Hello Everyone,

With the concept trailer of the Strings being published a few days ago to be displayed by RedTigerPro at the DreamHack Austin, and the following major overhaul of the web site and other media outlets of Strings using the new game concept design, I wanted to take the time to describe to the community the road we have traveled so far and what is next on the development of Strings of Ambivalence. I would like to discuss where the inspiration for the game is coming from and what its major goals are in this light.

A Game Born Out of Passion and Reflection
It was February 2016 when I first started working on the concept of Strings of Ambivalence. With very small amount of programming and game design knowledge, I dared to start coaching an after school club at the school where I am teaching physics and engineering. The name of the club was Game Programming and Design Society (GPADS) and we started working on developing a Game Maker prototype called “Cave Boy” with the interested students attending the sessions. We were programming in Game Maker and following tutorials made by a brilliant young developer. I was completing the lessons a few days ahead of the students to be able to help them where they got stuck.

When we got close to the end of the project, and each student almost completed their own prototype of the game, i asked them to come up with a game concept to continue developing past the last lesson of the Cave Boy project. I wanted them to use the game engine they constructed and apply it to a concept of their own interest: “a game that is not yet made, but would be their most favorite game if it really was made one day”. I wanted to model the process for them so I started searching for a game concept that I deeply wanted to see myself playing.

The process took me back to my own childhood when I was playing Commodore 64, Amiga 1200, and early DOS pc games. 80s and 90s were the golden age of the sidescrollers and platformers. I found in myself that I wanted to develop a gameplay concept that pushed the fun, realism, and platforming capabilities of the Myth and Prince of Persia 2, while adding the dynamism, physical rigor, and environmental storytelling qualities of the legendary Another World and Flashback.

On the flip side, I also wanted to infuse my love of the more modern and visually stunning titles such as the Trine series, which would add a layer of physical puzzle solving, developing alternate strategies, and using an arsenal of fantasy skills to try countless solution attempts to a given challenge. Moreover, Trine was the first 2.5D game whose visual appeal was strong enough to convince me that a side-scroller can be built using a 3D engine.

Even though the titles I mentioned above captured most of the locomotion and platforming features of my ideal game, they did not quite address the RPG and dialog features I wanted to integrate into the concept. Into the “visually stunning 2.5D side-scrolling platformer with realistic physics…” concept, I wanted to add the story-rich and decision-heavy atmospheres of my most favorite RPGs such as Might and Magic series, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age series.

Rediscovering the Treasures of the Past
The insights from all these titles helped me depict a vivid picture of the concept of the game as an original title with a unique overall experience. Yet, there was still one important missing feature to achieve a complete concept: An original story for the game. In order to develop the most fitting narrative for this game concept, I returned to my high school years and combined two different stories that I was intensely working on at the time.

The first story was our own AD&D world that I founded with two of my high school friends that we named “Goa”. I spent countless hours drawing maps, writing stories, and drafting the history and culture of Goa, and even more hours leading the stories in that world as a Dungeon Master to single players as well as groups. Goa would serve as the physical location, historical background, and main context of the game.

The second story would serve as the “soul” of the game, and would eventually grow into the title of the game. The name of the story was “Non-word Places” and it was about a boy who could focus on the mechanics of his inner world so much that he discovered a connection through his inner world to manipulate the world outside of him.