Trauma is a flash based game similar to Machinarium (in technology, not in gameplay or theme), so it should run on any OS.
It was designed by Krystian Majewski and will be available for free as a “website flash game”, but a “download” and “box” versions will also be available for a fee.
Trauma is a point-and-click adventure game where the game world is a huge collection of photos which create the world, the player can zoom in (thus revealing new closer photos and details) or out, move to different directions and even draw symbols which do stuff (like revealing a new path or make your character remember details from her past).
The gameplay is a bit unusual for a flash based game and the awesome narration voiced by Anja Jazeschann really adds to the game.
TRAUMA tells a story of a young woman who survives a car accident. Recovering at the hospital, she has dreams that shed light on different aspects of her identity – such as the way she deals with the loss of her parents. TRAUMA lets you experience those dreams in an interactive way, reminiscent of Point-and-Click Adventure Games. It builds upon this established formula by introducing a gesture-based interface, real-time 3D technology for dynamic level layouts, unique photographic visuals and a level design philosophy that focuses on creating a rich experience rather than an elaborate puzzle challenge. Combined with the unconventional story, it is aimed to be a compact and deep game for a literate and mature audience.
TRAUMA will be released by the end of 2009. It will be available for free. It is playable in most Web browsers compatible with the Adobe Flash plug-in. It requires a modern computer (no older than 3 years or so) in order to run smoothly. A downloadable version will be available for a small fee. There will also be a more comprehensive edition available on a physical medium.
Trauma Gameplay Preview :
TRAUMA Gameplay Preview from Krystian Majewski on Vimeo.
Screenshots :
Links
Trauma
Designer – Krystian Majewski
Voiced By – Anja Jazeschann
Mmh, mouse gestures… :/
My experience with mouse gestures in Darwinia is not very good (haven’t finished it yet btw).
I often have to try several times to get stuff like air raids or missiles. (Ok, I admit I mostly played it while on a train with an old laptop so there was a little bit of lag between mouse movement and drawing, as well as some shaking of the table.)
At least, the gestures in this game seem relatively simple.
Still, I hope there will be an alternative.
Gestures can be nice (I enjoyed Firefox/Opera mouse gestures for a while), but they shouldn’t be mandatory.
A point-and-click adventure game is about solving logic puzzles, following a story for me, not about drawing with a mouse. 😉