CODAME Featured Game: Lost Toys
With the CODAME GAMES showdown only days away, we thought we’d give you preview of the indie games that will be duking it out on August 21 for top bragging rights and a trip to the ARTS+TECH Festival.
Today, we give you a glimpse of Lost Toys on mobile (iOS, Android, and BlackBerry).
The visuals on Lost Toys are incredible.
What’s the rest of the game about?
Danielle Swank (Founder, Barking Mouse Studio):Lost Toys is a 3D puzzle game for introverts. It has a diverse set of influences ranging from Rene Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, modern games such as Cogs and Zen Bound along with my own experiences as a volunteer firefighter and background as both, an artist and programmer.
The game is set in a surreal game world with a restricted viewpoint, where players can examine and effect the objects around themselves. It’s a game we wished was already out in the world — but since it wasn’t, we decided to make it!
What’s the single most memorable part of your game that you want people to never forget?
It’s hard to pick a favorite part — but if we have to, it’s the opening sequence.
Lost Toys opens with a descending spiral, where mixed-up toys emerge out of the murk of a burned and ruined room. To move upwards and progress through the game, players restore jumbled toys. There are no timers, points, scores, or percentages in Lost Toys, but there are subtly discordant music transitions and trombone camera zooms. Turns can be infinitely undone without penalty, however the amount of time undoing takes encourages deliberate moves and forward thinking.
All the levels take place in the same environment (past and future levels can be seen in the background) and the player is transitioned seamlessly from level to level.
You’ve thoroughly documented the making of Lost Toys on your Facebook Page over the last few months. What was the biggest challenge you encountered in making the game?
Being an indie developer, everything is challenging. There’s never enough time or money to do all the things that you want to get done.
We wanted to take full advantage of a touch interface, so the hardest part for us was getting the right “feel.” Our main rotational mechanics took three months, several revisions and many individual attempts before we pair-programmed a solution.
And it didn’t turn out too shabby at all! I’m looking forward to seeing it in action at CODAME.
Thanks for taking time to talk to us, Danielle!
Join CODAME GAMES on August 21st to be inspired, learn, play and vote for your favorite Indie Game!
