FLOWS

FLOWS

Flows is a 2d story-driven based puzzle platformer game where players will explore meticulously designed worlds with delicate hand-drawing illustrations and engaging comic style.

The story is about a young girl dealing with painful experiences from her past. As the story progress, she will go through self-realization to finally accept herself and see her reality differently.

Note this application works with PC, Mac & Linux Standalone

“We must accept/realize our fear and anxieties if we wish to be healthy and whole.”

The story of FLOWS was made by telling ourselves about we often feel a lack of self-acceptance and self-realization. Accepting past self is a way to learn and grow. We think that fears are our enemies and it brings negative impact to our life, but in fact, fears are not our enemies but rather an obstacle to ourselves. Overcoming these emotions is challenging, but what we learn from these emotions helps us understand ourselves better.

Rethinking storytelling

FLOWS were to explore a new innovative way of interactive storytelling. I think there are many opportunities to offer storytellers new formats and possibilities to explore more creative/immersive narratives stories using new media technology. I want to change the perceptions of games are just used to fill out our time and act as a diversion.

I think making games that are surprising and aesthetically beautiful can give people a different immersive gaming experience.

FLOWS story crafted in such a way as to integrate different medium forms seamlessly. FLOWS makes players forgot they are listening to sound effects, looking at visuals and processing simultaneously, and beginning to experience it as a whole. Each form contributes a different and new piece of information and ties in naturally with the rest of the elements.

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”

— Robert McKee

I believe old and new media can be combined to give birth to innovative hybrid forms. Reminiscent of traditional comic books, the story’s animated black and white panels.

Collecting, Finding, Puzzling

FLOWS has a poetic storyline of simple interactive comics and 2d platforms, only with a couple of semblance challenges. The challenge in this project was to bring together a whole story of love and grief, not just narratively but also mechanically, because, in FLOWS, the mechanics are the narrative.

Another challenge was creating a storytelling game with less text and simple controls and illustrations throughout the game. The purpose of using less text was to allow players to enjoyed regard by anyone of their spoken language and cultures.

There are no dialogues, no narration; players understand the story tries to convey it because we all somehow sharing a similar experience with the character in the story.

Reflection

Working on FLOWS has been a fantastic learning experience — my design process allowed me to explore many elements of designing an interactive storytelling game. I learned a lot on the way, from researching, understanding, structuring, testing, and troubleshooting. Overall, my project was quite successful, and I am proud of what I have accomplished in my final year in the interaction design program. I am grateful to have a mentor to support me throughout the project, which taught me the importance of seeking help when needed.

For future consideration, I would like to refine the sounds, adding more challenges in the level design for people to play. Even though the narrative story is solid, but there are more rooms to expand on. I am looking forward to seeing how this project will bring me to the next level in the future.

I believe this game could offer a space for ourselves to reflect on how each of us overcame these hardships and realized how these moments could make meaning of greats in our lives.

I hope this project will inspire people to create more unconventional storytelling games using new media in the future.