Infinite is a Platformer Game where you will play the role of a clawless sparrow who is designed to spend its whole life relentlessly flying until the end. During the play through of each level, the 3 different phrases of sparrow’s life expand and reveal the reason and meaning of its journey.

MOTIVE

Gen Z Chinese generally experience pointless “relaxshaming” now. This generation's dilemma is not only caused by the involution culture itself, but also because of this generation’s experience. They grew up in the economy and thrived as children and teenagers, convincing themselves to strive tirelessly for the future development to be beneficial. However, when they survived in the striving culture, the whole country entered the middle-income trap and epidemics, making their previous effort lack value compared to their expectations. Upon this generational tragedy, I want to develop a game revealing the truth of the meaningless of the endless striving now, encouraging people to bravely face these shattered dreams, whether in life or in the game.

INSPIRATION

The mechanics implied in Infinite were inspired by multiple games across different genres: for example, I was strongly influenced by the pushing of the scene boundary in the Level Devil and SpeedRunners. In addition, I referenced other 2D platformers games’ traps, as well as my original mechanic design that echos on the value. For the atmosphere, I was inspired by an early game called They Breathe, trying to simulate the sense of potential uncertainty and infiniteness of each level.

AESTHETIC

I decided to have the vintage pixel art as the game aesthetic to correspond with the theme of generation dilemma, trying to imitate the vintage games popular around the childhood years of Gen Z. In fact, I tried to portray the cityscapes characteristic with different phrases of Chinese towns and cities, creating the atmosphere of back into the childhood or teenager years as a Gen Z Chinese student. Designing the protagonist as a sparrow (bird) also offered me the gaze to illustrate the typical “city skyline”.

LEVELs

In each level, the player is only allowed to fly around within the edge of the screen, passing the diverse traps across the whole map. The player will use the left and right arrows on the keyboard to control the direction of the flying, while also using the space key to fly(direction towards up), which will cost the Player energy. When the player runs out of energy, the player is unable to fly.

Each game will contain one or multiple keys and one Chest that could open by the key. The sparrow can collect the key and open the chest for the coins, which will follow the sparrow regardless of level changing. A coin is a one-time pass to avoid death.

However, despite all of these united traits, each level of map represents a specific phrase of the sparrow’s life, shaping the difference in cityscape scene and characters’ features.

L1 represents the first phase of the clawless sparrow’s life: the early childhood of General Z Chinese students (2008-2013), while they experienced an economic boom and the late phase of the one-child policy. The game art of this map tries to replicate the town scene of the millennial years of China, the memory of my childhood about streets and architecture. L1 is relatively easy to finish because the player owns the complete HD screen as the sparrow flying space(1920*1080).

The sparrow for this level is a fledgling with lighter, cleaner colors as well, who also owns plenty of energy that is easy to recover. In this stage, the player will feel that the sparrow is energetic, light-weighted, and easy to control, just like the times-benefits of the economic boom experienced in childhood.

L2 represents the second phase of the clawless sparrow’s life: teen years of General Z Chinese students(2013-2018), while they experienced the benefits of national growth and acceptance and propaganda of striving culture. The game art of this map tries to replicate the city scene of the economic peak of China, the memory of my teen years about the new tech, advertisements, and thriving industries. L2 starts to have the space squeeze compared to the L1, the flying space becomes narrower(1920*945).

The sparrow in this level is a teenager with medium color, who owns less energy, and takes more time to recover energy than the first stage, however, it is faster, actually the fastest. In this stage, the player will feel like the sparrow is less energetic, in a rush, and probably harder to control.

L3 represents the third and the last phase of the clawless sparrow’s life: early adulthood of General Z Chinese students(2018-2023), while they experience the post-pandemic economic recession. The game art of this map tries to replicate the current city or town scene of the barren and desolate post-pandemic China, which is the current stage of many smaller cities right now. It even has more space squeeze compared to L2, and the flying space became even more narrower(1920*855). This level is also a level with 2 collectible keys but only 1 Chest(coins), implying the sacrifices and hard work that were conducted before have lost their meaning.

The sparrow for this level is an adult bird with deep, dirty, experienced color, who possesses less than enough, hard to recover energy, and is unable to be as fast as L2. In this stage, the sparrow will feel easily getting tired and difficult to control, just like young adults who spent their whole lives in school and sacrificed their health, who are already tired of flying.

NPCs

There are companion flying NPC birds all along the game. Instead of presenting them as similar sparrows, I portrayed them as different colors of long-tail tits. They do not prevent or interfere with the flying journey of the sparrow and own their individual route of navigating each level. They are here to imply the competitors of the player, creating the atmosphere of intensity to strive.

Other than competitors, there is also an irregular NPC: the Narrator. The Narrator does not own an image, however, it is the only character that is able to speak throughout the whole game.

The Grey Long-Tail Tit will be eliminated at the first level. It always has a slower speed and a weird route navigating the map, representing students who were not good at the competition or did not share the common knowledge about the infinite striving

The White Long-Tail Tit will accompany the player in the L1 and be eliminated at the L2. It has a slidely slower speed and normal reaction to navigating the map, representing students who were eliminated during the competitive entry tests entering higher education.

The Black Long-Tail Tit will not only accompany the player in both L1 and L2, but also serve as the strongest competitor for the sparrow. In fact, it will have a greater speed in both L2 and L3, although potentially slower reaction. However, it will commit suicide at the L3, representing people who could not accept the gap between their effort and gain, or just want to end the hopeless suffering.

Despite the speciality, the Narrator also exists as one of the enhancement of creating the competitive atmosphere. In fact, the Narrator will play as the supervisor of even level and the journey throughout the game. It will monitor the behavior of the sparrow and give suggestions and instructions when it feels needed. To elaborate, it will explain how to fly across at the beginning, lecture the sparrow when it accidentally failed, celebrate the winning, as well as push the sparrow to continuously fly while it stays and rested longer than a certain time.

The tone of the Narrator will also change towards harsher over each level. In this case, it reflects how Chinese society treats this generation: from the cherished children owning infinite hope, to silent workers owning the society's endless contribution even without reward.

WALKTHROUGH