ThoughtBread

Factsheet

Developer:
ThoughtBread
Based in Trier, Germany

Release date:
To be announced

Platforms:
Windows (Pre-Alpha)
Linux, Mac planned on/pre-release

Website:
pausedgame.com

Regular Price:

Description

As kids everything seemed to last forever. Minutes couldn't go fast enough for us as kids. But if we look back to that time it was just an instant. Paused is a 3D action adventure about the natural desire to stay connected to our inner child. It is a tale of an otter named Thea. Otter are very curious and playful animals. Their nature seems carefree, which enhances the base tone of the tale. The core mechanic in Paused is the ability to slow down time to the point of total stop. It is called 'Shimmer' and is a metapher of that sensation of time your had as a child. This variant of time manipulation is an old ability of otters in that world. The effect does not directly stop time but rather objects closer appear to move slower, the farther away an object is the faster it will seem to move. The main protagonist is a young otter named Thea, whose parents disappeared one day and she had to survive alone and grow up through that challenge. One day she passes a nearby canyon, her parents warned her all about in her childhood, in search for food. She stumbles into the canyon and now wants to get out of it. During her journey she discovers the lost history of otter civilization and finds clues about the whereabout of her parents. Further she discovers how otters sacrificed her playful drive in to be more efficient. They created giant machines and golems to aid them with specific tasks inside of the canyon and advanced to a higher technology level. Those machines and golems are still active and try to fulfill their tasks. Thea is able to fight said machines and golems with her hunting staff and using her 'Shimmer' ability. The combination of both can unleash devastating attacks that can shatter parts of golems and machines to expose their weak spots. The 'Shimmer' ability can be used to many extends, as active combat ability, in defense to dodge attacks or counter-attack open spots. Additionally, mechanisms can be manipulated might need to be re-synchronized in order to fix them or do variable tasks. Parts of the canyon are simply not reachable by foot alone, thus the player is able to swim and dive through water he let in the canyon from underground reservoirs held back by giant pumps. This allows players to travel the world faster in a natural way and gives him incentive to explore prior parts of world yet again.

History

Paused started as our master project at university. During development of the concept we extended the base ideas of the game and started production in early 2017 with the goal of our first commercial title for major platforms. Paused is actively developed using the Unreal Engine 4 from Epic Games. An Pre-Alpha build was first shown at GamesCom 2017 at the GameUp! Booth in the GAME Bundesverband e.V. Pavilion in cooperation with the Hochschule Trier. We started releasing Pre-Alpha builds to the public in late 2017.

Features

• Slow the flow of time at your own will.
• Wrap your head around ancient apparatuses by getting used to an innovative spatial understanding.
• Diving and swimming.
• Explore an ancient technology & culture created by otters.

Paused Credits

Maxine Hammen
2D Concept & Texturing, ThoughtBread

Sebastian Krause
Programming & VFX, ThoughtBread

Yasmin Schraven
3D Artist & Level Design, ThoughtBread

Julia Wolf
3D & 2D Artist, ThoughtBread

Vanessa Barth
Composition & Sound/Audio Design, external

Marco Rosenberg
Speaker (German), external

Benjamin Sonnenschein
Storytelling, external

Contact

Inquiries
contact@thoughtbread.de

Twitter
twitter.com/ThoughtBread

Facebook
facebook.com/ThoughtBread

Web
thoughtbread.de