Hello, we are Frozen Line, a small indie team of only 3 people - a programmer, a 3D Artist and a Game Designer. Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow is our first project, but that doesn’t mean we started developing it with no experience. No, we used to be part of another team that created Silver Chains - a first-person horror game, which was released 3 years ago.
So, In the run-up to the release of Silver Chains we started thinking about our own game. Everything began with the idea of embodying the world of our subconscious in the form of a game. But, the idea itself is worth little without a story worthy of implementation. Our story had a canvas, but it was incomplete. For its completeness, we lacked the basic tone of mood, for which we turned to such projects as Little Nightmares, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons, To The Moon, Le Petit Prince, The Willoughby's. Some of them, probably, can be associated to a greater or lesser extent, but our story is about the materiality of human experiences and regrets. Our hero does not lose hope of understanding a world where his feelings take on materiality.
The choice of Unreal Engine was not accidental. At one time, we studied Unity and Godot, but for the implementation of this project, we chose the most convenient engine in our opinion.
And due to the fact that UE4 graphics has its own approach to creating a visual component, the Daydream atmosphere could be conveyed as accurately as possible with its help.
A good story worthy to be told should be at the heart of any narrative. In our case, in the beginning there was the mechanics of interaction between The two characters, where the player had at his disposal not just a scripted companion, but took over part of his functions, thereby enhancing the roleplaying.
But, as I said, we didn't want to surprise the player with just interesting mechanics. We needed a touching story with profound emotions. At the center of our story there is Griffin, who, in the company of a loyal friend Birly, is trying to discover the mystery of a newfound world, solving puzzles together and helping each other. This story reflects experiences familiar to many of us: feelings of powerlessness, fear, guilt.
In order for Birly to fit organically into the world of the game, he needed to be revived. We took the behavior of little children as the basis of the behavior model, which is also not groundless for the narrative, and then, it's logical, a teddy bear friend should be like a child. We had a conditional model of the characters' interdependence, which corresponds to the model of children's dependence on their parents. Griffin depends on the environment, Birly depends on Griffin. This way, the environment does not frighten Birly because he depends on Griffin, just as children don’t react to the environment, but react to the behavior of the parent.
Besides, we needed to add a set of Birly's reactions to the already existing behavior model, which should have appeared at one time or another in order to emphasize his liveliness. Although he is a toy, he should not have behaved like a clockwork doll that comes to life only at the right moments for the game. From an artistic point of view, it was difficult to make Birly alive with his attitude to what was happening, but preserving in his behavior the fact that he still wasn’t a real child. We processed some of Birly's reactions several times because they fit perfectly into some situations, but were interpreted differently in others, and sometimes contradicted the facts that he is a child and that he is a toy.
Nevertheless, Birly has learned to act on the location on his own, but sometimes we “tell” him how to react in some individual cases for which he has unique reactions.
Thank you!
Ask questions if you have any, we’ll gladly answer all of them!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1542110/Daydream_Forgotten_Sorrow/
About the game
Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow stars a boy named Griffin as he embarks on a journey to face his fears alongside his teddy bear companion Birly. As Griffin learns to confront haunting memories amidst floating castles and enchanted forests, he’ll come to discover the mystery of this newfound world.
Key Features:
- A touching story made for everyone
- Command an adorable teddy bear companion
- Intelligent puzzles
- A charming and mysterious universe
- Unbridled (and sometimes scary!) fantasy fun
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Thank you! 🧸