.heartbeats

"Do you believe videogames... can evoke emotions?"
.heartbeats is an award-winning experimental game focusing on interactive narrative and dynamic music  in order to evoke feelings from players. The game won a special mention and a Toki-Tori prize at IDÉAME 2012 event in Madrid, Spain.

The game tells the story of four people in four different moments in life (a teenager facing depression, a young man regretting his actions, an adult woman looking back on her life choices and a young girl enjoying life).

The game tells an emotional story with plenty of different branches, a "try to learn" approach, and an interactive help system which tells you tidbits of information about each individual’s story. In the game, you read how the story unfolds and make decisions in certain points of it. Each decision will affect every character’s life inminently, as everybody is connected (by their hearts beating in unison).

The whole experience plays like an interactive book, focusing on activating the player’s imagination by showing minimal graphics, yet playing music and sound effects in order to tell the story and better describe the characters. The characters’ heartbeats play an interesting role in the game as well: if they beat too fast, it means they will trigger the death of another character; if they beat too slow, it means he or she will die.

# 2012-05-19 15:12:48 - official description - source

software: Ren'Py,

display: raster