sunset

sunset is a short walking simulator, where you take a stroll around your city for the final time.

Controls

WASD - Move

E - Interact

Mouse - Look

Inspiration and Intent

sunset was created for my Approaches to Play 2 module during my Masters at Goldsmiths; the brief I chose was "The World in a Game" - to create a game inspired by another piece of media, focussing on capturing and recreating its emotions.

I was inspired by the piece "So It Goes" by Greg Haines, where over its duration, the music slowly grows into intense feelings of grief, loss and anguish, before it stops abruptly and ends on a delicate, somewhat peaceful tone of acceptance. 

While listening to this piece while commuting into class, I was struck by the idea of exploring a city, with dawning realisation that it is about to be incinerated by the sun. The game would take place in that long moment between realising something bad is about to happen and it happening, where things seem to move in slow motion. 

Other games have explored how you would interact with others in your final moments, but I wanted to bring the focus back to you and your environment. What are the small things or moments would you cherish, knowing this is the last chance? How would you look at other people differently? Would you appreciate them more?

In sunset, to amplify the feeling of loss, the city you explore is procedurally generated each time the game loads, so once the city is gone, it is gone forever. I wanted to emphasise this fleeting nature of existence, not just us as humans, but the world around us.

Through the micro-interactions that make up sunset's gameplay, I wanted the key takeaway to be that the small, everyday actions are the ones that matter the most. I feel that often we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we forget to notice what's going on around us and do the things that are meaningful. I aimed for players to take a few moments to stop and really look at and appreciate everything around them, and for them to maybe have more appreciation for just how incredible being here, right now, at this moment, really is.  Smell the roses. Use that nice mug you're afraid to break. Help a stranger. One day, you won't be able to anymore.

Credits

sunset was primarily created with the help of sound effects under Creative Commons 0 licenses. Many thanks to the freesound.org community for being an invaluable resource.

The following pieces were used under licenses:

Satie - Gnossienne 1 by La Pianista -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satie_-_Gnossienne_1.ogg -- License: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

lg fire5.wav by lgarrett -- https://freesound.org/s/17150/ -- License: Attribution 3.0

bottle in litter bin 006 241126_0949 by klankbeeld from freesound.org (https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/) -- https://freesound.org/s/772002/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

BrylieChristopherOxley - guitar - 2018-01-14 #02 by brylie -- https://freesound.org/s/415308/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

       -- This piece exists as two versions in my game. One is entirely unchanged, the other I slowed down to 0.15x speed.

Fonts used:

Quicksand - The Quicksand Project Authors/Andrew Paglinawan  - https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Quicksand

Graffiti Style - Bisho - https://www.dafont.com/graffiti-style.font

Don Graffiti - Don Marciano - https://www.dafont.com/don-graffiti.font

A Dripping Marker -  Wick van den Belt - https://www.dafont.com/a-dripping-marker.font

Most Wasted - Magique Fonts -  https://www.dafont.com/mostwasted.font

Graffonti - fontvir.us - https://www.dafont.com/graffonti.font

Next Bravo -  Khurasan™ - https://www.dafont.com/next-bravo.font

Graffiti Desiderium  - DesiPatty - https://www.dafont.com/graffiti-desiderium.font

Writers - Johan Waldenström - https://www.dafont.com/writers.font

Further development

If/when I return to this project, I would like to add more content for variety - more vignettes of people going about their day, more things to do. 

I'd also like to fix some clipping issues with the buildings and overall giving the procedural generator a sanity pass - I don't want children to be swinging without necessary clearance.

I'm also workshopping ideas for incorporating the overall feeling of this world into a different, deduction-type game, one which emphasises the random connections that link us together and how we aren't really strangers after all.