Release: TBA
Platform: Console, PC
Role/Responsibilities: Project Lead / Art Direction, Game Design, Engineering
Platform: Console, PC
Role/Responsibilities: Project Lead / Art Direction, Game Design, Engineering
Game Description
Bushi is a minimalist puzzle platformer set in feudal Japan and explores themes of loyalty, soldiership, death and remembrance. The game is developed in Unity/C# with intended release for console and PC.
In addition to opening doors for conversations around soldiership and mental health, Bushi looks to directly support reintegration resources for soldiers by establishing a recurring donation to the Wounded Warrior Project via a direct revenue share of annual game sales.
Game Design
Bushi's gameplay examines the traditional role of death in video games and subverts these expectations through explicit incorporation of the player's death as an enjoyable and necessary part of the game's design.
The player assumes the role of the little warrior, Bushi, as they explore the world searching for purpose and finding both light and darkness, friendship and tragedy, along the way.
The gameplay embraces the simple joy of navigation with a twist. The level design aims to tickle the player's sense of discovery via the implicit question, "can you get here?" with flexible mechanics that allow for both brute force approaches and clever solutions.
Art Direction
Bushi uses a unique, triangle-based spriting template to mimic a pixel art aesthetic while also differentiating itself from the traditional style. Each sprite adheres to a particular set of rules, bending and breaking them for effect when appropriate.
Bushi's facial expressions achieve remarkably varied emotion within a minimalist style.
A man sits in the rain atop a log. Sprite template outlines included for clarity.
Conflict arises at "The Shrine of the Ronin"