Apart Together
Two very different worlds, two very different characters, apart together. You begin your journey with them, and at first glance they seem to be completely disconnected. But as you explore, you discover moments where the opposites seem to align. It’s up to you to navigate these worlds with both characters in mind. Every choice comes with a cost, and forgetting one or the other in the choices you make could result in someone paying in the ultimate price.
Deep Dive
The Core Idea
Designing Apart Together, I had one goal- provide a space for players to explore the give and take of long distance relationships through impactful choices made in gameplay.
I decided to do this using a split screen puzzle game, in which the player switches between controlling two characters solving puzzles together. I thought this would offer players a unique perspective, as they must make choices for both characters.
Worlds Align
I pitched the mechanic to my class - Two separate 2D platforming worlds filled with obstacles for characters to overcome, except for a few challenges that seem impossible at first glance. In those moments, the worlds align, blurring the distance between the two. One character must choose to sacrifice their own progression to empower the other with the solution. 3 classmates joined the team and we got our green light to prototype.
A Cohesive Experience
My next step was to design a narrative to present the player with that complimented our core puzzle mechanic. It became clear to me that I wanted to highlight the relationship between two separate worlds, and the story that came to mind was one of long distance romantic relationship. These moments of connection between the two worlds reminded me of friends, family, or partners that I missed but had moments of connection with in the past.
Apart or Together?
Another question I had to answer was the fail state in the game. I felt enemies did not fit in the narrative even if we could convince the player they were representations of personal struggles. Another option was to add environmental hazards along with a health system, but I felt this focused on the wrong message. The goal presented to the player is to preserve relationship, so losing due to poor platforming skill seemed to conflict with our narrative. My solution was the fade mechanic which related to our collectible system.
Collectibles
Each world has collectibles for the character to find that represent progress in that world. The left character lives in the world of adventure, navigating through caves searching for ancient artifacts - bones. The right character lives in the world of academia, maneuvering through a massive library seeking knowledge - books. It is impossible to reach these collectibles without the help of the other character in a puzzle. The moment a character interacts with a collectible, the other character fades slightly. This represents the cost of progression. The higher you rise in your own world, people outside it start to fade from view.
Color Highlighting Choice
Our team had only one dedicated artist, so I had to highlight the differences in the worlds with simple art. My solution was to use opposite greys for each side, but we ran into the game looking quite bleak. I then had the idea to highlight moments of connection with color. This resulted in the green phone booths at the center of each puzzle, and the green interactable puzzle block. I also thought color could be a great way to highlight the beauty of individual progression for each character. As a result, when a character picks up a collectible for the first time in a level, the world around them lights up with color.
