Project Link: https://editor.p5js.org/cataylor/sketches/LrkY25Q_n
My game, Icarus, is inspired my the mythical tale of the master Greek craftsman, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus. Daedalus was the original architect of the labyrinth of Crete, an intricate and haunting maze. When the current king of Athens, Theseus, escapes the labryinth, King Minos of Crete feels he ws betrayed by Daedalus and had revealed its way out. In the tale, both father and son are imprisoned on the island of Crete by King Minos. Daedalus crafts wings made out of various materials, such as feathers, threading, wax, and leather, for them to use to fly out of Crete. However, Icarus flies too close to the sun and dies, his wax melting, plummeting him toward the ocean. I wanted to incorporate this main storyline into my game, but give players a chance to change Icarus’s solemn fate.
A (Small) Branching Narrative
My game introduces Icarus and his journey as he flies too close to the sun. The player reads Icarus’s thoughts and feels his pain as he realizes what he has done. To make a twist on the original tale, I decided to give the player some agency on whether or not Icarus dies. There is common text at first, then as you progress, you have to choose between two buttons: “close eyes,” and “open eyes wider.” The first leads the player down a more tragic path, as indicated by text and stroke color. Icarus dies, and the player is prompted to try again. If the player chooses to give Icarus a shot, you go through some more gameplay as the text and stroke becomes gold, indicating your progress on the “good” route.
What I Would Change
I am very unskilled at p5.js, so my project ended up a lot more simple than I would have liked. If I have more time in the future, I would love to revisit and play around more with fonts, background colors, animations, and more. I would have also liked to extend the length of the game a bit more, but due to a lack of time, I focused on making two very brief paths.
Leave a Reply