Travels through Sanitallo

The Artist Statement

Travels through Sanitallo, was a conceptual project that tried to answer the question "What story in Illium's Universe would be best suited as a game?"

Before the year this idea was made, I had been taking a course on an Intro to Game Studies. Skot Deeming taught it and he brilliantly left me stumped on another question. "What would it look like to make a game without colonization?" It seems easy on the surface until you break down what it means to include colonization in your media. It doesn't mean the blatant tropes of usage of white colonizers invading North America, Africa, India, and pretty much most of the planet. No, colonization in your media also includes the general principles and branch definitions of colonization.

Colonization in its essence is to enter a new space with the goal of domination. A foreign power typically does this and that power is maintained through control. A deeper dive into its definition and understanding can also be found in my essay, The Loss of Collective Empowerment. In short, though, the branch terms expand to practices you can find in your most popular games to small indie games.

1. The invasion of space by an exterior force. That could just include the player itself. ~ Colonialism

2. Managing resources and native labour ~ Extractive Colonialism

3. Colonies are established to direct resources to a metropolis or uphold the metropolis's interests. ~ Imperialism Colonialism

With that in mind, these were the goals I had for creating the game. The narrative fitted perfectly into this as I looked back to one of my oldest stories, Lights. I never finished the series publicly. I had always had a script done back around 2016. Albeit if I had looked at it today much would've been changed. The core elements were there: Zatay, the alien/angel species of Illium's Universe sets out on a journey through her 3 planet solar system.

The rest is explained below.

The Game

Travels through Sanitallo, takes place on a hollowed-out submerged planet. This adventure and puzzle game focuses on completing levels to reach the final destination, the planet's core. The “boss” battle is instead a final choice on whether or not to take the planet's core to restore the dead planet, Speronavi.

This choice is affected by how you choose to interact with the planet and its inhabitants. If you choose a play style of non-violence and don’t disrupt the environment you are rewarded buffs to help you end levels faster. You will also leave Sanitallo without the planet's core.

If you choose a play style of violence and disruption you have a percent chance of ending levels faster. You will also leave with the core effectively leaving the planet to die along with the inhabitants.

The Characters

Building off the goals of my statement I wanted to capture 2 possible characters you'd play. I don't finish a lot of games cause there's no social aspect or ability to connect with someone over it in the game. So, I thought having the option to play with a friend would both strengthen the goals of the game and narratively give weight.

For obvious reasons, Zatay would be a playable character. However, I think it is interesting to be one of the Gemini. It could create a moral dilemma with the final decision of the game as you learn to know who these people are in the space you are engaging in.

Even if you were to play alone as just Zatay it would reap possible different outcomes with the characters, environment, and the outcome. Much of the design for their tools was to take a more defensive approach. The Guide is the only one that can communicate with the Gemini since they know the language and culture best. Zatay is the only one who could be offensive in approach as her staff can be either a whip or hook. However, perhaps there are times when Zatay will need to have offensive approaches to trek through the terrain of Sanitallo.

The Obstacles

In Sanitallo I came up with a couple of things one might encounter in the water planet. I always imagined everything would be rock or crystal-related. Since water is so organic things that often live in it are smooth, curved, etc.

Crystal Serpent

I took on the challenge of imagining a serpent that kind of cycled through the environment. You could deal with it by either swimming correctly around it or slaying it.

Crystal Fish

These creatures would move more like a swarm. They're more of a grunt type that's easier to kill but more difficult to get around since there are so many. The key to passing them would be simply to wait, which would take a shorter time compared to killing all of them.

Other Gemini

These would be NPCs that would block paths. You could either move them by force or engage with the problems they're facing that are causing them to obstruct your path.

Gemini Spirit

They work similarly to the other Gemini NPCs but there's a benefit to having a second player engage with them that isn't Zatay. They could grant buffs when you do talk with them if you've been considerate of other obstacles as well as the general environment. Such as respecting on not breaking the pot. (I know you think there's gold in it.)

The Background

To get a complete picture of the how game functioned I needed to create a background of how a game level might be laid out. There could be several ways a level could look depending on the puzzle but I went for a more general look for the level. Just so I can capture all the elements that would summarize the game.

I created a layout that was more of an entry stage that was leading to a more complicated level. Some initial ideas is this space was a neighbourhood, outpost, or an area where the dead were honoured. It is poetic to a degree for Zatay to be greeted at a place of life and death when faced with the exact decision.

My exploration of this space was breaking down the different layers of foreground, middle ground, and background. Once that was settled I considered the mood and lighting that would add to the situation.

It was also important to figure out the direction of the potential paths. It's not to say one is a guaranteed path. Although I had in mind that the violent path would be faster but less rewarding for the more difficult level below. While the longer peaceful path would help you collect buffs that would assist you later on in the game.

After settling on a time that would be most reflective of the game, I narrowed it down to different colour palettes. In terms of the Sunset situation, I'll admit that narrative-wise it didn't make the most sense. Since there isn't a sun at this time in the solar system.

Eventually, we settle on this final version of the level along with a waypoint and visual aids to lead you along the two possible paths in the game.

The Future

Overall, I found this project some elements of my questions. I don't think it's completely an answer for my Into to Game Studies course but it does answer it's the right narrative to use. It opened my mind to the possibility of other stories in Illium's Universe taking on different narrative mediums than the traditional book or comic.

In an ideal future, I'd love to see this game fully realized. However, I am presently not a coder nor in any position to pursue this project further. Perhaps when I find the right people and the right time I'll come back to this with the full story behind Zatay.

Currently, Illium's Universe production is at work on Travelling Transition an introduction book to the rest of the universe. A segment will briefly cover the Speronavi Solar System. However, it will be more in-depth on who Zatay is.

See you then.