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Before to start the DEMO, it is highly recommended to read the (very) short user manual (see "view the manual" on the side panel)!
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Ama's Lullaby is a point-and-click (& type) adventure game inspired by Westwood Studios' Blade Runner PC game (1997), featuring a command-line based hacking system. It has been successfully funded on Kickstarter and is still in development.
After the announcement of a potential impact between Earth and an asteroid, a space mission led by an AI brings a young computer-science prodigy called Ama to the 1st colony on another planet. This place was built by machines for human beings. Ama has designed this AI together with her father and is now an ambassador of the human race. She’s being protected by her artificial creature. But when she finds out the actual reason of her presence in this colony, and notices the strange behavior of its inhabitants, her world suddenly falls apart.
You play the role of Ama, a high potential teenager who loves technology, appointed by the AI as the mission ambassador. After many long years living in the colony, on a planet that is ultimately unsuited to human fulfillment, Ama discovers that the social order, already weakened, is in jeopardy. By using her laptop's command-line based system, you will infiltrate the network set up by the AI, collect public or private information to keep it secret, reveal it, or use it in your search for the truth...
While you'll have to rely on Ama's skills of observation, deduction and manipulation, you'll also have to respect her personality and moral values. Every choice will have consequences, and Ama's status in the colony makes her a prime target for opponents.
The game development is focused mainly on high-quality visual atmospheres and soundscapes, dialogues and interactions between characters, as well as on replayability: every new game session will offer a different experience.
Platforms
PC, Mac, Linux
Languages
English, French
Point-and-click in a pre-computed & realtime 3D environment
For most of your actions (moves, dialogues, inventories, fights...), you’ll be using the mouse, just like in all point-and-click games. You’ll need the keyboard, however, to open menus: the idea is to reduce the user interface to a minimum so that the screen remains free for a movie-like experience. The use of pre-computed 3D for the game environment enables to shorten massively the time necessary to create the graphics as well as to increase the amount of details without reducing the game performances. This also makes it possible to work more freely with lights and textures in a movie-like style, without depending too much on the game engine. However, the environment will also be lit in realtime and will react appropriately to your actions and to collisions.
Hacking
Ama's main weapon is her laptop. Created by machines, the colony is ruled by numerous networks, either independent or connected to each other. By logging in to these networks, Ama will have access to almost every resources. For this purpose, you will have to enter simplified command lines with the help of the visual monitoring. You may launch programs, connect to protected networks by forcing their firewalls, copy or delete files...
But you’ll have to act on a strategy: when they notice that someone is trying to hack them, the opponent networks will react! They’ll attempt to track Ama's position to stop her, or to corrupt her own system by every possible means.
In addition, you’ll have the possibility to personalize Ama's laptop components to improve its performances: for instance, changing the cooling system of the computer enables the use of overclocking to increase program execution speed.
Dialogues
The dialogues are undoubtedly at the core of the game. You will have to choose between different answers by clicking on summaries indicating the intention behind each option.
Your choices are all examined by the system and will have an influence on the NPCs as the story goes on. So asking as many questions as possible won’t lead you any further, you’ll have to pick them carefully and anticipate the consequences. Furthermore, the NPCs will show different reactions from one game session to another, which make their behaviour less predictable.
Fights
Fights are not very frequent, for Ama doesn’t like conflicts and weapons, and she’s not really capable of defending herself. Yet she’ll have to use her weapons in some situations, when no solution could be found through dialogue for instance. Shooting sequences are then played in realtime, relying on your reflexes and ability to aim.
In Ama's shoes
You’ll have to take into account the personality of your character. Because she’s still very young, Ama will quickly feel overwhelmed by the events she’ll be confronted to. If you make bad choices, this may impact strongly her physical or psychological health, or lead her to do things against her will, which she’ll regret afterwards.
As an ambassador of the human race, Ama can also use the help of her AI to have criminals (real or hypothetical) arrested. There will be moral dilemmas: the machines who created the colony decided to tolerate some dark sides of humans as long as they don’t affect its social and political stability.
The current demo is what is known as a "vertical slice": a demonstration in one level (the police station) of the core features of the game. This level is not the one in which the story begins in the final game, but it's the best suited level for this purpose. That's the reason why, this time, the technical/functional aspect is given greater prominence than the narrative twists and turns.
It is highly recommended to read the (very) short user manual before to start the demo (see "view the manual" on the side panel)!
