I like thinking about how different people perceive the same things differently. I have to navigate by focusing on landmarks, even going down a staircase I have to remind myself which direction I'm going at each turn, in order to 'see' where the 2nd floor of a building is on top of the 1st. I know some people who never get lost even if they've been down a road once, years ago. I know others who don't have a sense that places are connected. And it changes when my mind alters, in a dream any road with the same name is connected, even 100 miles apart. Shortcut to Grandma's house, at least when I'm sleeping. Which means that I can visit her memory sometimes.
So your main mechanic of place and memory will hit hard for me.
Conjuring objects... at once fantastic and (relatively) easy to code. Why don't more games do that? Well, I suppose because of limited memory in consoles already pushed close to the limit. But this just means it's a design space that you can explore and gaming oldbies and newbies will both be learning as you show us the way.
Sanpo is a Japanese word, but it's easy for Americans to pronounce. 'Memory Lane' is on the nose and might push people to see it /only/ as memories rather than reality.
I'm glad it's resonant with you so far! That helps give me a sense that it's a good set of ideas to work off of. And yeah, Sanpo.. maybe it's good because it's easy to pronounce but kind of evades immediate meaning. I'm surprised the name hasn't been taken yet.
I definitely want to strike a balance with memories vs. reality - ideally it can be kind of in a fuzzy zone where it's left a bit uncertain and up to the player.
Very Nice read, love seeing where this ideia is taking you!
Thanks for reading!
I love the “connecting” idea. It all clicked with the countryside road example, such a fun concept!
Thanks for reading! I hope it'll be a fun pattern to build places around.
I like thinking about how different people perceive the same things differently. I have to navigate by focusing on landmarks, even going down a staircase I have to remind myself which direction I'm going at each turn, in order to 'see' where the 2nd floor of a building is on top of the 1st. I know some people who never get lost even if they've been down a road once, years ago. I know others who don't have a sense that places are connected. And it changes when my mind alters, in a dream any road with the same name is connected, even 100 miles apart. Shortcut to Grandma's house, at least when I'm sleeping. Which means that I can visit her memory sometimes.
So your main mechanic of place and memory will hit hard for me.
Conjuring objects... at once fantastic and (relatively) easy to code. Why don't more games do that? Well, I suppose because of limited memory in consoles already pushed close to the limit. But this just means it's a design space that you can explore and gaming oldbies and newbies will both be learning as you show us the way.
Sanpo is a Japanese word, but it's easy for Americans to pronounce. 'Memory Lane' is on the nose and might push people to see it /only/ as memories rather than reality.
I'm glad it's resonant with you so far! That helps give me a sense that it's a good set of ideas to work off of. And yeah, Sanpo.. maybe it's good because it's easy to pronounce but kind of evades immediate meaning. I'm surprised the name hasn't been taken yet.
I definitely want to strike a balance with memories vs. reality - ideally it can be kind of in a fuzzy zone where it's left a bit uncertain and up to the player.