Representing DePaul University Game Elite were:

• Jay Pecho -- Project & Tech Lead
• Matt Lazar -- Producer
• Kyle Sullivan -- Visual Design Lead
• Alex Seropian – Game Designer in Residence

[GDN] Where did the echolocation idea (also called biosonar) originate from? And what significant differences did you apply to that concept in order to simulate humanly received echolocation.

JAY: The idea came from a DePaul Game Elite group concept boot camp that took place during the last few weeks of June 2009. In that concept boot camp, the team generated upwards of 30 different game ideas. The final idea for echolocation came from a combination of a couple ideas. One was about seeing sound through a spectrum of colors and using sound to open locks and solve other puzzles. Another was using your voice to illuminate the environment. So we drew from many of the team member’s different takes on how sound could be used as a game mechanic.

One of the main things that we did to abstract echolocation was to not take it too seriously. We wanted to have an interesting way to view the environment. We did our research into using sound to visualize an environment but we didn’t want to completely simulate how sound travels and reflects off objects. After all, our goal wasn’t to make an echolocation simulator; our goal was to make a fun and interesting game. If we had focused too long on getting the echolocation to be a true reflection of the way it works in real life, gameplay would have had to fall to the wayside. Once we had decided that we were going to abstract echolocation to a state similar to the way it’s used in "Daredevil," we then had to spend time finding out what kind of mechanics could both be fun and not-impossible in a world where you can’t see all the time. We also wanted to include some sound properties in the mechanics, hence reflection and x-ray.

[GDN] You are using line hatching techniques to visualize the surfaces of the game objects, what is the process to actually produce that effect and what inspired you?

KYLE: The effect itself is actually very simple.  We essentially just animate the value of the UV’s assigned to object textures.  What you’re seeing in-game is scrolling textures moving across surfaces.  We arrived at the line hatching style early on in the development process, back when we wanted to use Basil Wolverton (not Escher) as our primary artistic influence.  In case you’re not familiar with Wolverton, he was a cartoonist for Mad magazine in the 50’s who had a very organic, bulbous art style.  After modeling only one Wolverton-inspired creature for the game, however, we realized that organic shapes didn’t read very well with our echolocation mechanic.  Our proposed solution was to try and mimic Wolverton’s crosshatch style to try and give shapes a sense of depth.  Well, after trying out a black-and-white crosshatch shader, we realized that the result looked a lot like M.C. Escher’s woodcuts.  We threw out Wolverton as our influence and went “full Escher” as the primary inspiration for our art style and line hatching quality.  We animated the line hatching to better give a sense of energy moving over a surface.

[GDN]  Being outstanding in its unique gaming concept, DTF still has a slight conceptual similarity with another game, the unfinished Swan, by Ian Dallas. Is it a coincidence or is there some connection at all? What would you say part these two games from one another?

MATT: We wanted to make sure we offered a fresh game experience for players. We experimented with the echolocation mechanic during our prototype phase and discovered that it made seeing small things like boxes in a cool new way. That energized us.

I have a feeling that Ian Dallas might have felt the same when he was developing his game. What is cool is that we both challenged standard game perception, but in different ways. We concentrated on creating this sense of disorientation, complemented by total darkness, and glued all together by the game’s audio. I feel that both games elicit different reactions out of players with ours skewing towards this uneasy tension of being in control before watching it fade away.