Illustration by Michael DeForge
Heart and MindAntónio Reis, Amber Qu, Jada Rozier-Williams, Jamari Miller, Jerry "j%" Chen, Mauricio Luzardo, Sophia "Bird" He, Tiffany Yu
Heart and Mind - Trailer
+In one or two sentences, describe the main themes present in your game.
Heart and Mind is not just a game about collaboration and companionship but also of love, trust, and the bravery to let go.
+What was the inspiration of the game?
What made your team decide to make this game specifically?
We wanted to make a game that feels both mechanically and narratively distinct from an earlier proof-of-concept version of Heart and Mind. Our twist came from the narrative end as we aimed to recontextualize the relationship of the titular characters from simple collaboration to something else. The introduction of Alzheimer's made for an interesting core through which we would build the game.
+Were there features you had to remove, and if so, what were they and why were they removed?
We came into this project overambitious with little heed to scope, as we decided upon the three-act narrative structure from the get-go. A lot of our time was spent in pre-production as a result, and we could have definitely been more efficient in planning out our milestones. We figured out the hard way that narrative is a factor that demands attention from all aspects of game design and adjusted accordingly by framing the narrative structure first and letting it branch out into the other disciplines.
+Were there features you had to remove, and if so, what were they and why were they removed?
Of all the features we had to cut, the most regrettable were the narrative “tunnels,” scripted cut-scenes with moving panels that would help convey the larger narrative within the lost memories of Madeline, whose mind palace Heart and Mind are traveling through. The art team could not unfortunately handle drawing the modular sprites on top of their tasks at hand, so we replaced these scenes with dialogue. We also originally had the idea of populating the world with extra characters, but it proved to be way too out of scope and thus the idea was abandoned.
+Talk about your teammates! What was everyone's role?
Amber Qu is our artist who is in charge of creating and implementing the animations for both characters as well as sprites and design of environmental art. Antonio Reis is our programmer who designed the movement mechanics of Heart and level elements while addressing feedback and bugs and level design for Act II and III. Jada Rozier-Williams is our narrative designer responsible for writing and implementing dialogue while also assisting the art team with UI and the audio team with sound effects. Jamari Miller is our audio designer who wrote music for Acts I and II while also designing most of the levels across all 3 Acts. Jerry Chen is our producer who worked on music for Act III and implementing audio. Mauricio Luzardo is our programmer who designed and implemented the mechanics for Mind as well as features such as the dialogue system, the pause menu, and the tutorial. Sophia He is our artist who drafted the preliminary character designs for Heart and Mind in addition to creating and set-dressing tile-maps for all 3 Acts. Tiffany Yu is our narrative designer who wrote the stories associated with each memory while helping out the art team with sprites for level elements and mementos.
play this game on itch.io
Amber Qu: "Instagram - @aqukay.art"
Jada Rozier-Williams: "Twitter - @Time_Knick"
Jamari Miller: "Instagram - @jucariounova"
Jerry Chen: "itch - @j%"
Mauricio Luzardo: "Instagram - @inkkles"