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The Poster of Framed

Game name: Framed
Developer: Loveshack
Publisher: Noodlecake Studios Inc

The trailer video of Framed

Framed is a mobile game where you re-arrange panels of the animated comic book to change the outcome of the story. It is developed by the Australian studio Loveshack, which was a three-member team (now there are four members). The unique narrative-based puzzles game mechanism, the outstanding art style, and the seamless animation design impressed me a lot. Framed did a really good job on combining interaction and storytelling together, for allowing players actually to affect the story through the whole process instead of just watching as a viewer. Different from the normal design of moving the protagonist or objects in scenes, the player moves the order of the comic panel to change the story. 

From the art aspect, this game has a polished silhouette comic style. The comic style matches the game mechanism very well, and it gives an intuitive indirect control for the players. Besides the visual part, the music part also does a good job to help the player get into the story. There is no dialogue or traditional sound effect in the game, that is why the background music becomes important. As the story going on, the player will find that three different characters have their own theme. Moreover, the music has different layers. When the player is arranging the panel, which means the story is on a break, the background music is a basic accompaniment. When the play button is pressed for starting the story, the theme melody joins in. The design of music helps to indicate the pace and emotion of the story, creating an immersive atmosphere.

When Loveshack created Framed, the team had three members: Joshua Boggs, Ollie Browne, and Adrian Moore. Joshua was responsible for programming and design, Ollie was the artist and designer, and Adrian took the music and design part. The studio spent about 2 years to develop the game. At the very beginning, the rough idea of Framed was born when Joshua read the book Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and happened to see that the position of the gaps between panels in comics can affect the meaning of the story. Joshua immediately realized it could be a great idea for a game mechanism.

So far, Framed has become a great success for Loveshack as it has received over 30 awards and accolades and the studio released Framed 2 which is a sequel to Framed in July 2017.

For more details about Framed and Loveshack, please go to http://loveshackentertainment.com/