Echo (Mobile & Tablet, Desktop) – Anica Tahsin (14) London
“An exciting game where the player treks through a maze of darkness on the perilous path to find home.”
In this game, the player's selects a character and uses echolocation to find their way around in a set time. The game is set in a pitch-black screen and the only visible thing to the user is the face of their character, which is an outline of a person's face and the waves, which are both neon colours. The game begins with the player typing in their name in a box, which then shows up on their character's face. There are six different characters to choose from: a girl with a bun and a fringe, a boy with an afro, a girl with a hijab, a boy with a quiff, a girl with two buns and a boy with flat hair. Every time the character hits an object, they have to start the level again.
The aim of the game is to reach home. The player will have only one path to follow but they will not know that since they cannot see the path. The only way to know would be to use the waves to work out where the objects are. The larger and closer the waves the larger and closer the object. However, in for example, level ten there would be many obstacles and not enough time to wait and figure it out since there is a time limit. As the levels progress the player will have to manage their time, to allow the waves to return, but also have to make quick decisions and frequently send out sound waves.
On a PC, the user would use the arrow keys to move around and the space bar to project the sound waves while on a mobile device the player would drag the character along with their screen and double tap on the character to emit waves.
The target audience would be from seven to fifteen who are looking for fun but challenging games to play on their devices. However, Echo may be appealing to adults as well since it is a fun game to play on a journey or in their free time.
