Nanao

Context

This is the final project of studies (and is still the biggest one I worked on). We were a team of 20 people composed by 7 developers, 7 artists (3D and 2D), 4 on managements & marketing, 1 producer and 1 for audiovisual content as the trailer and the making of.

The goal here was to see the full process of making a game from pitching the idea, digging into the concept, developing the game, promoting it and releasing it. All of this summarised in 3 months as a full time job (with extras).

The genre of the game was free to choice, the only constraint being the platform : mobile. The project and team were built around a couple wanting to pay tribute to their deceased cat.

The scope of the game has been adapted to the context that was given us and represents more or less the original idea behind.

Note : the game won the best price against 8 others at the final presentation.

Story

Nanao’s story is the one of a cat, lost in the forest and in the rain, that goes to take refuge in a mansion that seems abandoned. Very quickly, this little animal finds that the mansion is well inhabited, but by spirits. Those ones are locked in, sometimes for several centuries, because of the last owner. This notorious medium, had laid hands on runes related to the after-life world. He inadvertently plunged the whole manor, and all who would enter it, into a terrible curse. Nanao is begged by the spirits he meets in order to help them lift the curse by collecting the stones scattered everywhere in the great building.

Gameloop

This is a 3D adventure puzzle game with a rather developed narrative aspect. Among the various actions/ puzzles that can be encountered in the game, there are:

• collect consumables
• open a chest or a door with a key
• operate a lever
• screw a bulb
• move books
• set a clock
• move a crate
• light a candle by cracking a matchstick

These puzzles are often placed in the context of a quest after conversing with a spirit. And it’s them who will give a rune as a reward to Nanao.

Runes are used in the context of "cursed" objects (door, window, book) through a combination game as the mastermind game.

The game loop is therefore quite simple : you talk to a spirit who gives a quest, you solve the puzzle concerned, you get a rune as a reward that allows us to advance in new parts of the mansion.

Technical part

This is a 3rd person side view game where you move around the world with the joystick displayed on the screen.

For any interaction, icons are displayed in the world above or next to the objects and persons concerned. These icons are clickable and trigger the related event.

Among the global systems of the game, there is a system of saving, quests, inventory, dialogue but also a summary menu. All available informations about the characters, the story of the game or the quests in progress, as well as the map of the explored parts of the manor are presented in the form of a 3D grimoire where you turn the pages to find the information you are looking for.

Links : https://linktr.ee/nanaogame