Stroke

The movement controls are the same as any fps game. W, A, S, D to move, Shift to sprint, space to jump and mouse to gaze in awe at the beauty that is stroke.

I began making this project with some inspiration from a few different areas. One being one of my previous projects I made called orbits. Would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. It's a nice little game to mess about in https://slimjim.itch.io/orbits Orbits had me focusing most of my time working on a variety of image effects. After completing this project I came to realise how powerful these image effects are as they allowed me to create a range of very unique looking visual experiences.

There are two games which also gave me quite a lot of inspiration throughout the creative process of this game. That being Limbo http://playdead.com/limbo/ and the Unfinished Swan http://www.giantsparrow.com/games/swan/ both of which are games I highly recommend you check out if you havent done so already. The two of these games both used a very minimalistic colour palette and yet where capable of creating absolutely stunning environments to explore.

These all helped spark an idea in me, to create a very simple colour scheme using black and white for an equally simple game and attempt to make it as beautiful and unique as I possibly could for players to explore. All with the use of different image effects, I have now found myself very familiar with.

The creative process at times worked very smoothly for me and at others, not so much. I had the visual implementations nailed down from a very early stage with my flowing cobblestone like pathways expanding out into the distance. My one main problem was attempting to add a story to this game. What would draw the player into this game. What would make him or her want to move forward and see what lurks at the end of all this. How can I catch the attention of players in and make them want to explore. This took quite some time and eventually I came to a realisation, that I wanted everything in the world to flow just like the pathways. Nothing would remain static and seem boring. Everything would be brought to life and would create a spectacle for players. As you move forward new and interesting objects would appear from thin air and catch your eye as they flow alongside the music.

The ending was a far greater challenge. I had several different ideas by introducing all sorts of colours into the world as you got to the end but this idea had to be scrapped as the colours did not really have much of a positive response due to the image effects I had used. I wanted there to be a large spectacle to catch your eye in the distance and I feel like I somewhat achieved that towards the end. No spoilers here so you'll have to play to find out.

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Currently looking to set up my own mailing list so if you are interested in possibly playtesting some of my games at various stages in development please message me and let me know, I'd really appreciate it thanks.

Portfolio : http://slimjim.org/

Twitter : @Jamalamalamajam

Credits : Background music - AWE - YYY