Lost Thoughts

Game description

Lost Thoughts is an innovative adventure horror game specially made for the Oculus Rift. The player has to walk the shoes of Jöel, a typical American who is stuck in an immense maze filled with challenges. He doesn’t know why he is stuck there, but clues are hidden throughout the maze and creepy flashbacks and bizarre puzzles need to be overcome in order to continue. Jöel has a nice family, a wife and two adorable, but monsters of kids. They decide to go bowling, but when they walk back to the car afterwards, it turns black in front of Jöels eyes. When he wakes up, he is in the maze.

In the game there is a dark, mysterious atmosphere. The player does not know what is going on and the audio and art emphasizes this. Friends turn out to be enemies and enemies friends. All your senses will be heightened and complete emersion is realized. What is wrong with Jöel?

The maze is inside in a massive sphere where normal rules don’t seem to count. The sphere is dark and foggy, but there are torches for the player to light. This creates an amazing fire trail throughout the whole sphere. Looking up and around it is an unique spectacle.

The goal of the game

The idea of the game, is to give the player a confusing experience. Mindfuck is the keyword. The player comes into the game, does not know what is going on and everything is open for its own interpretation. During the game, the player needs to be focussed at all times and be on the edge of his chair. Complete immersion should be realised. The playing shouldn´t be interrupted and this would create a healthy tension. The goal of the game is not to freak out and scare the player so much that he does not dare to continue playing. Fear adds to the experience, it will enhance the feeling of confusion. But the confusion should always be above the fear, as it will make the player curious for the unknown, wanting to find answers. All this will also be realised by using amazing, creepy audio. It will make it sound like there might be creatures around that aren´t actually there. It will keep the player at a constant state of awareness.

My experience

As the lead game designer I was responsible for the concept of Lost Thoughts. In the first weeks the whole group decided on a general concept that we all agreed on. I then came up with other ideas, with the help of other members, and worked these out in a game concept document. It was an ongoing process of filtering out elements that did not work, and defending elements that I knew would make the game better and making sure they would be implemented. I had not realized it was such a constant process and had thought at the start, naively, that I could have it all done within a few weeks. I was wrong. But I very much enjoyed it, it was an amazing learning experience and great to see the project evolve into something that we could actually be proud of.

It also was interesting to work in a slightly bigger group than I would normally be used to. It made me get experience in working with people that might not be the best match for me to work together with. This allowed me to develop my teamwork skills, learning to listen more to others, making compromises but also standing up for my own ideas.

I did most of the writing that was necessary for the project. The game document and in game text that was necessary. This constantly needed to be changed to try and keep improving the game as much as possible. A lot of darlings were killed in the process. But it again was very enjoyable as writing is a passion of mine.

For this project I also jumped in a bit with the testers towards the end of the project, as my work was then getting less. The testing involved playing the parts of the game that were ready, looking for bugs and then reporting these to the programmers. It was fun being involved in this, actually seeing the game in action and being able to give input about details that I maybe wanted to have certain ways.

Looking back on it, it was one of the bigger projects I had ever done with a lot of ups and downs. It was a very bumpy rides but with great learning moments. I would do it again.