Games always give us control over the action, but what happens if we can only control the order in which those actions occur? Australian indie Loveshack attempts to answer that question in Framed, a mobile/PC crime caper which through its interconnecting story panels is pitched somewhere between digital comicbook and narrative puzzler.
Its creators are development veterans Joshua Boggs, Adrian Moore and Ollie Browne, who between them have credits on The Movies, Populous, Theme Hospital, Syndicate Wars, Rolling with Katamari and more recently Real Racing 2 and 3. Before going setting up as Loveshack, Boggs and Moore shared the lead development role on Firemint’s Spy Mouse before leaving the Australian studio after EA acquired it in 2011. They later lured Browne along for the ride and their indie debut as Loveshack is something of a departure for the trio given their previous work, one intended to break free of the conventions and linearity so prevalent in story-driven games too.
“We aren’t dealing with branching stories in the conventional way,” co-founder Boggs tells us. “People who play Framed will each experience something different depending on the order they play it in. Basically, each set of levels sets up a context for the following events and levels, which means that players are viewing events based on a context they have inferred from the order they’ve played the game in. What we’re really trying to do is make a game where the player can create the story for themselves.”
Having gained financial help at first through a government grant and later through the Indie Fund, Framed has already picked up awards from IGF China and Freeplay Festival. It is currently in the process of being polished up in time for a spring release, and is expected to be a “a movie-length experience.”
Mystery is the prevailing theme, from the narrative down to character design. Framed contains no dialogue, written or verbal, and its cast is deliberately comprised of faceless silhouettes. “It’s part of a Tabula Rasa treatment that renders their place in the story and the details of their personality as largely open to the players of the game to define,” says Boggs.
It’s a game which also invites two distinct styles of play, says Boggs. Careful players can study each of the game’s ‘pages’ and arrive at a preferred solution to the puzzle or sequence within before setting it all in motion. Others will make it up as they go along, exploring each of the possibilities. And there are a lot of possibilities. “We make sure every panel can connect with every other panel and still work, adds Boggs. “It’s a massive design challenge.”
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