Illustration by Michael DeForge
coalescent || tidal raptureHatim Benhsain + Hanwen Xu
coalescent || tidal rapture - Trailer
+In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
coalescent’s story is a journey of self-discovery and self-denial as the swimmer (protagonist) explores their alienation from / obsession with / repulsion about sex, relationships, and evolution.
+What was the inspiration of the game?
What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
We wanted to make a game that is both fun and unsettling. This sense often comes from an action that is inherently joyful but also hard to pick up, which made us think of swimming and sex. They are wet, beautiful, awkward, and oddly complicated yet natural-feeling. We also feel dissatisfied with the way many video games portray swimming and sex. Swimming is usually treated as an intermissionary mechanic for the ‘water levels’ that is only there to mix things up. Similarly, sex in video games is treated as no more than a reward or a joke. coalescent is our attempt to imagine a game where swimming and sex are no longer additives but central/complex subject matters.
+Were there difficult moments when developing the game? What led to those difficult moments? What did you learn from it?
At the start of the second semester, we were told by several trusty advisors to dial our scope back and cut back the second and third chapter of our game to polish the first one. However, we realized we couldn't make a game that represented sex as a "complex subject matter" or achieve our themes of self-discovery and self-denial if we only showed one side of the story. Plus it would've been really boring to just keep hacking away at the same stuff for a whole other semester. We communicated openly about this and we ended up compromising by cutting chapter 3 but still putting in the work to make chapter 2 happen. Looking back we're glad that we didn't go full "polish" mode and we think we made the right decision.
+Talk about your teammates! What was everyone's role?
We both do the programming and game design. Hatim concentrates on the 2D art, sound, writing, and swimming part of the game, whereas Hanwen concentrates on the 3D art and animations, level design, and sex part of the game.
play this game on itch.io
Bluesky - @hatimb00.itch.io
Bluesky - @hanwenxumame.bsky.social
itch - @HanwenXuMame
Instagram & itch - @hatimb00