SPIRITARTCOV

An Ancient Temple, you say?

By Julie Morley

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The game begins with the old man having his new home constructed in this small mountain village.

The game begins with the old man having his new home constructed in this small mountain village.

Spirit takes the angle of approaching a game from a filmmaker’s perspective and generating as much cinematic and atmospheric material possible to produce an engaging and memorable storytelling experience. Combining ambient music with a haunting and mystic al quality and the simplistic pixel art style, the developers strive to deliver a game that plays off of the player’s curiosity and desire to explore. Everything about this game just screams idyllic.

While  waiting, he begins to explore around the village and it's outskirts. The scenery is quite beautiful and atmospheric.

While waiting, he begins to explore around the village and it’s outskirts. The scenery is quite beautiful and atmospheric.

He worked hard his entire life, becoming a man of wealth and good fortune. Time passed and with age came change, whether it be family members moving away or friends passing on. It was time to move on to something else and live out the rest of his days peacefully. After a lifetime of labor and saving the fruits of his labor, our character decided to more somewhere he expected peace, quite, and a friendly neighborly attitude: an old mountain village.

 

Everyone keeps pushing for him to visit the Spirit Festival that's happening in the village. Here, he is spoken to by the village elder about something very important that changes the entire story.

Everyone keeps pushing for him to visit the Spirit Festival that’s happening in the village. Here, he is spoken to by the village elder about something very important that changes the entire story.

Whilst his new home is being constructed on a hilltop, the old man decides to explore the village and get to know the faces he’ll see on a daily basis. Many of the folk in this village are oddities but seem quite nice; some even give the old man gifts to welcome him to their small village such as a sweater knitted by hand (how kind!) and a machete for navigating through brush.

With just about every person he speaks to, they stress the importance of the spirit festival that is currently going on. A festival to celebrate the founding of their village and the discovery of the ancient temple.

 

He talks to various people of the village to get a sense of what everyone is like.

He talks to various people of the village to get a sense of what everyone is like.

It arouses the curiosity of the old man. An ancient temple, you say? One older than the ancient civilizations of this village; where it was considered to have existed for quite some time when they came about. It sounds intriguing to say the least. Especially after a talk with the village’s elder about its history and involvement with the village. Nobody knows particularly what is going on inside the temple or where it came from; merely rumors exist. It is said that spirits roam about the temple and its surroundings .

The idea of the temple almost beckons the player as it does the old man. The concept is absolutely captivating.

Now the player must explore what is beyond the village, searching for the ancient temple in hopes of discovering just what the villagers suspect is walking about in it.

 

And through certain interactions, the old main obtains specific items that are helpful for future gameplay.

And through certain interactions, the old main obtains specific items that are helpful for future gameplay.

Spirit is a two-dimensional semi-platform game priding on the wonders of exploration and the itch of curiosity. It is intended to be released on multiple platforms: PC, MAC, LINUX ,and any Android and iphone/ipade devices. At the moment, the demo is available via link on their Kickstarter page. The developers are keeping an eye on the commentary from the backers to implement any improvements for the finalized game.

Thus far, they’ve raised $1,405. The Kickstarter campaign has a $4,000 pledge goal with the deadline being April 2nd. 

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Game Info

Game : Spirit

Developer : Holden Boyles

Platforms : Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android

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About the Author

Julie Morley

Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling. Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.

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