Most of the games that you will find featured on the Game of the Year list revolve around fantasy, bigger bets than life, the distant future or the distant past. These are places that want to take players into a completely different world, a new experience that you have never had before. Behind the Frames: The Finest Scenario, released for the PlayStation 4 on June 2, sets the vision in a different fantasy – in which you can immerse yourself in the pleasures of everyday life.
I am a friend, the community manager of Acupara Games and I wanted to take a moment to understand why that core experience behind the frame gameplay is so important to us. Behind the frame, You play as a young artist trying to showcase his art in a big time exhibition. And while the game itself focuses on a mystery he’s trying to solve, most of the time you’ll spend behind the frame will be in his weird, living apartment studio.
There are several animated cut scenes during the game behind the frame, which many players and critics have compared to the studio Ghibli’s animation, famous for films such as Princess Menonok and Spirited Away. Those films, as well as many like them in Japan, are some of the biggest inspirations behind the frame. Especially when Marnie was there Really Silver Lining has helped the studios in the special style of traditional animation that they will use in the game’s cutthroat. Brave sincere colors and crisp linework elevate the artist and his studio to something more beautiful.
For gameplay, the goal has always been immersed. The developers of Silver Lining Studio wanted to base the players on their daily routine. Wake up in the morning, make yourself coffee, cook a quick breakfast and play some music before you start painting for the day. The main gameplay mechanics behind the frame, where the story goes on and many more mysteries unfold itself, are solved by painting and the puzzles associated with it. But for players to truly relate to the main character of the frame, they need to look beyond what is relevant to their plot. This helps him cook some eggs and some toast with butter.
For another example, my favorite detail is the player playing music from a cassette tape player. It’s not just about clicking a button and starting music. The player must systematically open the tape deck, lift the tape, slot it, close the deck, and press the play button to release a single song. In game design, we have a term called “kinethetics” that describes the player’s sense of movement through virtual space. Similarly you can type on a keyboard without looking at your fingers because you have an idea of ​​how your finger movements will translate into the characters displayed on the screen, players have an idea of ​​how their virtual avatars move through the virtual space. . And while a game may have good / bad mechanics, graphics, or sound design, its dynamics can dramatically enhance the experience. I am much more attached to the painter as a player because the process of turning on his cassette tape if I do it with a simple button press or catsin.
The same care of dynamics applies to other parts of the game animation. When players hit play and successfully start playing music for their day, the instantly cut off rolling cassette tap gives players a moment to appreciate adding music to the game world. In fact, all the little routines in the painter’s apartment include that moment of appreciation, whether it’s watching a tape game or pouring coffee into a cup.
Details also extend to the game’s painting animations. The silver lining adds special craftsmanship to the painter’s hand, so that even when the player is painting with a brush (which matches the controller), the arm fluidly follows the brushstroke. Details of how the paint from the gameplay melted into the final presentation were also added. When a player paints, drops from their brushstroke will start sliding on the canvas. Once they have finished painting a portion, the paint will be transferred to the smooth finished final product. This advancement helps to establish a sense of time spent and a sense of care in taking the details of the painting properly.
For the developers at Silver Lining Studio and for us at Acupara Games, these are the details that really sell the live-in, immersive experience of spending time painting in his apartment as a young artist. If you want to try drawing some masterpieces yourself, behind the frame: The Finest Scenery PS4 will launch on June 2. We’re also releasing some brand new content into the game, a side story focusing on another young artist on the same day. ! And I hope if you pick the back of the frame, You keep an eye out for more choices like the above. This game is full of them!
