AshFall was one of my first released projects. It was created in-between classes during my time at SCAD. My focus for this project was storytelling and creating a fully realized game project. The art was sketched by me and then polished up by Cierra Ramsey.
You can find her portfolio here: www.cierraramsey.com
The project was created in the Unity game engine over about half a year. Initially, I had planned to release two other chapters, but I soon found myself busy with my first game dev job. Later, I would revisit this project - with a full rewrite of the story and redesign on the puzzles, but this too was shelved. Perhaps some day I will revisit this concept. Much of my effort was spent on the puzzle system. Being a point and click puzzle game, the player interactions are very simple and input is primary gated by player items.
Systems
The gif below shows the custom editor I created to streamline puzzle implementation.
One of my other focuses was sound design. I spent much of my time mixing ambient sounds, mostly cobbled together from free CC0 sound effects or things I had recorded. I wanted to create immersion through sound design and hinting at motion and lighting - as if the player was looking at a sketch of an area they where currently standing in. I consider this the most effective part of the game, and to this day I am still very happy with it.
Post Release
The project was received very well, though I was initially disappointing with the small amount of players. This was mostly due to wanting to release the project as quickly as possible and not spending any time advertising. Most of the comments on Itch.io are positive and it received several positive reviews and donations over the years.
Conclusion
I look back on this project fondly as it helped cement many stylistic motifs that would return in many of my later works. If I were to continue this project - I would likely spend more time on puzzle design and storytelling. I didn't playtest this project much and because of this some puzzles are too difficult. With a rush to get something released, I also spent little time polishing the art layouts.
