S p A c E

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is a Game About the concept of "Space" within computer.

To be honest, I don’t know what we are doing when we finish this game. 

If you want to download, please scroll to the very bottom.

Level 1

The first level is a comparison between the openings of films and games. It uses the classic countdown sequence from old films as a timer. The opening of films provides the audience with a buffer zone to prepare themselves, as films being a non-interactive medium, is never under the audience's control. But in gameplay, players actively engage with events rather than being passively shown or told about them, as they would be in novels, theater, or cinema. This holds true even at the openings of these works.

The first level also aims to disorient the player's perception by giving button movements and adding colliders to the cursor. In game development, UI scenes exist on a Cartesian coordinate plane, yet we often forget this fact because typical UI scenes lack spatial depth, changes, or physical events. All that's left are abstract metaphors of physical actions, like “cut” or “click.”

 

Level 2

The second level consists of a progress bar and a snippet from the first film ever made, ‘L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat’ by the Lumière brothers.

This level explores the concept of the progress bar as a vehicle. The way it loads a game is similar to the function of many modern means of transport. Consider how we use fast travel in games, it feel the same as we take the subway or a plane. In such vehicles, people focus more on the speed of reaching their destination than on experiencing the space they pass through. In contrast, riding a horse or bike offers a deeper spatial experience. Trains and planes are typical examples of 'non-places.' In games, the UI space often serves a similar function. Trains are also a strong resemblance to progress bars in their physical form.

 

Level 3 

This level requires players to repeatedly press the spacebar to "trigger bugs" and enter the Demon’s Negative Space,  showing a series of meta-elements: game engines, virtual cameras, and Cartesian coordinates. Unlike films that achieve montage by pointing the camera at different objects, here we change the background directly while keeping the virtual camera stationary. This reminds me of how early animators separated the background from the foreground characters.

 

Level 4

In this level, players encounter a Demon—the last enemy hunting by ‘the player’. The Demon has long lost its vigor and wishes to remain in the Negative Space. In games, Negative Space refers to the unoccupied spaces within or around objects. We want to say sth about traditional game narratives by building a world shattered by the player’s aggression. 

 

Level 5

In this level, the world transforms into 3D, and players must find the correct “Door” among 3D model and images. From the development of perspective algorithms in the 1960s to the simulation of shadows, reflections, and textures in the 1970s, and finally, to modern game engines and movie special effects, CGI has become increasingly realistic. Yet, no matter how photolike these images are, the spaces they create  are still pixels.

 

Level 6

Similar to Level 4, this level introduces an old lady who enters the BOSS room after 'the player' defeats the boss. She reflects on her relationship with computers. We want to explore what would happen when cultural forms like film and literature are digitized and what happens when "space" itself is digitized.

 

Final Level

The last level involves a  form of interaction that can only be achieved through software: exposing the player’s desktop and activating their webcam. For me, the final level is a true horror story—my computer, in a sudden moment, turns to me and asks: Who are you? And who am I?

Tools and Resources
Unity, C#, VS2022, Aseprite, Capcut, Microsoft Word, Photoshop

Model:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/dungeons/dungeon-modular-p...

Font:
https://timothyqiu.itch.io/vonwaon-bitmap, https://hyphahypha.com/

Video:
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-YbI98ikk, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1896), Fantasmagorie (Émile Cohl, 1908), La Fée aux Choux (Alice Guy, 1896)

Audio:
https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/ambient-noise-236388, https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/blue-noise-by-digitalspa-250234, https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/school-crowd-indonesian-244632/

Credits

Zishu Ning: Producer/Artist/Programmer/Designer
Zirongtai Li: Artist/Designer
Zihe Song: Artist/Designer