system design
to inspire
The game’s main goal is to inspire players to give, understand, and love others. To achieve this, I wanted the player to witness what it meant to give, understand, and love as well as help them process the goodness of it. Naturally, the storyline the player goes through has to be well-crafted, but I designed a system around 3 major pillars that would help the player digest the depth of their kind actions.
Life is difficult for everyone, and although our problems differ, we are all struggling to be happy and grow in our own ways. The climb up the mountain is a metaphor for such. Helping a tribe overcome its poison is like helping a friend in need. Hopefully, in some unexpected form or moment, the kindness the player showed the friend will make its way back to the player. To embody this idea, the player will help the tribes and receive nothing valuable. After all, the player should help simply to help and not expect anything in return. However, during the climb, the player will realize that the goodness they imparted is slowly coming back to them.
the three major pillars
The three major pillars are karmic gifts, memoirs, and short stories. All three are tools that I use to invoke positive emotions of awe and appreciation, which helps the player feel good about being a good person.
Karmic gifts are awe-inspiring, one time events that occur without warning during an impassable obstacle. For example, the player will encounter a part of the climb that is too dark for the player to progress. The rain tribe just so happens to fly paper lanterns into the sky in honor of the player’s help. These paper lanterns fly up and create a path of light for you where the warm light fights off the dark, cold colors in one breathtaking moment.
Memoirs are similar to karmic gifts in the sense that they are crucial in helping the player progress, but they are less grandiose and are reusable. They have no practical value at first glance, but the player later discovers that they are tools essential to making the climb up the magical mountain. Instead of having boring tools such as a simple pickaxe, I decided to design tools that can achieve a practical effect yet leave an emotional impact on the player. For example, my favorite one is the astrolabe with a telescope attached to it, given to the player as a reminder that the stars will always watch over them. Later, the player discovers that viewing a specific constellation with the telescope makes the astrolabe emit a bridge of light that the player can walk on, helping the player to inaccessible areas.
Lastly, short stories are small side quests that the player embarks on in the memory of a specific character from a tribe they just helped. For example, the player will talk to a dreamy kid under a starry sky atop a roof. They will discuss their aspirations and difficulties, and forge a bond. Before the player leaves, the kid will ask him to bottle a rainbow and send it down the river in hopes the kid will get it one day. During the climb, the player will do exactly that. I want the player to remember that although they are never seeing each other again, they still have that invisible string of connection tying the two together because of such a momentary yet impactful interaction they’ve had. You can read this short story in my creative writings section at the homepage!
the climb
The climb is the player’s journey alone through life. Obstacles along the way are akin to the hardships of life, and some of them are incredibly difficult to manage alone. But the player is not alone, not with the karmic gifts they receive unexpectedly and the memoirs helping them along their journey. This flips the situation: the player is now the one in need and being helped by those the player once helped. By spending a moment in the other’s shoes, the climb becomes the perfect setting for the player to understand the depth of their actions.
the systems
The main systems of the game revolve around mechanics that help the player to survive and explore. The survival system consists of fishing, foraging berries and materials, building shelters, and recycling shelters. The explore system consists of the slip mechanic where the player must repeatedly mash a button in a short time frame to avoid falling, normal climbing, and memoirs where each memoir has their own unique function. These two systems are connected at certain points. For example, the wolf needs fish or it will go away to hunt and the astrolabe / harmonica can take you to out of reach, cheaper shelters.
What makes the systems interesting isn’t their intrinsic complexity, but the fact that they can take advantage of the physicality of the level design. For example, during the climb after the rain tribe, there are specific areas that can only be seen at certain heights. From there, the player is able to use the wolf to fetch the item at that specific area. In other areas, there will be more complicated geographical puzzles that involves the use of multiple memoirs at different times to reach an area.
My favorite takeaway from my time as a game designer is that a good level allows the systems to thrive, and a good system takes advantage of the level’s features.
