TAKEN is a point-and-click style adventure game, or at least, the closest I could get to one in Wix, that follows the story of a human whose name has been stolen by the fae. The player awakes in a dark forest deep in the feywild, and they must explore their surroundings to find supplies and make allies to assist in their escape. Along the way, there are hidden easter eggs and silly ways to prematurely perish for the player to root around for and enjoy.
In a lot of ways, this game is an homage to the kinds of games I played as a kid, such as Tales of Monkey Island or West of Loathing. These games have always been very nostalgic for me, so I thought this project was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making my own. As for the theming, I've always loved dark fantasy settings, and have spent many an afternoon daydreaming about getting whisked away by the fae and being thrust into adventure... that hasn't quite happened yet, so I figured making this was the next best thing.
As for actually crafting the game, I started with the main plotline--the main character has had their name stolen, and they need to find a way to get it back. Originally, I was going to split the name into individual letters, and hide each one in a separate location. The player would then have to solve puzzles and find hidden clues and key objects to retrieve these letters. Finally, the player would have to unscramble the letters to put together the final name. However, due to time constraints, I had to cut down significantly on my original vision. I had plans for over twice as many locations as there are in the project in its current state, and even more characters. To compensate, I had to skip the anagram factor and simply have the player find the entire name in one go. Maybe one day I'll attempt to create a game that is closer to the full scope of my original idea, though I certainly wouldn't try to accomplish such a task in Wix.
Another limitation I came up against was the sheer number of pages required for even the simplest of dialogue trees. I ended up reusing pages and cutting a lot of my planned dialogue, simply due to the complexity of adding more and more pages while trying to keep them organized. If I had more time and better resources (like an actual game engine), I definitely could have made the dialogue for each character far more intricate. Additionally, the in-game sprites aren't up to the level of quality I would've liked. While I managed to find backgrounds that communicated the world I was trying to paint well, I felt that the characters I placed within them looked flat and boring by comparison. I am happy with the overall aesthetic and visual feel of the project as a whole, but I wish I'd had more time to dedicate to the details.
Overall, I see this project as more of a concept than a finished piece. I think there's a lot of good elements to it, such as the feel of the dialogue and the story flow, but it doesn't congeal into what I'd been hoping for. I hope to come back to this idea one day and do it proper justice, but for now, for something that was cranked out on a very tight deadline, I suppose I am satisfied with this result.
Website Link: https://gwth6090.wixsite.com/taken
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