Maria's LibraryA game about how books shape the way we see the world.
(And about my daughter, of course.)
How do you preserve a child's childhood?
If you have kids, you know: children change so much, so fast. And as the nostalgic person I am — already very aware of how fleeting these phases are — I wanted to preserve some of these little fragments in a way that went beyond physical books and photos.
And speaking of nostalgia, I thought:
why not make an SNES-style game?
BOOKS CHANGE THE WAY
WE SEE THE WORLD.
The game’s main mechanic is also its metaphor.
As the player collects books, the world becomes more colorful and vivid, symbolizing how reading expands the way we see the world.
The levels
Each level represents a memory from Maria’s childhood.
Forest: where her love for books began
Under the Sea: The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, and a phase when we listened to them every day
Bluey: our her favorite show
Hair Salon: her current favorite game to play with me
Unicorns: because reading is magic. And, of course, because she loves unicorns.
Everything here
holds a memory
Instead of random items, every element was designed to represent a little piece of Maria’s childhood.
The details
surprise items, like the pig-shaped ice cream from Sorveteria do Centro, cookies, a hair dryer, a jellyfish, and coffee for mom lol
some of her favorite books
our cat
her cousins and my godson as playable characters
favorite songs and/or songs that mean something to us (in .midi, to give it more of that retro-game feel)
To build the game, I used Claude for the programming and ChatGPT to create the visuals.
The process started with the initial idea and script, followed by designing the environments and characters. Then came the programming, soundtrack — using MIDI files to keep that retro-game feel — and, finally, lots (and lots) of testing. The whole thing took around 12 hours. And many cups of coffee.