What is your game about? news

The new development video update takes a little longer. To bridge the waiting time, here is a quick update on a question that concerns every designer: What is your game about?

Soenke whiteboxed/blocked the entire game out from start to finish, so I sat down with him and we went through each room to talk about his ideas.  Some parts of the levels needed more imagination than others, but the walkthrough definitely gave me a better understanding of the scope and contents of the game. This leads me to the question: “What genre is your game?”

I’ve talked to the others about this before and while we agree it is fair to call PONH a “3D Jump’n Run” – it is not a complete description at all. The walkthrough made this very apparent, because the game is going to include a lot more puzzles that a Jump’n Run/Platformer would offer. While PONH is certainly going to have navigational challenges, we’re definitely crossing the border to Action Adventure territory in multiple regards: an inventory of special items to beat dungeons and hidden/purchasable items to upgrade your character – to mention the most important ones. If we had to pigeonhole it: a hybrid between 3D Platformer & Action Adventure would come closest to what the game represents. On the other hand – do we have to label everything?