Whitman's Witts

This game was made as a university project for IADE's Games Development course. In the semester this was made in, the theme we had to follow was "art movements", with a special emphasis on realism vs surrealism. While this was a terrible theme to base a videogame around, I did what I thought was the best with the parameters I was given.

Whitman’s Wits is a level-based puzzle adventure game where you play as Walt Whitman, a highly influential American poet who was part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. In each level, the player goes through the process of completing and uncovering a poem written by Walt Whitman himself, seen in his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass.

In order to complete a level, the player must "pick up" words scattered around the map and assign them to the correct incomplete verse, represented by a door. When the correct word is placed in the appropriate incomplete verse, the door opens and the player can proceed with the rest of the level.

There are various obstacles that the player must overcome or use to their advantage. They must figure out how to navigate the level and complete every verse (aka open every door) and reach the flag to complete the level (and the poem).

Instructions:

Controls

- Move around the map using WASD or the arrow keys;

- Press “E” to interact with objects;

- Press “Esc” to pause the game at any time.

Gameplay

- Use pencils and pens to “pick up” words and write them down in a paper;

- If your word correctly fits the displayed verse, you unlock new paths;

- If the word in your paper was written by pencil, colliding with an erasers deletes the word, forcing you to go back and pick it up again;

- Colliding with a pair of scissors cuts the paper and instantly fails the level;

- Ink pools delete your word, even if it was written by pen. Black ink prevents more words from being picked up again until the player washes it down with white ink.

- Obstacles that affect your paper will make it lose durability, represented by a green bar above the paper. If its durability goes below zero, you will fail the level;

- Your goal is to overcome these obstacles in order to reach the flag.

Cheats

- Press “C” to instantly clear a level.