The Harvester
Guided by the Priest's wisdom, beasts transform into noble men. In The harvester, you find yourself in an abandoned community nestled deep within a mysterious forest. Tasked by the village priest, you become a harvester, responsible for gathering Lorium, a substance crucial for the community's survival. As the night unfolds, it's a race against time, navigating the forest to collect enough Lorium, ensuring the well-being of the villagers.
Lorium isn't just crucial for the villagers survival, it's also your lifeline. You must ensure there's enough in your own bottle, so keep drinking! Your dependency on Lorium adds a layer of complexity to your journey, you will be challenged with managing your own needs or go insane.
DownloadLink:
(best played with controller)
In this project I used blockouts to create an interplay between mechanics and atmosphere to support the underlying story. I enjoy shaping these variables to see how players react and to create an engaging atmosphere.
Within this game, the player is always in search of a substance known as Lorium, indicated by red in the heart icon. Lorium is seen as protection against evil. When depleted, the player will face death while taking damage from enemies. So it's crucial to find Lorium around the forest to complete your task.
When the player is spotted by an enemy, indicated by the eye icon, Lorium drains faster. This will increase the risk of death. I try to encourage players to stay hidden, avoiding enemies while under constant pressure to find more Lorium quickly.
Creating the story for this game was a significant challenge for us, especially given the time constraints. We chose a visual novel format to better explain the world we're creating. I used a storyboard to communicate with the illustrator, and through extensive discussions, the art evolved considerably. I’m thrilled with the innovative ideas that one of our Game Artist contributed, allowing us to tell the story effectively with a minimal number of images. Although I didn’t have much time for testing, I’m very happy with the results. Here are a few images from the visual novel.
I was lucky to work with a very passionate and hard working team, and make one of my dreams come true. Within this project I challenged myself with writing, storyboards, blockouts, mechanics and team management trying to tell a story. Our goal was to create a cinematic experience without losing its gameplay elements.
