Candlelight requiem
Hopefully youāve enjoyed my little postmortem series onĀ FlickerĀ and the problems I ran into when working on it. As promised, here are all the gameās graphics, should you want to use them for anything at all. The Zip file includes all the character graphics, interface elements, and overlays, as well as all of Toriās backgrounds. Hopefully, you can find some use for them.
I even drew some fanart for my own dead project. It seems a fitting sendoff.Ā
That said,Ā I guess one question really remains to be answered:Ā do I think this game is a good idea? I failed to make it myself, but do I think someone else could? Or is the whole idea inherently flawed?
The answer is kind of complicated. On one hand, I do want to say that the gameās basic premise has problems. From a gameplay perspective, itās a very simple game of observation where you try to pick up which character is exhibiting the most intent, or appearing in the wrong place at the wrong time most frequently. It would probably end in a couple turns every time, which would prevent very much character development or interesting investigation/clue-hunting from actually transpiring. I want to say that it might work better as a singleplayer mystery game that could play up the character interactions, or as a very stripped-down, arcade-style game with no dialogue at all in the style of something like Spy Party.
But on the other hand, if I suggested you guys stick solely toĀ good, proven ideas, Iād hardly be myself.Ā MaybeĀ Flicker could work. Perhaps there are ways you could retain the two-player elements, but slow it down enough to both maximize the tension and the character interaction. Maybe introducing new gameplay mechanisms could give the players more ways to defend themselves and hide their identity, giving the game enough depth to match the writing. With the right approaches, maybe you could produce makeĀ an amazing, character-heavy horror game where both players are effectively playing as the antagonist for the other. The only way weāll ever know is if someone tries.
I do think the high concept is a lot of fun. I like the idea of a secret agent tasked with taking down supernatural creatures in a sci-fi setting. I like the idea of a shapeshifter that can feed off mere proximity to death, and all the versatile sorts of antagonist that could make them. I like the idea of each character having their own implied backstory depending on the role they recieve, such as Claw-Agent-Rabbit being a low-performing Golden Claw agent who suddenly finds himself dealing with a very powerful creature, or Harvester-Vulture becoming a medic so he could surround himself with death and attempt to safely integrate into normal, non-monster society. And I like the idea of the events transpiring in a claustrophobic space station with a malfunctioning electrical system, continually plunging the station into darkness with a titularĀ flicker.Ā
I donāt think the gameplay I came up with was entirely right for it, though. But as I said, maybe you can come up with something better. The graphics and ideas are presented here so you can use any of them should you so desire, or you can just share your thoughts and ideas on the whole thing, or whatever. Or maybe, like me, youād rather just learn from my mistakes and bear the lessons in mind should you ever undertake a similar project.
Whatever you do, have fun with it! I may think Flicker was a bad idea in retrospect, but I donāt regret working on it. Trying crazy ideas that are probably bad is the process through which good ideas are discovered. There is no shame in making mistakes, and thereās even less shame if you share those mistakes with everyone so they donāt make them as well. My only hope is that after reading this postmortem you will make entirely new mistakes rather than repeating any of mine.Ā
Thatās a sappy conclusion, though, so letās end this with Vulture hacking a terminal:
If I had a team to assemble to make this under the OPās permission, I totally would love to bring the project back to life. Unfortunately, I donāt know anyone with said skills.