EXPLORE THE GAMES:
⟢ Thesis
⟢ Capstone
⟢ Studio II
⟢ Major Studio
⟢ Elective
Deeptower
⊹ ࣪.⋆~⊹₊⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆✩࿐
For Studio II
An ARG centered around the once lost 90s dungeon crawler 'Deeptower', requiring a wiki (deeptower.wiki) to progress. Players unravel the mysteries of the game, along with what happened during its troubled production.
Interview:
✧ In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
Deeptower is about never letting go of grudges, and the fraught nature of game development: over-scoping, frustrations in collaboration, and crunch.
✧ What was the inspiration of the game? What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
Our aesthetic inspirations were Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Everquest, and The Stanley Parable. In terms of narrative, we are inspired by The Beginner’s Guide, The Roottrees Are Dead, and Her Story. The inspirations for the fan wiki are the Elder Scrolls wiki.
We wanted to make a multi-media, experimental narrative game and landed on the idea of an internet rabbit hole simulator which eventually solidified into our current game.
✧ What were some of your most memorable moments from making this game? What did you learn from those moments?
At the start of ideation, everyone was jumping up and down when the shape of the game was manifesting. We were all very into the idea from the start and all felt very invested in the project. However, this sometimes led us to passionately defend our vision for hours in meetings, which we have gradually remedied throughout the course of development.
✧ Talk about your teammates! What was everyone's role?
Amber and Nic produced the art for this project, with Amber taking the lead on textures and 3D models. Levels were designed by everyone, but David did most of the assembly and set dressing, as well as visual assets for the wiki. Riley and Hansong both led programming, with Riley as the main technical lead. Nic was the primary narrative and UI/UX designer, and Hansong managed the production schedule and audio.
play this game on itch.io
Amber - amberxia-oldzombie.squarespace.com
David - davidli.games
Nic - nickim.art
Riley - rjley.itch.io