Kessler
This page will talk about my Project "Kessler" a small indie game I solo developed as my Final year project for university.
The game is set in a Post apocalyptic world destroyed by an unknown force, which has forced humanity underground into a network of private underground bunkers.
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The game follows Donald a teenager born in one of these bunkers who has never seen the outside world. After being curious about the outside world for all of their life Donald has decided to leave the bunker and explore the outside world in search of answers as to what happened to the old world.
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The aim of the game is to explore and find unique lore extracts that explain and hint at parts of the story and to reveal the nature of the unknown force that destroyed the old world above.
Story/Setting
The next areas of this page will contain SPOILERS for the story of Kessler if you wish to not be spoiled you can download and play Kessler on my Itch.io page using the button below.
Trailer
Above, is Kessler's official trailer that i created during development which showcases the story of the game as well as some gameplay elements, trailer introduces players to the main character "Donald."
Documentary
Above, is an interview style documentary i created as part of my course that explains the development process as well as my thought process behind Kessler. The documentary goes through who i am, what Kessler is, what inspired me to create the game and what its based off as well as the story of the game showcasing some gameplay clips in the process. (Both these videos can be found on Kessler's Youtube page)
Story/Setting
Kessler's story is intentionally not told to the player until the end of the game but hinted at throughout the gameplay in the environment and lore found. but long story short the "Old world" was destroyed by the Kessler syndrome (which inspired the name of the game).
The Kessler syndrome is an end of the world type event theorized by a scientist called Donald J Kessler (which is why i chose to name the main character Donald) in which it states that if humanity keep going at our current rate of creating space debris one day so much debris will be in orbit that it will become impossible to leave the planet safely.
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The game is set in a fictional exaggeration of this theoretical doomsday event where the debris from orbit has crashed down onto the planet destroying the world.
Environmental storytelling
Kessler's world is very heavily influenced by environmental story telling, the game is set in Orlando, Florida (mainly due to the location of Kennedy space center) so i wanted to tell the story of the downfall of human civilization and the story of what happened to the "old world through the environment. As you can see from the pictures Below Kessler's buildings are based off of some famous locations from Florida with the Vineland Premium Outlets, a knockoff version of Disney (copyright reasons) etc.
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However, what you'll notice is that I've made all the buildings damaged or on fire to be able to showcase the destruction left in the wake of the debris falling back into earth.
Kessler's environmental storytelling goes far beyond its visuals Kessler's also features different Lore pieces present in the environment like posters or notes that help showcase the reality of what happened.
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Also, The background although (due to the cartoon art style) it doesn't move you will see debris falling and burning up as well as the occasional impact sound of that debris hitting the ground.
Artwork
Below is some of the artwork/characters i made for Kessler:
