Feeling and Mechanics

The third Extra Credits jam just ended, and I decided to switch things up in my approach. Usually, I design the mechanics first. Fail to Win, started from playing around with ragdolls and explosions. I designed Attract and Repel after reading Mistborn and thinking, "What if you used something like steelpushing to solve puzzles?" For my submission for this jam, however, the idea didn't initially come from a neat mechanic; it came from a dream.

A few months ago, I had a dream that I still think about often. It subject of the dream was not all that strange, but what I felt during the dream stuck with me. In the dream, I woke up and started walking toward the door of my bedroom; however, on my way, I fell. After I hit the ground, I "woke up" again, showing this to be a dream within a dream. This repeated over and over again, but each time I would fall. At first, I would only trip, but after a few times, the experience began to be nauseating. It was difficult to tell which way was up. Rather than tripping, I would gasp for breath and then pass out. Eventually, with determination, I pushed through the nausea, and with all my focus, I reach the door. Beyond the door, I was pulled through the roof and found myself in space. The nausea was banished, and instead I had a profound sense of wonder as I saw swirling patterns around me.

I've been wanting for a while to capture the feelings of that dream in a game. I felt desperation in trying to simply take the next step forward when the goal was so close but I was in such a bad condition. It was something that should be easy. Then, beyond the door, that desperation was replaced with awe.

My submission, Sleepwalking Simulator, follows that dream fairly closely. The player struggles toward a door but then  "wakes up" right before going through it. To truly get the player to struggle, though, I needed to find some controls that would capture that feeling. I decided to put the player on a fixed path, unable to turn around or even stop. This would limit any distractions of exploration. The only way to move is forward. To drive this point further, players are penalized for looking away from the door. I made it a challenge by forcing the player's head to turn in random directions, so they must correct the deviation and orient themselves again. After testing this out, I found my hand getting tense on the mouse. This was going to work. Controlling the view feel frantic. Because the view gets more blurry and the audio gets deeper the closer you get to falling over, it is easy to start panicking with each mistake. By the time you reach the door, you might feel more like you are barely stumbling toward it.

Next the game adds manual breathing. This in itself is not difficult, but it takes some of your attention away from looking straight. Focus too much on breathing, and you'll stop looking where you're walking and trip. Focus too much on walking straight and your breathing gets irregular, and you get dizzy. All this then hopefully contrasts with the ending, but I wont spoil that.

I hope I captured these feelings well through the mechanics and the effects. Please try it out and let me know what you think.