Concept
Christine Ling

Group Members
Ben Wheeler
Christine Ling
Sophie Price
Stefan Peacock

Soundtrack
J. Jay Berthume

In a world filled with smog, and the remaining citizens living underground, the stars have all but disappeared. Find your way up and out of the city, and fulfill your grandmother's last wish of finding the stars.

Can You See the Stars? is the result of the final project for our second-year Game Design paper in Victoria University (MDDN242). Its initial concept was pitched by myself, and it was honored by getting chosen to be made along with 5 other games in the year. 

What started off as an arcade-styled game soon became an explorative game, where its landscapes were switched from being completely vertical, into something less linear. While this game is still unfinished, it is playable, and can be downloaded below.

My main role was in providing the colour schemes and general art-style of the game. I worked with all the colours, texturing and details including generating Particle Systems in Unity for a more cohesive atmosphere. I was also in charge of all sound effects and its soundtrack, the latter which I managed to find J. Jay Berthume on Soundcloud, who offered to compose an entirely new soundtrack just for us.

The original story

The city is in a deep hole, having abandoned the top world a long time ago due to excess pollution, and you need to find your way out. Luckily, you have a trusty grapple hook, and you pack it neatly away with your other belongings as you set out on the journey.

Scaffolding, ledges, and strong metal frameworks are your best bets. Grapple hook them right to the top! Whether it be out of your underground city, or out of the abandoned top-city, you’ll be sure to find strange and new worlds.

Will you ever find a star? Only you can tell.

Initial pitch, ideas and stills

Our ideas had to be related to a real-world issue, and as such I decided to tackle pollution. Inspired by old arcade games of 'climbing' in order to escape, I thought of a narrative that would start out underground and work your way upwards through gorgeous naturalistic scenes of overgrown, deserted infrastructures of a dystopian world.

Below is the trailer I made as the pitch I presented to my class. We had the options to pitch it as a PowerPoint or just as a speech, but I felt that this was the most effective way for me to describe my idea.