It’s been a while!
Welcome! In this article TheJoes company comes back with a slightly new brand, we are working on a project for an internship at Summer Dev Camp 2022 under the alias of ExtravagantDodos! Stay tuned for that story, but for now, we want to introduce you the initial concept of Yebora’s Verse.
initial concept for the logo + main menu
The concept:
Targetted for consoles and PC, this 3D narrative-driven game begins in the city of Évora, a city rich in Portuguese culture and riddled with mysteries, where we control a 10 year-old girl who got separated from her parents. This girl shares Portuguese and Romani heritage, putting her at a divide amongst the other citizens. She finds herself alone in what once was a festival full of people, and must find shelter.
Concept art of the area of Évora to be used in the demo
The game begins in the middle of a foggy night, amid a celebration at a festival full of vibrant decorations and music, a sacred music box keeping the city save from “Yebora“, a man-eating monster who can only be defeated with honest music, not plagued by corruption.
Except the festival is long done, the music box is broken, and you are seemingly entirely alone, in silence, surrounded by scattered shoes.
You must explore what’s left of the plaza and talk to those who dare answer your cries for help, as you try to piece together the story of Yebora and what leads him to destroy all, as well as how to stop him.
Features
- Exploration and simple puzzle solving of a rich environment
- Interactive, selective inventory with object inspection
- Simple, immersive dialogue system to learn more through the characters
Inspiration
Yebora’s verse takes inspiration in a romani tale called “Ossiri and the bala mengro”, “Ossiri and the hairy monster”, in which a girl saves a town from a monster who only preys on corrupt adults by crafting an instrument and playing a melody that calms him.
Évora is a city that was home to one of our members for many years, thus making the recreation of it in a videogame environment a more realistic and experience-based one. We chose a tale with a monster because we saw it as a link with Portugal’s complex history of dealing with themes of “fear of the unknown” that we could expand upon and hopefully spark an interest on your end!
Where to find us:
The game is still in production so make sure to keep an eye on our pages regularly for more news!
» Next chapter: The Art and Design of Yebora’s tale.
Source: Indie DB