SNOCKS
Solo development
Unity
3D
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GENRE
Sentient snake sock puppet simulator
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FEATURES
Stylized cel shading
Magically stuffed protagonist
Physically accurate sock chaos
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STATUS
In development
When a laundry machine tumbles and turns, inadvertently packing half its load into a single sock, a snock is born. New to existence, the clumsy and panicked creature learns how to move and searches for meaning along with the player.
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Originally an excuse to learn various game making skills from scratch, Snocks attempts to create a unique character that is instantly familiar to anyone who has ever shaped a mouth with their hand and munched on anything within reach, preferably getting on someone's nerves. Snocks's gameplay focuses on physical movement and interaction with the world, and on the disarray often left in the wake of a sock making sense of its existence.
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Snocks are entirely procedurally and physically animated, as they are in nature, and interact with physical objects in the world as the main navigation and problem-solving mechanics. They slither and bite down on anything — simple but unusual controls that offer a low barrier to entry and a high skill ceiling, mimicking the learning process of a newborn snock.
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This project served as a first foray into 3D modeling, texturing and shading, custom character controller creation, as well as game, narrative and world design. In keeping with its role as a learning tool, the game is intended to work both as a single player experience, as it does in its current state, and as a multiplayer party game, drawing heavy inspiration from titles such as Gang Beasts and Human: Fall Flat.
Having just been born in a laundromat, this snock will never truly be able to tell which of the machines is its real mother. The shading in this game attempts to answer the age-old question: what would the world look like through the lens of a button haphazardly sewn onto a sentient sock?
A confused snock in the wild, trying to make sense of this crazy world. The character controller was built to sell the awkward movement of a young snock, with the mannerisms expected from a hand-operated sock puppet.
The common problem solving process of a snock consists of escalating the issue at hand and passing it on to someone else.
As the age-old saying goes: two things can stop a snock dead in its tracks: forgetting how to move, and friction — in that order. To combat the latter, and to encourage the player to become one with his inner stuffing, slithering movement produces stronger forces on the snock's body.
Early mechanical tests attempting to hone in on believable, uniquely identifiable motion, and searching for fun interaction with simple objects. The character model was only later clothed in a sock due to recurring complaints of the floor being cold.
A snock in its natural habitat: any place slowly descending into chaos. Though it often isn't discussed in mainstream media, science views Snocks as agents of entropy. Snock leaders have yet to provide an official statement on the subject.
Early concept art that later led to the toon-ish shading, and which was almost directly translated into the 3D model. Variations of patterns and characteristics, such as the dangling button, are planned features.