Genre: Narrative Exploration
Engine: Unity
Platform: Steam
Playtime: 1 hr (Demo), 4-6 hrs (Full)
Wishlist: 4200
Production Period: 1.5 years (ongoing)
Role: Director, Lead Designer, Lead Developer, Writer
Inkression is a 3D Narrative Exploration game about collecting the final moments of a dying neighborhood as a tattoo artist.
Inspiration
With the first game that we created at BROKENCIGS, the team wanted to deliver an experience that could encapsulate our own stories of living in New York City.
By constructing a near-demolished city neighborhood, we wish to bring our players the stories of a town that feel both distant and familiar.
The selection of a tattoo artist, along with tattoos as the core gameplay, is to symbolize the ways which we choose to remember important stories. By having a key memory tattooed on ourselves, we make the decision to carry that story with us for the rest of our lives.
With our players as the tattoo artist of the dying neighborhood, Inkression sets them onto the journey to uncover, record, and remember as many stories as possible before everything is demolished for good.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Game Design
• Constructed the fictional game world based on New York City.
• Designed and developed over 20 characters, each with an extensive backstory.
• Designed the main game mechanic of learning stories through environmental interactions.
• Designed the progress presentation through environmental visual transformations.
• Designed the main game mechanic of unlocking character stories through mini "flash tattoos".
• Designed individual mini games/interactions for each character's story segment.
• Designed the main story and wrote over 50,000 words of script.
Game Development
• Implemented the main color transformation visual effect upon player interaction with the environment.
• Implemented the in-game story system using Unity's Dialogue System.
• Implemented the "Design Palace" of the protagonist, where each character's storyline and progress are visualized.
• Implemented character movement and other player actions, including: eating, drinking, smoking, etc.
• Implemented the NPC system, where each character navigates to their designated destinations upon completion of the current segment.
• Implemented the tattoo mechanic, where the player may choose a tattoo to give to their client upon completion of that character's storyline.
Project Management
• Led and managed a diverse team of 7, fostering a highly efficient and collaborative workflow.
Localization
• Responsible for the Simplified Chinese localization of all in-game texts and dialogues.
ART CONCEPT
Main Character - Milly
Supporting Characters
EVENTS & RECOGNITIONS
New York University Game Center Incubator - 2024-2025
Game Developers of Color Expo Direct - 2025
Day of the Devs - San Francisco 2025
Game Developers Conference - San Francisco 2025
MAGFest - 2025
Game Developers of Color Expo - 2024
GALLERY
MEDIA
The Gamer - Forget Steam Next Fest, Inkression Is The Best Demo I’ve Played This Year
Adventure Game Hotspot - Inkression demo leaves its mark on Steam
Indie Games Plus - ‘Inkression’ Captures Stories Through Tattoo Artwork
Game Spark - タトゥーを通して語られる人生の物語『Inkression』クラウドファンディング開始―モノクロだった世界が色づいていくウォーキングシム