Yannis Kritikos

Yannis Kritikos

UnSentenced

UnSentenced, 2023 

 

unSentenced-black

Type 

Video Game, Game Jam

Key Responsibilities:

· Art Direction · Game Design Lead

· Software Development · UI/UX Design 

Winner in the category of Innovation among 750 project and more than 3900 international teams and creators.

A journey through an enigmatic monologue. Take on the role of a centipede, slinking through a dark and ominous landscape of words from an unsentenced man, in search of full-stops as if its very existence depends on it. But as you grow with each dot you devour, danger lurks between the lines.

Enter a terrifying world where every end is a new beginning.

To avoid hazardous dots and text, you must use your quick reflexes, while also reading the text and predicting where danger may arise. Will you prevail and devour the dots, or will you succumb to the ominous abyss of words that surrounds you?

game at itch.io

Created in less than 100 hours.

Winner in Category of Innovation.

The video-game/ Experience UnSentenced was created in less than 100 hours in 7 days for the International Game Jam of Brackeys 2023.1 . The group of the people who gathered on this development journey are part of Surreal Research Team of TU Crete. We worked in flat hierarchy and each one fully responsible for the chosen domain. Good and constant communication between all of us, has proven necessary in order to endure the given quest.  unSentenced won the 1st place in the category of Innovation among 750 project and more than 3900 international teams and creators.

Game Jam – Theme Approach

The theme of the Game Jam was “An end is a new Beginning”. In our approach we brainstormed around the idea of the theme, while eliminating from the beginning the obvious rebirth concepts with different abilities and/or controls. In the matter of video gaming “An end is a new Beginning” theme, represents mainly Dungeon Crawlers types of games as well as the iconic Baba is You (if the theme is read appropriately). 

In our approach, we concluded upon the full-stops which define an end in a sentence and the beginning of a new one. As the game evolved during this one-week development journey, we included as mechanics for all three options for punctuating the end of a sentence; a period “.”, an exclamation mark “!” and a question mark “?” . Each punctuation mark devoured by our protagonist, the centipede, acts as a new body – a new life, a dangerous obstacle or something different that we don’t want to spoil it for you yet. Reading the monologue the player has to decide upon eating the punctuations.  

The UI implements the idea of the theme as continuous Experience, with smooth transitions between the Main Menu, the Game and back.

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Game Development: Minas Katsiokalis
Game Design: Yannis Kritikos
VFX: Andreas Polychronakis
Game-breaker | Swiss Army Knife: Mike Oikonomakis
Sound Design: Konstantina Mammou
Gameplay Develepoment: Mihalis Nikiforakis
Gameplay Mechanics: Anna Minadaki
Best Boy | QA: Yorgos Protopapadakis
Couch heater | Cuddling: Birbilo the cat

UnSentenced, 2023