Behind the Design: Afterplace

At archetypal glance, Evan Kice’s Afterplace appears to person time-traveled from the precocious 1980s. It’s a 2D top-down pixelated escapade crippled afloat of blocky characters, blippy music, and retro typefaces. If you were ever into the games of the epoch — and Kice precise overmuch was — it feels similar a delightful sojourn from an aged friend.

“I grew up connected those games,” says Kice. “I was ever carrying them around. And I was besides the benignant of kid who’d look astatine a manhole screen and think, ‘That is decidedly the entranceway to a dungeon.’”

Yet for each its nostalgia, Afterplace is simply a decidedly modern crippled too. It’s fast, fluid, incredibly casual to prime up, and features a amazingly immense map. Its characters look similar 1989 but speech similar 2023, particularly the sarcastic vending instrumentality that dispenses random jokes and the affable rabbit that provides advice. (For instance: “If you deliberation something’s going to onslaught you, don’t beryllium determination anymore. Like, determination away.”)

It’s particularly awesome erstwhile you recognize that Kice is the game’s sole designer, developer, and artist. He began making video games astatine property 11, studied bundle engineering successful college, and took a fewer crippled plan courses. But mostly, helium taught himself on the way. “Honestly, I conscionable watched a batch of tutorials,” helium says. “YouTube is however I learned art, sound, music, and fundamentally everything that wasn’t programming oregon crippled design.”

The crippled is besides brilliantly designed for mobile, with one-finger controls that marque it casual to explore. Tap to interact with an entity oregon slash your mode retired of trouble. Or pat and resistance anyplace connected the surface to determination around. In fact, 1 of Kice’s earliest plan decisions was to thin connected interaction surface enactment paradigms alternatively of drafting controls connected screen. “I was ne'er a instrumentality of virtual buttons oregon d-pads,” says Kice. “I’ve played a batch of those kinds of games, and often ended up going a absorption I didn’t privation to go. And I personally enjoyed being capable to play with 1 thumb portion lasting successful enactment somewhere.”

That thrust for simplicity besides informed the interactions betwixt leader and enemy. “Some games person elemental enemies but a analyzable you,” helium says. “Afterplace has a elemental you but analyzable enemies. Whenever you locomotion up to something, you person to say, ‘What is this feline gonna do? I gotta fig this out.’ That’s your full job. You’re not disquieted astir doing treble backflips due to the fact that you’re excessively engaged trying not to get smashed successful the face.”

Enemies lurk everyplace successful Afterplace’s monolithic worlds. Levels agelong retired successful each directions; what looks similar a humble room is secretly a multilevel maze. “I ever loved it erstwhile a crippled conscionable kept going,” says Kice. “I was fascinated by the thought that a crippled could clasp an full country.”

I was ne'er a instrumentality of virtual buttons oregon d-pads. And I personally enjoyed being capable to play with 1 thumb portion lasting successful enactment somewhere.

He was besides fascinated by vintage heroes and villains. “All the characters successful Afterplace are the aforesaid solution arsenic the characters successful my favourite puerility games,” helium says. “I really, truly loved those characters. But they were conscionable static images; they faced 4 directions and had a blank look connected them. As a kid, I would think, ‘I would emotion it if they did thing much than basal successful spot and accidental 1 enactment of dialogue.” Inspired, helium challenged himself connected Afterplace to spot however expressive that vintage solution could be. “Turns retired they’re beauteous expressive!” helium laughs.

Afterplace’s expressiveness comes done successful its clever dialogue, similar the quality who encourages players to beryllium much strategical successful their attacks by saying, “You wouldn’t ideate however galore dunderheads conscionable support swingin’ distant astatine a monster.” The game’s euphony — which Kice wrote and performed — starts successful an 8-bit benignant but expands to go much orchestral aboriginal on, a instrumentality helium picked up from the crippled Undertale. “If you commencement retired the crippled with a retro sound, past aboriginal interruption retired the drawstring quartet oregon fearfulness violins, it has a batch much impact,” helium says. “The remainder of the crippled has possibly 3 melodies successful it. I’ll unreal that’s due to the fact that I’m a chill decorator utilizing leitmotifs, but it’s really the maximum fig of melodies I could deliberation of.”

Never a instrumentality of intro cutscenes, Kice designed Afterplace’s onboarding to get players close into the action. “I emotion communicative successful games, but I astir ever skip those introductions. I’m conscionable not invested yet," helium says.

Afterplace besides features a bevy of accessibility options that fto players set substance scaling, camera shingle amount, contrast, and more. There’s adjacent an invincibility mode, if players are truly having occupation with those monsters. It’s each portion of a strategy to entreaty to anyone, careless of their video crippled past — if they person 1 astatine all.

I emotion communicative successful games, but I astir ever skip those introductions.

“Afterplace is precise niche," helium says. It’s for radical who possibly don’t play games connected mobile. But if it helps bring much radical into gaming, I deliberation that’s great.”

Learn much astir Afterplace

Afterplace

Behind the Design is simply a bid that explores plan practices and philosophies from each of the winners of the Apple Design Awards. In each story, we spell down the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to observe however they brought their singular creations to life.

Explore much of the 2023 Behind the Design series