Welcome to Modojo, 
Highbrow Homebrew: Rorschach
Written by Jonathan Glover on Thursday, February 14, 2008
Jonathan Glover explores just what kind of mind could produce a game as unique and striking as Rorschach...
The scene opens with a small person walking down a country path, wagon in tow. The title flashes on the screen as you continue up the path to discover a large, guarded building which turns out to be an insane asylum. You're an investigator who has been called on to solve the grisly murder of the asylum's chief doctor. Swathed in a stark black and white and accompanied by a somber string score, it sounds like like the newest work from the likes of David Cage. But in fact, the game, Rorschach, is a very focused indie adventure for the PSP (and PC) by developer Jens Andersson.
"Rorschach was an experiment in game-play gone awry.", says Andersson. "It started off just as a small prototype, where I stole graphics from some ink-paintings I really liked on my girlfriend Ida Roden's homepage. When she saw it, she offered to make some original ones and the game grew from there. The setting with an asylum was developed from both the art-style and from what would work well for the game-play. We also decided to make it more of an art-game, since we both were curious in how a game would be perceived if showed in a gallery or a museum."
The most immediately striking aspect of the game is obviously the art-style. Thick blotches of black and white ink fill what literally appears to be a textured canvas. Ida Roden's characters are all rather plain, yet distinctive, while the indiscernibility of certain items almost adds to the mystique of the game rather than creating confusion for the player. It's all fairly haphazard and evokes an undramatic, childlike Edward Gorey.
The most important aspect of the game, however, is the dialogue system. Jens eschewed the conventional call-and-response style for an inventory system in which all basic communication is done via "items" (culled from conversation or the environment) that can be added to your inventory and then presented to a character to spur particular conversation. You have four slots in which to store conversation pieces and the management of these pieces of information creates a puzzle within the puzzle.
"The games I worked on professionally have always had a big focus on story-telling. In my opinion, one of the problems with story-telling in games is the dialogues. While nowadays a lot of the storytelling is moved into the actual game, dialogue are still little more than interactive cutscenes. After thinking about that, I came up with the mechanics that allows the player to use information as an item that can be used for puzzles and trade."
While very "game-y", the communication in this project emulates actual conversation better than any game I've ever played. For all the ballyhoo about Mass Effect's dialogue tree, it remains, as Jens says, an "interactive cutscene" with pre-defined actions and reactions. Honestly, how many different ways can you say, "Wanna' fuck in this elevator?"
Despite this system's dynamism, Andersson remains skeptical as to whether or not it could work in a larger capacity. "I'm still not sure if you can use this technique in a full-fledged game, but it definitely has potential and works well in Rorschach."
And then there is the beautiful music. Unabashedly ripped from the film Oldboy, its melancholy ambience is the perfect partner to this little game. It wasn't meant to be though, as going forward Jens plans to replace it.
"The music from Oldboy is a marvelous song and the harmony of it contrasts the odd setting of the game very well (just as it did in the excellent movie). I don't feel comfortable keeping it since I don't have the rights for it, even more so since a couple of magazines have requested to have Rorschach on their DVD. Instead, I'm working with a musician that contacted me and asked if he could write an original score for it, and that is turning out to be pretty cool."
If all this seems a little grandiose for a little one-man development project, it's because Jens Andersson isn't any ordinary one-man. He worked for Swedish studio Starbreeze as the lead designer on both The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness, two critically acclaimed first-person shooters which are considered among the best licensed games of all-time. But Jens needed a break and after stepping back from the games industry about a year ago, it seems he found his place in the homebrew handheld scene.
"I'm a self-taught programmer and I've always loved the underground mentality of the different scenes, be it the demo-, independent games- or the homebrew-scene. There is always so much creative stuff going on. Handhelds in particular has some a lot new to offer, since it's something new to be able to have a small computer at hand all the time, especially one with good input capabilities (which sadly is still lacking on most mobiles) and connectivity possibilities. I think we will see a lot of innovative stuff coming up on devices like the DS, PSP and mobiles. I love to be a part of it and homebrew is currently the best way to do that."
Taking a homebrew project to retail is a mighty task though and when asked if there's a demand Andersson responds, "It's hard to say. No matter how good the stuff that you have is, it's still extremely difficult to go from a homebrew project to something that you sell through proper channels. I wouldn't mind it though."
It seems of little consequence to Jens, as it's quite evident the passion he puts into his projects. His site, Collecting Smiles (www.collectingsmiles.com) is also host to Colors!, a digital painting application for the Nintendo DS along with the just-released Hyena, an "AudioGame" player for both the DS and PSP which Jens talks very excitedly about.
"I'm currently in the process of releasing Hyena, which is an AudioGame player for DS and PSP (and possible more to come). This project is inspired by the AudioBooks that has grown in popularity the last couple of years, and tries to do the same for games. The idea is that you should be able to play a game with only sound and just one button, making it possible to play games where it hasn't been possible before (like when you are driving (or sitting in Church). I recently found the gamebook Flight from the Dark, by Joe Dever and Gary Chalk, available through the homepage projectaon.org. This book was something I fondly remember from my childhood and was both the inspiration as well as the perfect candidate to bundle with this project."
The scope of his projects is amazing and if Rorschach, a definite modern adventure masterpiece, is indicative of the quality of his output, you can't help be excited. Or even happy for the dude, as he embraces the indie spirit and, for the time being, it doesn't look like he's going anywhere.
"I'm still attached to Swedish developer Starbreeze, and I do some work for them now and then. While I love working with high-profile games, it's still tough to work on just one project for over 2 years, so I plan to keep doing small projects like this at least until I'm broke."
