Indie games turn the process of looking into art

Adriaan de Jongh and Sylvain Tegroeg did not necessarily create a new genre. But, in some ways, that’s exactly what the duo did when they released them Hidden people In 2017. Hidden object games have been around for decades — long before computers, when people looked for things in printed paintings and drawings — but Hidden people It was a distinct step forward. De Jong calls Hidden people Game “Search”; Sure, things are hidden, but the game is about more than just discovering things.

“We wanted to make a very interactive and fun game where our focus was on sparking that curiosity for these little worlds and the little stories that unfold,” said de Jong, who intends to expand the scope of the game. Hidden people Universe said in a new collaboration with Tegroeg Edge. “This was always the vision for the game, and all of the design decisions we made tried to meet that sense of exploration.”

In the years since the game’s release, dozens of… Hidden people-Likes created. Some of them are clones that mimic the art style and even the originals in a way that makes de Jong uncomfortable. Many of these games may spark a desire to find things, but they lack the fun of a game like Hidden people. The quest genre has also emerged as a way for developers to introduce story and, again, curiosity into hidden object games. Easy to draw a line from Hidden people To the likes of “Interactive City Discovery Game” Small lifeMystery game Wind peaksHistory discovery game Hidden through timeAnd now an adventure and hidden object game Lost and Found Company

concept Hidden people It’s simple: search the expressive and detailed worlds of pen-and-ink artist Tegroeg for a list of items displayed at the bottom of the screen. You don’t have to click and move, however Searching – Click on things to see what’s happening, and what you hear from the “mouth sound” made by the developer. Maybe it will reveal what you’ve been looking for. Maybe you won’t. Every little detail in Hidden people De Jong said the game is magical, and was created after hours of intense play testing.

Lost and Found Companycreated by Thailand-based studio Bit Egg, is fun-like Hidden people. It’s about finding lost things while working for the Dragon Gods. It takes place in colorful magical worlds filled with thousands of different objects and characters. There are little stories everywhere, and digging into the different spaces is sure to reveal secrets. It is clearly inspired by Hidden peopleBit Egg co-founder and CEO Richmond Lee said this in an interview with Edge. Hint system, which is a limiting factor for Hidden people-likes, it’s a tribute to de Jongh and Tegroeg’s game, but it’s also how Bit Egg tries to elevate the hidden object genre behind static images.

Lost and Found CompanyWorlds. – an antique shop filled to the brim with haunted items, a chaotic family home in the midst of their morning routine, or a vacation spot where tourists enjoy smoothies – are elaborately designed to tell stories. There is an overarching story and kids playing in every nook or cranny. Bit Egg has made a lot of little references to popular culture Lost and Found Company.; One of my favorite dolls I’ve discovered is the haunted doll, which is a nod to the real-life doll that inspired it Annabelle A horror movie, locked in a mysterious museum near my hometown.

“When we looked at a lot of the hidden object games out there, they were very focused on gameplay,” Lee said. “They have a theme, and they give you a lot of content, but there’s not a lot in terms of characters and story. That’s something we wanted to enhance.”

Lost and Found CompanyThe characters, the dragon goddess Mei and her budding apprentice Ducky (whom she turned into a human from an actual duck), lead players through her story. A mysterious figure is stealing from the townspeople, and the duo’s ability to find items restores people’s faith in the goddess, who has fallen out of favor in modern times. This is the story that brings the separate levels together; Everywhere and throughout the city, people need help finding their things. Sometimes they’re the ingredients needed to make the juice, other times they’re personal items being moved around an apartment complex. There are always extras too – little things that reward the player for their curiosity. I found a submerged submarine, for example, after clicking on four disparate lamp posts in the right place, causing the sub to rise for air.

What makes a good hidden object game, both de Jong and Lee agree, is the playtest. You can have a great art style, clever voices, and a beautiful story, but if the game doesn’t work well, it won’t appeal to players. “It took us years, and it was just trial and error,” Lee said. “A person who reaches a level has a very difficult time understanding how difficult or easy it is for someone else. All you have to do is keep going through the workshop and testing.” Playtesting is what it’s made of Hidden people Very satisfying to play. De Jongh said this is the core of what he does as a game developer. “If you put it in front of someone, you’ll learn a million things,” he said. “I think I watched over 200 to 300 hours of players playing the game and changing little things based on what I saw from the players.”

There’s definitely an art to placing hidden objects in environments: Bit Egg designs the level first using concept art before reshaping it as an isometric level, Lee said. then And put it in the game engine. “We paint everything three times,” he said. It’s a different process to the way De Jong and Tejrug built Hidden peoplestarting with Togreog’s ink-on-paper drawings, which are laid out on one large page, scanned into the computer, and then compiled into the game engine.

“He draws everything, we scan it, then we put it in the game engine,” De Jong said. “There, it pulls everything one by one into the right position.” It is an exceptionally time-consuming and meticulous task; Hidden people‘The level of the mega factory is a testament to that. He – she It includes hundreds of small boxes of different types. Animations come later, replacing some of the set pieces.

All this effort goes toward something that seems inherently human: the process of looking. One can think of ancient Chinese and Japanese paintings as hidden object games, Lee said. You may not be looking for anything specific, but the elaborate and detailed nature of these paintings often leads to small discoveries the further you look. “There’s a really long history of people being fascinated by these elegant little scenes,” he said.