Echoes of Existence
An Indie Puzzle-Adventure Game Concept
Role
Product Designer
Year
2024
Team
Ahmet Önder Kasapçı, Bilgesu Güvenç, Öykü Ceren Karaayak
Game Overview
Title: Echoes of Existence
Genre: Puzzle Adventure, Indie
Platform: Steam
Concept: An immersive puzzle adventure exploring themes of choice, identity, and survival.
Elevator Pitch
Echoes of Existence is an immersive puzzle adventure game for Steam, blending intricate puzzles with a deeply emotional narrative. Awakened aboard a mysterious spaceship, players navigate through haunting memories and make critical decisions that shape their destiny. As they uncover the truth about Earth's destruction and their own identity as a clone, they must decide the fate of an embryo that could either be humanity's last hope or its greatest threat. With atmospheric visuals, evocative soundscapes, and branching storylines, Echoes of Existence explores themes of choice, identity, and survival, offering a unique indie gaming experience that lingers long after the final decision.
Main Character
Gameplay Mechanics
1. Exploration
Spaceship Navigation: Players navigate through different sections of the spaceship, unlocking new areas by solving puzzles and completing tasks.
2. Puzzle-Solving
Environmental Puzzles: Players encounter various puzzles that require manipulation of the environment, such as aligning circuits, decoding messages, and using machinery.
Logical Challenges: Some puzzles are logic-based, requiring players to use deductive reasoning to progress.
Memory and Pattern Recognition: Puzzles that involve remembering sequences or recognizing patterns from clues provided within the game.
3. Flashbacks
Triggered Memories: Certain actions or locations trigger flashbacks that provide context and backstory, revealing the character's past life and the state of Earth before its destruction.
Interactive Flashbacks: Players may need to interact within these flashbacks to uncover critical information and solve puzzles in the present.
Decision-Making
Moral and Ethical Choices: Throughout the game, players face decisions that impact the story's direction and outcome. These choices often involve ethical dilemmas, such as the fate of the embryo.
Inventory System
Item Collection: Players can collect items that are essential for solving puzzles and unlocking new areas.
Clue Gathering: Important clues and pieces of information are stored in the player's inventory, allowing them to reference and use them when needed.
Game Controls
Main Menu
Story Chapters
Chapter 1: Awakening
Objective: Introduce the player to the environment and basic gameplay mechanics.
Summary:
The main character awakens in a capsule aboard a spaceship, opposite another capsule containing an embryo.
The character explores the spaceship, completing tasks that gradually reveal more about the vessel and its purpose.
The character starts to question why they are on the spaceship and begins to gather clues about their mission and the state of Earth.
Chapter 2: Remnants of Earth
Objective: Provide background information and deepen the narrative.
Summary:
Through a series of flashbacks and tasks, the character recalls memories of Earth and learns about its destruction.
The player gains insight into the character's past life and the events leading up to their current predicament.
The character pieces together their connection to the embryo and the significance of their mission.
Chapter 3: Fragments of Self
Objective: Increase the emotional and psychological intensity.
Summary:
The character experiences an existential crisis, prompting a deeper exploration of their identity.
It is revealed that the character is a clone of their original self, created as part of experimental procedures before Earth's destruction.
The player learns that the embryo might be a dangerous species, raising moral and ethical dilemmas about its fate.
Chapter 4: The Unknown Future
Objective: Conclude the narrative with a pivotal decision.
Summary:
The player faces a crucial decision: whether to revive the embryo, knowing it might be a predator, or to leave it dormant.
This decision branches into two possible endings:
Ending 1: If the player chooses to revive the embryo, the game explores the consequences of this choice. The embryo either turns out to be a new hope for the future or a catastrophic threat, emphasizing the unpredictability of life and the weight of moral choices.
Ending 2: If the player chooses not to revive the embryo, the game concludes with the character continuing their journey alone, contemplating the loss of potential and the burden of their decision.
Level Design
Game Map
Room 1: Capsule Chamber
The player wakes up in a tube in a dimly lit room and instinctively tries to escape. As they struggle, they notice another tube in front of them containing the embryo. Realizing the complexity and potential danger of their situation, the player realizes that solving things will not be easy.
Player's Pov
The player looks around the room, taking in the mysterious atmosphere and the low hum of machinery. Spotting an open door, player head towards it, but upon reaching it, the player find that the bridge needed to cross to the other side is retracted, leaving a deep chasm in its place. Understanding that player must solve a puzzle to proceed, the player braces themselves for the first challenge of their journey.
Room 2: Reactor Core
Determined to find clues to solve the bridge puzzle, the player explores the 2nd room as it is the only accessible area for now.
Bridge Puzzle
In order to get to the other room, Player needs to lift the bridge and solve this puzzle.
The player discovers that the light on the ground must continue in order for the bridge to be used, and searches for objects to reflect this light.
Room 3: Guidance Passage
Here, they not only aim to solve the puzzle but also to uncover information about the experiment they are part of and make sense of the unfolding events.
Passage Puzzle
The player needs to find the password to open the door. The player finds numbers by following the blue light on the floor, solves the code and moves to the next room.
Room 4: Holo-Matrix
When the player enters this room, they are confronted with a large area on the floor that resembles a giant puzzle. The centerpiece is a movable cube that appears crucial for solving this puzzle. As they manipulate the cube, they solve the puzzle, causing a hologram to activate in the center of the room. The hologram begins to display information, shedding light on the events unfolding in the world and providing crucial context for the player's situation.
Hologram Puzzle
By moving the cube, the player creates a pattern by activating/inactivating the compartments on the floor and activates a hologram system, which is going to be the information source throughout the game. The more player wants to be informed about the Earth, the more tasks/puzzles to do.
Room 5: Storage
In this room, he finds some papers on top of the cubes in the corner. He figures out that he has to hold it up to the light coming from the top of the cube to see what is written on the papers, and he discovers that the documents contain important information about himself.
Invisible Ink Puzzle
The player makes the documents thought to be blank readable thanks to the blue light on the cube.
Room 6: Power Center
Sometimes the electricity goes out at the station, and to solve this problem, the player comes to this room and solves the electrical problem by solving puzzles.
In-game Visuals
