[DOWNLOAD BUILDS HERE]
[or watch a playthrough here]
<Role: game designer, 2D artist>

Sisyphus is a Sisyphean tale of discovery, perseverance, and rock rolling.

The loop is simple: keep rolling the rock up the hill. Build up your strength and stamina through the karma you gain by rolling the rock. You can also unlock "decorations" with your karma, which might breathe life to the lifeless hill you inhabit. The choice is yours: find beauty and meaning in your current state, or press on?

Even though we were developing a 3D game, the main artists were more comfortable with 2D, so we decided on a compromise: 3D with a mix of 2D art. The playable character model, the rock, and the worldspace (including the hill, which was just a flat plane) were 3D, whereas the other elements were 2D. The problem was making the 3D not look out of place with the 2D elements. I was the only one in the jam group that was familiar with both the artistic vision and programming, so I directed and implemented the artist's assets to make sure the programmer/artist didn't clash and the game looked the way that we thought it should.

Developed in 48 hours for the 2016 Global Game Jam (theme: "ritual").

Concept art:

Made with Unity3D; collaboration with Ralph Kim, Swetha Kannan, and Ivan Wang.