Description:

Neocense is a thesis game developed by nine students as their graduation project. It is a 2D isometric puzzle adventure game made in Unity.

Players can explore the colourful world of Cha as Amori, who has just discovered she has a rare gift called the Cense; she can connect with spirits and enter the realm of passing. Through seeking the truth about her identity, Amori delves deeper into Cha’s past, The Hunters Army, and the history they've tried to bury.

The main mechanic of Neocense is the unique puzzle solving through switching different visions (the realms) to unlock the way and combat with the enemies to collect pieces of information. Gameplay can be split into three main categories. Narrative scenes, puzzle scenes and combat scenes. The game structure follows a pattern, repetition to the player; there are three puzzles relating to a spirit, followed by a combat fight and lastly a narrative scene. Each cycle has their own formula for how that area should be played.
The aesthetic setting of game is “Teapunk”, a fantasy steampunk world where tea is the main influence to all the architecture and life aspect of its citizen. The game’s artistic vision focused on creating a delightful and mesmerizing world for the players to explore and immerse in. This was achieved with the bright, strong vibrant colour palette, very detailed and textural artstyle, along with upbeat, joyful soundtracks.

What makes Neocense different is we want to tell our story through a heroine in a wheelchair. We recognized there is an under-representation for wheelchair users and the disable communities in games, and we want to make a change about it through our thesis game. All of the puzzle and environment design are focused on creating a world where is more accessible for people with disabilities. To make sure we portray our main character properly, during our developing process, we have done extensive research on the wheelchair design, and have consulted Art Access Aotearoa for feedback and guidelines to address the subject in the correct and respectful way. Our goal is to help normalize having a main hero without a perfect physique in action and adventure games.

Neocense is the result of the collaborations of nine young game designers, writers, programmers, artists, sound producers and UI/UX designers. It reflects our technical and artistic skills at the time, and grew with us through nine months of development. Through this game, we as a team aim to deliver a beautiful immersive world, with exceptional gameplay experience, and contribute a part to help improve the representation of the disables communities in the gaming landscape.