Surrealistic Style - Design Process

Short Description

Surrealistic Style is a 2D platformer about happiness. It follows the story of a weird alien called Surrealistic Style who leaves its home in Winter to explore the land of Spring. There, it meets Assman, a lonely and introverted man who rants about his life and problems.

Design Process

The Goal

My goal was to show happiness and its importance as the ultimate goal in many people's lives in an unconventional way.

The Constraints

• The short length of the game

The Main Challenges and My Solutions

• Showing happiness: 

Even though happiness can be interpreted from the design of the second level, I decided to also create a new character named Assman and use him as the main communicator of the theme. The game is based on the idea that happiness is not easily achievable, nor is it a constant state. Because of that, Assman mainly talks about his unhappiness and his desire to become a happy person.

• The ending: 

 Creating an ending for the game was a big challenge mainly because the game uses Assman as the main way to tell the story, and therefore, doesn't follow the common ways that video games use to tell a story. But due to the fact that the game is humorous and self-aware, I decided to end the game in a sudden and unsatisfying way and make the game itself react to this in the post-credit screen.