PSYCHOPOMP

A first-person narrative adventure game where the player acts as a "psychopomp" - a guide for the souls of the dead. The player is in charge of operating a subway train transporting the deceased to the afterlife, but is faced with a dilemma - hidden among the passengers are hostile entities called interlopers. Through dialogue choices and contextual clues the player must deduce who is who to keep their passengers alive until they reach the end of the line.

My goal with developing this game was to present the player with a series of interesting choices that would have significant consequences on the outcome of the story. As a solo design project this was a difficult challenge given the need to communicate narrative, mood and atmosphere without voice acting, cinematics or animations.

My biggest challenge was determining how the player would correctly identify interlopers without it becoming obvious and thereby lessening the impact of making choices. I eventually settled on including subtle dialogue cues that would reveal the key distinction between shades and interlopers - corporeality. As interlopers can only experience sense perception, any reference to physical sensations, in particular smell and taste, would give them away.