Hiya! First time posting here.

So I was assigned with these three themes for the S4D14: Deprived Senses, Emptiness, Black Magic.

Let's start by throwing all the ideas about the themes, shall we?

Deprived Senses

Quite literal. The easiest and most exploitable is the sense of sight. Sense of hearing would also be possible but I need to experiment with in-game sounds. Maybe some sort of scenario where the character suddenly loses the ability to see/hear.

Or maybe some other sense outside the commonly believed five senses. The sense of direction? The character is lost in some place, some woods or labyrinth. Or the sense of time, where the environment drastically change from morning to night, from summer to winter.

Emptiness

My first thought is to tie this down to the character. Is the character an empty vessel, some kind of a homunculus? Could the character lacking emotion, ambition, soul, etc? Is the character feels empty after losing a certain somebody/thing, and seeks to find it/him/her?

I feel this theme could ended up shaping the story of the game.

Black Magic

Abrakadabra!

Black magic can be used here as a character's ability, related to his/her deprived sense. It could also be the reason of the character's emptiness, a curse or some sort. Or the character's origin, as he/she was created from black magic.

More or less this is a game mechanic.

Some game ideas I could come up combining those three themes:

- The player in a recursive location, caused by black magic, and the player have to find a way out. Emptiness plays a role in the story which I'll try to figure out later.

- A top down (or 2.5 isometric) action shooter where the player gains more powerful attack as their vision lessens, or as his/her senses lessens.

I really hope I can finish this game in time.

To my fellow gamedevs, happy developing and good luck to all!