Hello, we are Piggame, composed of Cle, programmer and gameplay mechanism designer, and Mulitang, artist and story conceptualizer.

Participating in the game jam, we learned a lot, so we organized the entire process of designing and conceptualizing the game, hoping not only to reflect and introspect but also to let more friends see us. If our experience can help you, we would feel honored.

The article is expressed from our two different perspectives, for ease of understanding, referred to as "programmer" and "artist" below.

Conceptualization 

Upon seeing the theme "What's behind the door?", we immediately started brainstorming. The artist thought of the traditional Chinese Tai Chi and the Eight Trigrams, which include the elements of "doors" (namely the life door and death door). However, since the Eight Trigrams are integral and inseparable, this meant creating eight scenes, which was deemed impossible within seven days, leading to the idea being quickly discarded.

Then, she thought what's behind the door depends on who the observer (i.e., the player) is, boldly stating, "If I were a deceased, then the coffin would be my door!"

Perhaps it was this shocking statement that caught the programmer's attention, leading her to imagine and design a room escape game centered around coffins.

Preparation Stage

Starting from the angle of room escape puzzles, the programmer thought of referencing "Rusty Lake," a game from which we learned a lot. Subsequently, the programmer began designing game levels, while the artist researched this type of game theme.

However, we soon encountered a difficulty. Focusing on gameplay led to neglecting the storyline, resulting in the artist being unable to conceive visual concepts without a pre-designed story framework. Realizing this, we quickly wrote a short background story, setting the tone for subsequent production.

"A family, every three generations, has a child who does not live to reach eighteen. The new cycle of misfortune happens to the child of this generation. As a soon-to-be adult, his fear, accumulated over years, explodes. The shadow of death follows him closely; opening his eyes, he finds himself in one strange room after another, unraveling clues to past eerie deaths. After passing through all the rooms, he pieces together the truth of these bizarre deaths, and the next second, he's back in his bed in reality. Were the monsters behind the doors just his fear of the unknown death or something real from the past continuing to surround him (monster name)?” (First draft of the text outline)

Based on this text, the programmer generated a realistic concept image and devised a draft layout for the game mechanics.

Game Development Process

After thorough communication, we both understood the parts we needed to complete. During the art research, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the ancient Greek god of commerce, Hermes (Greek: Ἑρμῆς), matched all the characteristics of the "monster" in our story outline. In the "Homer's Epic," he is described as “resourceful and cunning, a robber, a rustler of cattle, a bringer of dreams, a night watcher, a gate-lurker, who was soon to display deeds of renown among the immortal gods.”

This discovery made the story of Deity's Door much richer, and we repeatedly learned and mimicked the traditional architectural styles of Greece and other countries in the visual design.

(The coffin as the respawn point, with the double snakes on top symbolizing the overall healing of Hermes' caduceus staff, and the eucalyptus leaves at the bottom symbolizing a gift. The door handle is designed in the style of the St. James cross, metaphorically hinting at hidden information in the story like the flower language.)

At the same time, the programmer also designed two game endings and the game mechanics. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the content, some parts had to be deleted or reduced.

Changing the game's ending also meant that the story outline needed to be revised accordingly. After 2-3 revisions, the final version of the story was established. However, this led to deviations in the artist's understanding of the gameplay, often confusing the content of removed gameplay elements and new additions.

"After my ancestors traded with the deity Hermes, they gradually became filled with a desire for divine power. Eventually, their desire consumed the entire family, as they stole a part of the deity's power. The divine power, full of life, turned in their hands into a potion that could heal wounds infinitely but at the cost of consuming human lives.

The angry deity wove a dream from the past, where if one could not burn the portrait and leave the room within a limited time, their soul would perish, and their body would also rot." (Final version of the story outline)

Fortunately, this issue was discovered in time, and we spent an hour rechecking the game mechanics, preventing more severe problems from arising later on.

After that, the process involved repeatedly going through the steps of the artist drawing game objects -> the programmer integrating and installing -> adjusting visual details.

Final Note

We misjudged the workload for this game's production, resulting in two bugs in the game program after the game jam ended, missing critical stage prompts and some art materials, leading to the game's storyline not being displayed properly.

On one hand, we are happy to have successfully created this game; on the other hand, we are saddened by the incomplete game causing a poor player experience. Therefore, we wish to present our concept and more to everyone, hoping to make up for the regret that some parts of the game could not be presented.

Having more friends see our work is a collective goal of our team. We thank every friend who has read this post and experienced "Deity’s Door" for giving us feedback on game production.

If you have anything you’d like to say to our piggame team, please leave a comment below. If you are interested in learning more about "Deity’s Door," you are welcome to click this link: https://piggame.itch.io/diety