An experimentation around the notion space

Within is an extension of my master’s thesis. I first wanted to build a game around a personal experience of mine: anxiety attacks, and I tried to see how it was possible to translate it into a game which would use this experience as a subtext.

My other goal was to try and see what I could do in the short timespan of my master’s practical project (3 months), and actually finish and release a game. I developed it alone, under the supervision of David Calvo.

An allegory of anxiety

In Within, you are lost in a strange place that seems to change when you’re not looking, and chased by a mysterious figure that can appear anytime and disrupt you in your wandering and force you to flee. I wanted to make a short game, that could be played in 5/10 minutes. I later stumbled upon the term “allegorithm” on Twitter and I think it fits perfectly to describe what I wanted to do.

A self challenge

This project taught me to design by iteration and by substraction: I had a lot of ideas that couldn’t be implemented into the game, because of lack of time or because they weren’t relevant enought. There are a lot of ideas in this project that I want to continue exploring in further games. Especially questioning the definition of a virtual space.

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