A Person Stands on An Empty Stage
Description
A Person Stands on an Empty Stage is an IndieCade nominee game, it is a digital, single-player game that adds a surrealist take to the aesthetics and structures of performing on stage in order to explore questions around identity and the self, how it’s constructed and deconstructed, and what it takes to devote one’s life to a craft.
介绍
《A Person Stands on an Empty Stage》是一款入围 IndieCade 的独立游戏。这款单人数字游戏以舞台表演的美学与结构为基础，并融入超现实主义风格，以独特的方式探讨身份与自我的构建与解构。游戏深挖个体如何塑造自身，以及在将一生奉献给一门技艺的过程中，需要面对的挣扎与选择。
ROLE
Game Design / Concept Art / Art Producer
“How does one gamify the art of acting? How does one try to theatricalize a game?”
TRAILER
RAPID PROTOTYPING
Building on that, we brainstormed some literal themes that we both interested in: Started off from the theme of 'Lack of Five Senses: what if we lost 5 senses - we use these as prompts to see whether if we can generate potential game ideas.
最开始的原型设计，我们进行了头脑风暴，围绕一些我们都感兴趣的具象主题展开探索。最初，我们从“五感缺失”的概念出发——如果人类失去了五种感官，会发生什么？ 我们将这一主题作为创意触发点，尝试从中挖掘潜在的游戏概念。
Visual Development 视觉开发
PROTOTYPE 1:
Boat in the River of Death (Lack of Sight)
That’s when we had this first complete prototype: Player plays as this character who’s an actress/actor in a obscure play, on a boat with a little girl, constantly encounter things blocking their way.
我们完成了第一个完整的原型：玩家将扮演一名演员，出演一部神秘而晦涩的戏剧。故事发生在一艘小船上，同行的还有一个小女孩。旅途中，他们不断遇到各种阻碍，前行之路充满未知与挑战。玩法上角色有in character和out of character两个场景可供切换，在和场景的交互中获得线索推进剧情。
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PROTOTYPE 1:
Boat in the River of Death (Lack of Sight)
Being as an actress/actor, or an artistfemale/gender-ambiguous. Sacrificing things in life to become a better
在第二个原型设计中，在深入探讨“作为演员或艺术家”的主题后，我们逐步转向叙事驱动的游戏设计方向。最终，我们为这个原型确定了一个具体的剧本《Orlando》。
我们之所以对 《Orlando》 产生兴趣，是因为它的故事围绕着一个女性或性别模糊的主角展开，并且深入探讨了一个人生命中的不同阶段。这种流动的身份认同与时间跨度，为我们的游戏提供了独特的叙事灵感。
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SYSTEM
Based on that, we aim to delve deeper into the concept of sacrifice. And also we want the game could be more gamey, so we were bringing up a system - as you can see, we have cards, chips and scale as device for exchanging. It like sacrificing things from your life in exchange for a better performance in your acting career, that is the thing we want to discuss.
And other thing is that we have in-character and out of character scenes, allowing players switch between these two scenes and collecting stuff to exchange it in a mind space. Especially In the mind space, which is the out of character scene, players can talk to orlando, can engage with them, who is the character you are portraying on the stage.
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Narrative-driven
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In and Out of Character
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Cards, Chips, Scale and Mini games
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Sacrifice - Earning skills for better performance
在此基础上，我们希望深入探讨“牺牲”这一主题，同时让游戏更具有可玩性。因此，我们引入了一套交换机制——游戏中包含卡牌、筹码和天平作为交换的媒介。这一系统的核心理念是：玩家需要牺牲生活中的某些东西，以换取在演艺生涯中的更出色表现，这正是我们想要探讨的话题。
此外，游戏采用“角色内”（In-Character）与“角色外”（Out-of-Character）的双重场景切换机制。玩家可以在两种状态间自由切换，并在其中收集物品，进入“心境空间”（Mind Space）进行交换。
心境空间，即“角色外”场景，是玩家与自身角色（Orlando）对话和互动的地方。在这里，玩家可以与自己在舞台上扮演的角色直接交流，进一步加深对角色与自身之间关系的理解。这种设定不仅增强了叙事的层次感，也使玩家能够更深刻地体验角色塑造与个人牺牲之间的微妙平衡。
This is the one of the idea, you can collecting words from in character scene and establishing the lines in the script, but at that time we encountered the challenging with our approach to the concept of 'sacrifice.' because the mechanics felt either too moralistic or lack of moral implications, which failed to effectively convey our intended theme of sacrifice. And also we realized that the scope of that idea was too big. To address these issues, we decide to narrowed it down to a only one loop, one thing to clarity.
