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Figment Dev Blog #1 – A world inside the mind

Jonas Byrresen
Apr 11, 2016
3 min read

Greetings world! As some of you undoubtedly have noticed, we recently started talking more and showing more about of newest game Figment, a surreal isometric adventure game set in picturesque and musical world. It have been a great experience to start talking about the game, show it, see the first reactions from people, and seeing them love our core idea and game world as much as we do. It is definitely something that always motivates the team to get up in the morning.

But the trouble with starting to talk more about the game and show it off, is that gamers are always hungry for more info and more sneak peaks, and some of you even want to hear about us and our work process. Therefore, to sate the constant hungering monster that is the internet, we have decided to create a dev blog. These blog posts will cover many things; from core design ideas about the game and processes, to some more technical stuff for the tech heads amongst you. In addition, we will of course throw in a teaser or two.

So let’s get started with the first dev blog subject; looking at something that is very core to Figment and something we know that many of you want to hear more about, namely the game world and the core idea behind its creation.

Early concept sketches for the world of Figment

The world of Figment is essentially a metaphysical representation of the subconscious mind of a person, defined by the personality and experience of that person.

Idea and drive from the start have been to explorer the fundamental parts and elements of the mind that define us a people, and then create a surreal world of these elements. A manifestation of the deepest part of the mind so to say. To achieve this, we had to look at what is in the mind.

What we found out from our initial research process is that all people, and by extension their minds, are different, but at the same time have deep-seated sides and traits that is shared, but not in equal quantities. At the core we all have creative and chaotic sides to us, but we are also creatures of logic that seeks to create order in our lives. For some people, logic is just a larger part of them, and for others their more free and chaotic side rules. Adding to this we have a layer of experiences that a mind gathers up through simply living. This is essentially our take on the subconscious mind.

Concept art for a logical place in the mind

In Figment we seek to create an interconnected world that represents this idea about how the mind is made up. The game world contains areas that are defined by these different traits and the experiences of the mind. Some places will be the creative and freethinking part of the mind, while other areas will be ruled by logic and order, and some might be defined by experiences of the mind. By exploring these areas and tying together clues and events, observant players will be able to learn more about this person.

This world, inside the head, of course have inhabitants. Small strange creatures that represents the voices in our head live here. They are a deep seated parts of the sub consciousness, and react the experiences of the mind. The player will play as one of these creatures, a grumpy, but brave, fellow called Dusty, who must go on an adventure to try to save the mind from a series of nightmare creatures trying to take it over. However, we are not going to spoil everything in this post. Therefore, you if you want to know more about the characters of the game, and the nightmare creatures we have just eluded to, you will have follow along.