Grief was a conceptual project I made after being engrossed in the world of philosophical games such as Braid or Don’t Look Back. I loved the symbolism and sadness that most games of that genre expressed, and needed to make one of my own. I’m known for not being able to stick to deadlines, so I decided I was going to make said philosophical game in 1 week. Working furiously, I managed to finish up the engine for the game (codenamed solitude) in about 5 days. With 2 days left and no way to add in an intricate story like I was hoping to, I was left with a dilemma. I spent the 6th day thinking of what I should do, and I came up with the concept of Grief. I was excited of all the symbolism involved and began work immediately, extending my deadline by 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks, I didn’t have a complete game. What I did have was my exploration of the 5 stages of grief from the viewpoint of an insane individual. I packed up project and released it to (surprisingly to me) a shocked audience. The theme of desperation underlined by hope didn’t translate from the paper to the computer and I was left with a messed up, hopeless story that couldn’t even be called a game.
I hope you keep that in mind while you view Grief. It is an overambitious project for such a small time constraint that is missing key elements. I hope to someday re-address this and make it into the game it could be. For now though, this is living proof that I can complete a project in less than a month.
(click the image to play)