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Collecting words
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Improvise
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Moralistic/lack of Moral Implications
这是其中一个核心概念：玩家可以在“角色内”场景中收集台词，并逐步构建剧本。然而，在实践过程中，我们遇到了一个挑战——如何表达“牺牲”这一概念。
最初的机制要么显得过于道德化，要么缺乏足够的道德深度，无法有效传达我们想探讨的牺牲主题。此外，我们也意识到，这一想法的设计范围过于庞大，难以在有限的框架内实现。 为了解决这些问题，我们决定收缩游戏范围，聚焦于一个核心循环，以更加明确的方式传达我们的理念。
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Frankenstein-Inspired Character Construction: Collage, Creation, and Self-Reconstruction
The character is born from a blank slate, pieced together like a collage—they can be anyone, a collective of multiple entities, or a transformation from nothingness to selfhood.
At its core, the game revolves around exchange, sacrifice, construction, and deconstruction. Players do not merely create a character; they continuously disassemble and reconstruct themselves, exploring the idea of the body as identity.
The UI follows a highly diegetic design—the body itself serves as the inventory, canvas, and log. As the player's form shifts, their journey is recorded through their transformation, seamlessly integrating game mechanics with narrative. This makes identity formation the very essence of the experience.
Frankenstein式的角色构造：拼贴、塑造与自我重塑
角色如同拼贴般诞生于空白，可以是任何人，也可以是众多个体的集合，亦或是从“无”到“自我”的转变。
核心机制围绕交换、牺牲、构建与解构，玩家不仅塑造角色，也在过程中不断拆解、重组自身，呈现一种身体即身份的探索。
UI 设计以高度拟真（Diegetic UI）为主——身体即物品栏、画布与日志，玩家通过自身的变化记录旅程，使游戏系统与叙事自然融合，让身份塑造成为体验的核心。
Switching Between In-Character and Out-of-Character: A Balance Between Performance and Reflection
The game unfolds through a dual perspective of being in-character and out-of-character, exploring the boundary between art and life.
Performance & Reflection – In-character, the player is immersed in the act, driving the story forward; out-of-character, they can pause, observe, and understand the relationship between themselves and their role.
Director & Actor – The player is both a performer on stage and a director of the narrative, balancing between control and surrender.
Action & Stillness – While continuously shaping their character, the game provides moments for introspection, encouraging the player to contemplate sacrifice, identity, and choice.
This mechanic grants the player agency over the narrative while simultaneously guiding them toward redefining the self through character construction.
角色内外的切换：表演与自省的平衡
游戏围绕“角色内”与“角色外”的双重视角展开，探索艺术与人生之间的界限。
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扮演 & 反思：在角色内，玩家沉浸于表演，驱动故事发展；在角色外，玩家得以停顿、观察、理解自己与角色的关系。
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导演 & 演员：玩家既是舞台上的表演者，也是掌控叙事的导演，在控制与失控之间寻求平衡。
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行动 & 静止：在不断塑造角色的同时，游戏提供反思的空间，让玩家思考牺牲、身份与选择的意义。
这一机制赋予玩家主导叙事的权力，同时也促使他们在构建角色的过程中，重新定义自我。
Expressive Choice: Shaping the Self, Constructing the Monologue
In the game, players do more than just shape a character—they actively build the script, continuously collecting and discarding fragments of themselves in the process. Ultimately, this leads to the concept of "expressive choice"—the game does not impose predetermined answers but instead allows players to actively choose their own monologue between performance and self-reflection.
Freely Constructing a Character – Lines, scripts, and identity are formed through a process of performance and sacrifice.
Gains and Losses Interwoven – Players must constantly weigh their choices, balancing what to keep and what to let go, continuously redefining their sense of self.
Open-ended Narrative, No Forced Meaning – The game does not dictate a singular interpretation but instead allows the player to shape how their character expresses themselves and how their story unfolds.
In the end, the game is not just about playing a role—it is an exploration of individual expression and the fluidity of identity.
表达性的选择：塑造自我，构建独白
玩家在游戏中不仅塑造角色，更在构建剧本的过程中不断拾取与舍弃自身的片段。这一切最终指向“表达性的选择”——游戏并不强制任何预设答案，而是让玩家在表演与自省之间主动选择自己的独白。
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自由构建角色：台词、剧本、身份，都是在演绎与牺牲中逐步形成。
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失去与获得并存：在塑造过程中，玩家必须权衡取舍，不断调整自我认同。
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开放叙事，不强加意义：游戏不提供绝对的指引，而是让玩家通过自己的选择决定角色的表达方式与最终呈现。
最终，游戏不仅是一次角色扮演的过程，更是一场对个体表达与身份流动性的探索。
