Concept

Burn-Out is a textual experience where the player embodies a student who enters his cycle of graduate studies. He has to carefully manage the hero's student life while dealing with everyday events. The goal is to complete the first year without making a mental breakdown.

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We were a team of 3 students (one writer, one programmer and one sound designer) and the game ended up at the 123rd place in the Overall ranking, but also 12th in the Mood ranking.

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Challenges​

• Create a narrative game around the constraint "Not enough space"

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Solutions​

• Before the game jam started, we already knew we wanted to make a strong textual experience, as it was a long-time wish and we felt like the Ludum Dare would be a good occasion. We decided to look at the theme from an immaterial perspective, as if the lack of space is a mental malus and not a physical one. This point of view naturally led me to a situation I'm familiar with : the struggle of being a student, juggling between studies, having a social life and dealing with other unexpected events...

• To create empathy, I decided to remain particularly vague about the informations I give to the player : the hero is a first year graduate student and can be a he or a she. Each event that the player needs to react to is a common situation in life so everyone can relate at some point. Ultimately, I wanted to create an interactive story that people could easily relate to, and the feedback we received once the game was released seems to indicate we achieved that goal.

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Role

Writer​