From Within

SCAD Global Game Jam Contestant

Made in Unreal Engine 4

As compensation of been born weak and fragile, you were gifted with multiple supernatural abilities. These abilities are not very tightly bound to you - they will each protect you from death once then fall out to become a hostile creature. Scientists put you into maze-like test chambers in an attempt to separate the abilities of “Resurrection” from you, but that ability is too tightly bonded to you, you will have to detach all other abilities to give up this valuable ability, and it is your choice to come out the test facility with a healthy, ability-less body, but those abilities seem to be more than mere burden.

Project Breakdown

This project is made as an entree to the SCAD 2021 Global Game Jam. Through the GGJ discord, I have received helpful advice and technical support from other participants of the event to complete this game. The 2021 GGJ extended the work hours from 48 hours to 96 hours, making it feasible for me to finish this game before the deadline. It was a fun challenge for me, as it really tests out my time management and multi-task abilities, as well as engaging in areas that I have never explored before, such as animations, narrative, and new Blueprint tricks. The theme for this year’s GGJ is “Lost and Found,” so I decided to make a game that engages the player into thinking about the cost of gaining power, and the struggle of finding their precious emotions back.

The game is set at a Portal-like testing facility. The player will begin with multiple abilities equipped, but very fragile and weak. The test chambers will have destructive and non-destructive obstacles for you to overcome either by your physical strength or supernatural ability. The unique mechanic is that every time you die you lose a random ability but return to life with a stronger body (less susceptible to death and better physical capability). You can return to regain each of your lost abilities only once through trials but become weak again, while you learn the meaning behind your ability to decide if some of them are worth taking back because those abilities are the manifestation of your emotion.