Blogs - PerpetuosGames

Hey!

We have made great headway into defining our levels and style! Our current background and level art is a distorted, fantasy-like urban scenario, that represents the gaslighting imposed to Maia and her ever-changing perspective of the world around her. Here's some of that:

The blue parts represent the platforms and paths the player can traverse through, while the rest stays in the background or foreground.

Puzzles!

For our puzzle design, we are experimenting with both the static and more logical puzzles, and the dynamic movement-based jumps and glides that are tied to the game's main mechanic. We want to provide both a fun dynamic experience and difficult logic sequences. This is just a few of our puzzle ideas for Maia:

Mechanics!

The ones we are talking about in these posts are now defined and ready! Maia will use her umbrella to stop incoming winds, use them to gain momentum both forward and upwards, and to slow down her fall so she can glide across large distances! The player can open the umbrella at-will, both upwards and forwards, and the side in which the wind hits will determine whether there's impulse or anchoring.

Here's a little demonstration of the mechanics!

And there you have it! Big headway into our project this week. We hope to have the level designed defined by next week, so we can start building some early levels and test them. Feel free to give constructive feedback and follow us on our social media, such as our Twitter and Instagram!

Hey!

This week we started the game's pre-production! We're already working on some code, specifically with character movement and the main aspect of gameplay: the umbrella! Also, both the character and level are already in production, starting with early studies and drafts.

Maia will utilize her umbrella mainly to glide and boost herself up by using the gusts of wind present in the scenario, and to block incoming winds that would push her back!

Here's an early study of our level and puzzle design:

That's it for this week of development; our first week in pre-production! Feel free to give constructive feedback and follow us on our social media, such as our Twitter and Instagram!

Hey, everyone! In this post, we'll explain what our game Maia is, and some of our reasons for choosing such a theme and genre for the game.

Maia is a puzzle-platformer game about domestic violence. Worldwide, almost a third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime. Also globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner (World Health Organization). We want people to hear those women's stories and create empathy for them. Most people know about that matter but don't quite understand it.

One of the reasons women don't leave their partners is because they feel embarrassed to admit that they have been abused and may think it is their fault for getting into such a situation. They can also worry about judgment from family members, friends, and neighbors or even about being blamed or not believed (WHO).

As Maia shows her story, we will get to better understand concepts such as gaslighting and the cycle of domestic violence. If we listen, understand and support those women like Maia we may help to get them out of the situation.

That's it for our new week of development! Feel free to give constructive feedback and follow us on our social media, such as our Twitter and Instagram!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the dev blog for Maia, a sidescroller puzzle-platformer game by Perpétuos Games, the first of our new game studio! I, Fernando Mueller, the game designer, will usually be the one posting. That shall be done as often as possible, but probably once a week. Our game artist is Celso Graeser, and our programmer is Letícia Pereira. Any comments, feedback and questions about the game and/or the studio are welcome.

In the first week of development, we focused on defining the core idea and message for Maia. These are the struggles and vicious cycle of an abusive relationship, in which the victim remains trapped due to gaslighting and manipulative behavior by the aggressor. Using the art style and gameplay loops, we hope to portrait an entertaining yet thoughtful experience. Making a pleasant approach to an emotionally-heavy topic is our main goal with Maia.

We hope you find this dev blog informative and entertaining. Make sure to follow this blog, our Twitter, and our Instagram for the latest news about the game!