Afterlight Story Development 2.0

This is the point in the game's development where we made the decision to treat the game's levels as the chapters to the story, following a theme of the 5 stages of grief; where each chapter focuses on one stage and tells Aste's story, in that point of her emotional journey, through the level design and narration/dialogue.

Levels Progression

At the start of the game, the visuals (i.e. assets and backgrounds) would be calm and collected, reflecting on the non-destressing start to the story; and they should get exponentially more chaotic and dispersed as the player progresses, only to end at the last level being serene and simple, displaying the moment of acceptance and realization when Aste has all the crystals and emotional stability she craved; Following the lapses in the five stages of grief.

Chapter One - Denial: the world looks normal because Aste refuses to look within her and tries to block negativity rather than working through her trauma.

Chapter Two - Frustration: Aste becomes frustrated with herself, she blames herself for choosing to stay blind to the mistakes she’s made in the past.

Chapter Three - Bargaining: Aste tries to convince herself that this is how her life is and she should be content with what she has, rather than realizing she could have a better life.

Chapter Four - Depression: Aste realizes that trying to bargain with her emotions leads her nowhere, making her spiral into a depression.

Chapter Five - Acceptance: Aste is finally able to see that the ability she was born with was not a curse, but the opportunity to interact with nature in a way that no one else can, attuning herself to the life of the world and being able to travel at will.