Ocean of Giants — Developer’s Blog #3

Is it ready? I’m not sure…

Well… it has been one heck of a year for me, at least in the academic sense, because I recently finished a course that provided me with the knowledge of making video games, and more than anything, I realized I’m just not the right guy to make them. Why? I don’t have the necessary skills, it’s not a creative platform, and I have more significant problems to deal with at my current age. The list of reasons (excuses) goes on and on, but most importantly, with everything they taught me at that school, I realised that making video games is just not my cup of tea. I mean, if it were 15 years ago, I would possibly have more passion, but now… not so much. But hey, at least I got to make the prototype for Ocean of Giants.

That’s right! I’ve been talking about that thing for some time now … I made a playable prototype roughly demonstrating the features of the experimental, possibly non-existent genre I dub “Digital Museum”. Basically, the idea of the Digital Museum is that the player is free to roam wherever they wish to go, all the while enjoying colourful and vivid sights. Ocean of Giants encapsulates that idea by having the player swim around in a submarine in an ocean, discovering a plethora of leviathans, each with their unique shapes and colours. In a sense, think of the Digital Museum as a walking simulator emphasising discovering different sights (animals, tools, you name it) and less narrative bullshit than there should be, particularly the reading bits. But does Ocean of Giants really succeed in getting the player to realise they’re playing a Digital Museum?

From what there is right now, the latest build of the prototype contains all the seven leviathans that I planned to showcase with this demo, although there are some bugs present that prevent the player from reaching some of these leviathans. Effectively, with this latest build, the player can only witness roughly four leviathans instead of all seven. More so, when I presented the build to my classmates, there was mostly criticism towards the lack of agency in the game and that it’s not really a game, but an “interactive gallery” or some other fancy neologism you could give it. The point is, it’s not a game, and there were repeated suggestions that I should add some mechanism that keeps a record of the leviathans. I always knew this wasn’t going to be a conventional game, and that was precisely my purpose because I knew people would have a problem that it’s “not really a game”, but I was always going for something experimental. It didn’t seem to impress them too much, and the novel idea of “go around and look at stuff” wasn’t eye-catching. Still, even with an adequate number of 4 leviathans, the prototype should exemplify what a Digital Museum is — to discover sights. Like walking in a museum, you discover new sights whenever you move. That was the kind of vibe of was trying to reach with Ocean of Giants, but unless I have a bigger budget, as well as people who will assist me in programming the codes and whatnot, I don’t think that by myself I can accomplish it. I have neither the time nor the will to deal with something that I have no idea how it will turn out. Don’t forget that the ultimate goal for Ocean of Giants, if it were to become a full game beyond just a prototype, is to have more than 100 leviathans, possibly even 200. Hence, the amount of sights to discover compensates for the simplicity and “lack of agency”. Considering how my friends responded to it, I wonder if this experimental idea will catch on. But hey, maybe if someone other than me made a Digital Museum, I would like to see what gameplay elements they might incorporate.

As for the prototype of Ocean of Giants, I plan on releasing it in an unfinished state, with all the bugs intact, just so that the masses can experience what it’s all about and hear the opinion of more than only 20 people. The problem is that I am still determining what I’ll do and on what platform to launch it. I want it to be soon, but I don’t know if the right platform is a browser game, like all the ones you find on random websites, or something that should be released on Steam or some other digital store. Then again, no self-respecting platform would be interested in releasing an unfinished game. I’m not entirely sure how Steam works, but I still need to figure out the best platform for this game.

So… if you have any suggestions on the best way to release this prototype, let me know! And please say if you’re interested in playing this game based on the concept because if there’s little to no interest, maybe there’s no point in releasing it.

It all depends on what comes along in the future, but until then… have a good one.