Schein --- [Windows PC]

Tube

Hey guys,

we are a small group of developers from Austria and Germany, working on a quirky new indie game called Schein. The whole project started at a university in Vienna in early 2011. Our prototype received quite some attention and it seemed such a waste to just let the project end there. So we decided to continue working and make the real thing! Recently we set up our own company Zeppelin Studio and we are targeting a Windows release of Schein in Summer 2013, and are busily working towards completion.





We feel we have created a neat little platformer game with tricky puzzles, unique controls, a fresh graphic concept and awesome soundtracks (by Leed:Audio). Perhaps the following lines best describe the full setting of our game:

Set in the middle of a glum and murky swamp, Schein takes you on the perilous journey of a desperate father, who is grieving for his lost son. Wandering aimlessly through the swamp, he keeps reaching dead ends and hope is slowly fading. Just as the darkness threatens to swallow him completely, a glimmer of hope appears in the form of a ghost light named “Irrlicht”. As the Irrlicht's glow touches their surroundings, the world slowly begins to change, transforming it into an altogether different place. Through this beautiful metamorphosis, the man can now follow paths that had not been visible before.


Key features

• Mysterious dimensions: Use different colors of light to unveil new dimensions and manipulate your environment. Discover new paths, avoid hazards and learn to trigger mechanisms to overcome obstacles.
• Brain-twister: Use your ingenuity and take advantage of the light to solve complex puzzles and continue your journey through the swamp.
• Ingenious Soundtrack: Our exciting, specially commissioned soundtrack builds up suspense and creates an eerie atmosphere. Crank it up and immerse yourself even deeper in the mysterious world of Schein.
• Mighty monsters: Ancient creatures inhabit the swamp and are not easily persuaded to let you pass. Use what you have learned on your journey to defeat them and gain new powers.
• Gripping Story: Discover the tale of the magical swamp and the journey of the witty main characters in fully synchronized dialogues and cut scenes.

During our development, we have continuously received very valuable feedback from friends, and we have come to see that great ideas are formed by many minds. So we decided to share our progress with you in form of a public Dev-Demo. Feel free to download it and briefly dip into the world of Schein.

For those lacking the time to play the Demo, together with Pixabyte we've created a Developer Pitch of the Demo Level to introduce the main mechanics of the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRYBI20oHTI

We would be glad if you shared your thoughts with us! Your feedback is what we build upon and we value it greatly. The Dev-Demo will be updated continuously, so that you can witness our development proceeding, all the way up to our final release.

You can drop us a line right here, or visit our forum. You can check out a bunch of screenshots and pictures on Facebook, and we'd love a like as well! And if you'd like to stay up to date, follow us
on Twitter (@scheingame), or simply subscribe to our Newsletter.

I hope to read from you,
Michael
Zeppelin Studio





Official Homepage: http://scheingame.com
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/schein
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scheingame
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scheingame
Google+: https://google.scheingame.com
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/scheingame

scheingame

Hi, I'm Michael from the Schein-Team.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

As a side note: the Dev Demo got updated recently.
We've restructured the level to make it a brief but exciting trip to the swamp.



Greetings from Austria!

TheRoadVirus

Looks interesting! I will try and download this tonight after I get home

FamousAspect

Hi Michael, congrats on the demo. I played for a while and think your mechanic is innovate and your demo shows you have used it well to design a series of interesting puzzle/platformer levels. There is more depth than I anticipated from my first 60 second impression.

I have one piece of constructive criticism on aesthetics. This is just about my first impressions. When I looked at the screenshots you posted, the black & white background style is very reminiscent of Limbo and as an oversaturated gamer, I glanced at it and had the initial impression "Limbo clone - seen it before." Then I downloaded and installed your demo to find out it is not even close to being a Limbo clone. So, my suggestion is to add one color into the black, white, grey scheme of the neutral world. For some reason I'm thinking of Sin City and how impactful it is to have a high exposure, black and white world with a dash of intense red. Perhaps you could add red elements (or some other color or effect) into the neutral world to make it stand out. I'm not suggesting a major change, but just a small bit of flavor to get me away from my first impression being "just like Limbo, seen it, don't need to play it."

You have an innovative and great looking game on your hands. Whether you do or do not find my input helpful, I wish you best of luck on your indie gogo campaign and bringing this game to market.

TPSou

I enjoyed the demo, writing something up about it for the website now.

Completely agree with @FamousAspect though, you need to be careful not to get bundled in with all the lookalikes of Limbo. Your game in motion has a nice aesthetic as it is, particularly once the worlds start overlapping. I hope as the game progresses there's loads more incidental details in the background that change depending on the dimension.

Some clever puzzles too!

bigwillch

Just from looking at the video it seemed to me that the jumping appeared to be a little 'floaty', which I find a turn off in platformers.

scheingame

Thanks for your great feedback mates!

Right now we're making a couple of graphical improvements inspired by feedback we got to our latest demo update. And @FamousAspect your suggestion of adding color to the grey world will be one of the first topics we'll tackle at our next team meeting.
To tell the truth, the similarity to Limbo just happened without any intention - we wanted to create a gloomy dark world in contrast to the cell shaded environment - and here we are..

Again, we appreciate your feedback and @TPsou thanks for your article!

kime

This basically pushed all of my buttons. It was very awesome and I eagerly await more of this game.