: ECHOES OF TERRA

Game Concept:

Sci-fi point-and click adventure game set in the Darkdawn universe.

Role:

One-man project

Process:

Created using the Adventure Game Studio engine; graphics hand-painted in Photoshop

Features:

Traditional adventure similar to the old Sierra/Lucasarts classics, with the added ability to have the character receive "psychic impressions" of his surroundings and a combat system based on this ability.

Purpose:

The primary role of Echoes of Terra was to serve as a testbed and precursor to further Darkdawn series of games which would hybridize adventure game elements into more modern game types. Echoes was an opportunity to study those elements of the genre, and explore its advantages and limitations.

Post-Mortem:

Echoes was a valuable experience for many reasons. First, as my first "completed" game project, it was an important milestone in my development. Second, it made obvious the advantages and limitations of the traditional adventure genre; there are definite advantages in terms of immersion, interactivity with the environment, and storytelling, but there is a continuous struggle against linearity and "passivity" in terms of player strategy. It is easy to have it devolve into a series of barely-connected puzzles.