Dev Diaries: Concept and Inspiration


🗣️ Dev Diaries 🗣️


“I’ve read a few of Albert Camus’ books, but the one that resonated with me the most—just as it does with many others—was The Myth of Sisyphus. The core of the story is simple: a man is condemned to push a boulder up a mountain for eternity. I used to think about this story often, and it left me feeling melancholic. Life, in many ways, really does feel like an endless struggle—pushing a boulder little by little every day.

Then, I got a dog, and like many other dog owners, I found myself realizing how much my life, and my outlook on life, changed because of her.

A year after getting my dog, I reread The Myth of Sisyphus, and my interpretation of it completely shifted. The book explores the absurdity of existence, comparing life to the futile task of endlessly rolling a boulder uphill. But this time, when I imagined myself in Sisyphus’ place, a new thought came to mind: I wouldn’t mind pushing that boulder every day—as long as my dog kept me company.

That realization became the inspiration for this game. The main character begins their journey burdened by existential doubts, tasked with climbing a mountain, much like Sisyphus. But in this version of the story, they aren’t alone. A dog-like companion stays by their side, a quiet but powerful reminder that even in the face of absurdity, companionship can make the struggle feel lighter. So, this game is kind of a love letter to dogs and a celebration of the joy they bring to our mountainous journeys.”


- Oriana Acosta Irady, Creative Director

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dev Diaries: Level Design

Image
🗣️ Dev Diaries 🗣️ " My role as lead game designer was to lead my department of designers to use the combination of art assets and coding scripts to bring to an empty scene and make an interesting and fun level out of them , with the specifications of our creative director Ori . For our level design process , we would first figure out the mechanics and setting for the level . Then I would make a map that would go through multiple changes until it is approved then all of my department will be given tasks whether that would be getting the terrain scale size finalized , blocking it out , and work on the lighting tasks . We do these tasks to ensure placement of assets testing of the level conveying what it needs too and is it fun to move in while we wait on assets from the artists and mechanics the programmers . Once done we move to implementation of assets and code and testing to see if anything need fixing and which they’re always is . However since I am usually in charge of map la...
Read more

Dev Diaries: Character Design

Image
  🗣️ Dev Diaries 🗣️ " Creature character design has always held a special place in my heart, and this project has been no different. We wanted to create a companion for our main character that was both cute and had features that connected to actions throughout the story, and as I listened to the concepts thrown out I immediately began sketching. With iconic characters like Appa from Avatar the Last Airbender and Toothless from How to Train your Dragon, my first sketches leaned a bit more towards fully grown specimens, which I gradually began to round out as we decided we wanted our creature to be a baby needing help to get home. His crystals came in next, initially being just the one on his head but then filling out his back as well as we came up with the idea of using them for a puzzle later in the game. The wings were the trickiest part for me- I’ve always leaned towards drawing grand draconic wings, so it took a couple passes to get the size correct for our vision. In the end...
Read more