Vox vs The Void
A 2.5D Platformer set in a corporate dystopia. Vox vs the Void is about freeing the world from the clutches of an evil corporation that has enslaved people and made them voiceless worker drones. In a world where light, colour and life have been stripped away, Vox journeys to find 'The Song' that will bring back a retro wave utopia!
The game was made as my Final year submission for my M.A. at the National Film and Television School.
It was showcased at EGX 2022 at the Excel Center in London in the ‘Rezzed’ Zone.
I worked on the project primarily between April 2022 to September 2022
The key roles I fulfilled were that of the Game Designer, Producer, Programmer, and Lead 3d artist
The challenges:
The timeline needed to be worked backwards from the showcase at EGX.
A total of £2500 was available to purchase assets or hire freelancers to support development.
Fulfilling many roles meant that I was often the bottleneck for development.
The solutions:
Scoping down meant I planned and delivered a 7-minute playable demo - an appropriate duration for an event like EGX.
Spending some time creating a recruitment system to reach out to artists via social media allowed me to find the best team possible.
Bringing on a team meant I could delegate some of this work and focus on essentials.
The Outcomes:
I succeeded in delivering on the deadline, but I had to adapt some of the designs and, by extension, the pipeline to fit the timeline.
I was able to get the most out of my budget and resources,
Managing the team became almost equally time-consuming, primarily due to some of the student members of the team having multiple projects to juggle.
The Takeaways:
I should have spent more time in the pre-production phase and not been influenced by the loss of available time due to the late start.
I could have been even stricter on scope and allowed for more features that could be added on without compromising the MVP.
I should have kept the team leaner, resulting in less development time losses from coordination and management.
The vibes shot for the dystopian world that the game is set in. I wanted it to immediately convey emotionally a world where big brother is watching, and that big brother is a late-stage capitalist sauron
The enforcers. Thugs in the employ of the evil machinery of the corporation-state. So removed from feeling music or seeing colour that a suden burst of both stuns them. Inspired by the fingermen of Alan Moore's 'V for Vendetta'
The sanctum santorum, the heart of the Temple of the old times. A lost music utopia straight out of Bill and Ted's excellent adventure
The 'Axe-Calibur' moment. Vox pulls the sword, er, axe uh keytar from the stone, sending shockwaves of colour and music, stunning their pursuers
The Lex Luthor/Stan Edgar, shadowy evil cog at the head of the machine that we rage against
The slums of the workforce. A ray of colour travels through the ground as a sign of change, a sign of hope
The worker, freed of their chains, their muzzle, resplendent in the joy of feeling the music again.
Below are some images from the early concept stages of art and development
Early sketches of Vox
Early sketches of Vox
Initial Sketches for the Temple altar room
The concept behind the sensory deprivation of the people in the world
The big bad enforcers
U-Corp Headquarters.
The discovery of the mcguffin
Early sketches of Vox
Early sketches of Vox
Early sketches of Vox
Initial Level Design and Environment design