The Humming Glum and the Heart of Drum

The world is lost; humanity is long since emptied of soul. Exploration, discovery, individuality: all these things have been sacrificed for the sake of productivity and efficiency. Humans themselves are little more than mindless drones, mindlessly beamed directly into their heads by some unknown, omniscient controller.  Until one day, one mindless drone comes across something...special.

The Humming Glum and the Heart of Drum is a junior semester Champlain College project, made for both my Game Tech 2 and Interactive Storytelling class. The goal was to make a game that both created a sense of discovery and adventure, and told a story that highlighted the importance of these things. I wanted to make a story that demonstrated how having a sense of adventure and a desire to uncover new and interesting things are a core part of what makes us human. At the time I was making this, I was playing through Outer Wilds and had just finished Subnautica, and I wanted to try and make a game with a similar sense of discovery myself.

NOTE: The level design is very rushed in this prototype. As such there are several points where it is not clear where you're supposed to go or what you're supposed to do. The following is a cheat sheet to refer to if you get stuck and want to finish the game.

 - Level 1: Word # 1: CONVEYOR. Exit door is all the way down at the left end of the long hallway full of drones.

 - Level 2: Word # 1: PIPES. Word # 2: HOURGLASS. First hidden door is toward the right side of the first square room you walk into. To finish the level, head towards the top right corner of the large area surrounding the void core.

 - Level 3: Word # 1: TURTLE.  Word # 2: GRAVEYARD. Word # 3: DAYBREAK. Cross the bridge after entering  the word TURTLE. Pick up the next page inside the graveyard.