Category:JvlS
J'ai vu le Soleil (I saw the Sun) J'ai vu le Soleil is a first person puzzle and labyrinth game, with a strong anti-consumerism message and a very dark disposition.
Writing
History
From poem to movie, to game
This game was not a game at first, it was a poem. (translation to come)
Le grincement de la balançoire. Le son strident d’un métal érodé gémissant de douleur sous le poids des rires. L’odeur du sable sale et humide. La douceur glacée de la nacelle contre mes jambes nues. La poussière dans mes cheveux. Ma main qui sentait la rouille. La sensation de beauté absolue lorsque la balancelle atteint son apogée ; un instant éternel avant le retour sur terre.
Alors que le monde tournait encore, comme un boulet de canon en plein chœur ; j’ai vu le soleil. Les dernières pluies coulaient alors, comme un supplice perdu dans la neige ; j’ai vu le soleil. C’était une cité sans fin ni frontière. Un monde sans habitant. Un soleil brûlant et mort. J’ai poussé la porte, la première devant moi, et j’ai vu la mer. Les autres riaient encore. J’ai vu la mer se jeter de faim, engloutir la plage dans ses moindres recoins. Le sable blanc, brûler mes pieds. Le sel acide caresser mes joues. Mes mains comme des sirènes assoiffées. Mes genoux en sang de me voir pleurer.
La porte était ouverte, je voulais regarder. La porte était fermée. La cité sous la nuit. Il y avait une autre porte. Un étrange bâtiment marbré. J’ai poussé la porte pour mieux respirer. J’ai vu le soleil. Il était gris bleu et il était rayé. Le carrelage était froid. La musique toute morcelée. Les adultes parlait. Les verres chantaient. Le feu dansait, de son goût fumé. Le feu pleurait de me voir marcher.
Avec le vent, la porte a claqué. La nuit s’était levée ; la cité était dorée. Je me souviens de toi, avait murmuré une voix. Je me souviens de toi. Je me souviens. Je m’étais retourné, la voix s’en était allée.
Dans un couloir étroit, un bateau avait échoué. Je poussais l’écoutille pour aller nager. L’eau était noir sang. La baignoire débordait doucement. Un néon jaune et bleu scintillait. J’ai vu le soleil mais il s’est éclipsé. Je me souviens du bateau en papier qui avait coulé. L’odeur humide de l’encre me mentait. J’étais un avion et je tombais.
De la cité, il ne restait plus que l’entrée. Une petite porte, marquée sortie. Le soleil a disparu. Derrière la porte, il ne reste que la nuit. Derrière la porte...
This at first led to the idea of a short film, with a shadow as a hero, in a metaphorical city, with a fishing boat in the middle of the street... and from there, the idea started to evolve so much, it became a notion, not a story, not a medium, but a feeling of loneliness and abandonment that had to be told.
A game is a game is a game
The moment I started trying to make a game, I tried to create J'ai vu le Soleil. The game, then, was very different, it was only an infinite street, that played with time a little (may be, this will be in the final game, who knows), but it was something far too complex for a first game.
It became a vague idea of a supermarket about a year later, and then, after starting development on the Beta of Cutie, this is starting to take form, shape, and a structure for an actual game... possibly a good one.
The fire crying to know me standing
There are a few events that coincided with my envy for doing this, both as some sort of blog/wiki thing, to help me remember all the ideas, the good, the bad, the ugly; but also, to jump start the process of thinking about actually making this game. Right now, I'm wrapping up coding on Cutie, and the game itself lacks levels but is otherwise mostly good to go. So, as every indy who's ever lived, I'm thinking about totally something else instead of finishing the first game.
Influences
Gameplay
The gameplay is heavily influenced by Amnesia - A Machine for Pigs. I liked the puzzles as well as the mood of the game. I'd like J'ai vu le Soleil to be set in a more modern setting, to be creepy, but with everyday life occurrences and contexts.
Narrative
Undertale has a great narrative story. Takes the counterpart of what's usually expected of the gamer.
Music
- Olafur Arnalds
The game in itself
First, I'd like to make a game that I would love to play. Me, not being a gamer, I come to this game designing business a bit of a nooby-know-it-all; and truth be told, that's often were I find my own creativity.
A moral game
As a rule, I try never to make a game about killing. To me, games, like movies, are a good place to offer the opportunity for introspection and for a-priories bashing.
J'ai vu le Soleil should not be an exception to the rule. It will not feature zombies, but shall feel like it does. It shall feel like you're walking on your own grave, and ask the difficult questions of consumerism, modernism; the questions about the future (I heard David Wong say once, that we, as a people who watches to many post-apocalyptic movies, have turn into people who do not believe in a positive future at all), of course, matters of ecology both environmental and internal.
I would like this game to fuck with your mind so hard, it will make you change not the way you see games, but the way you live. It will make you question truths, politics, authority and mainly yourself.
One of the core ideas of this game as always been and shall remain the question: "Are you playing the game, or is it playing you?"
There be dragons
Path of least resistance
Zugzwang
The first person gig
The mind puzzles
Playing with time
Environments
The Mall
The Home
The Dump
The lost Forest of your dark thoughts
Shell Beach
System
Art
Media in category "JvlS"
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