HOPE: A SKY FULL OF GHOSTS
Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts is a single-player minimalist sci-fi point-and-click adventure game by Wil Alvarez and Azrael Arocha from From Hell Studio. In Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts, you play Agatha Hope, a pivotal figure in the Cicadas, a rebel faction locked in a struggle against NexxusCorp's oppressive grip. The game blends elements of minimalist sci-fi with a narrative that is anything but simple, offering players a rich, immersive experience.
As Agatha Hope, your objective is to liberate yourself and your comrades by commandeering a spaceship to topple NexxusCorp's tyranny and save humanity. Your decisions throughout the game carry significant weight, influencing both the paths you'll take in the future and the relationships you'll build with your crewmates as you navigate challenging mini-games and puzzles.
During my demo playthrough, I found myself deeply engrossed in the story. At one point, I found myself physically holding my breath as I worked alongside my crewmates to slip past a NexxusCorp security officer. The conversations I had with fellow rebels and the various logs and notes left behind by other characters added layers to the narrative, revealing the complexities of their mission and the personal stakes involved. Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts is not just about escaping oppression; it's about forging alliances, confronting challenges, and uncovering the darkest secrets. As players, we are not mere participants but catalysts in shaping the course of Agatha Hope's journey and the fate of those she leads.
Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts is available to wishlist on Steam. From Hell Studio is working on a demo — you can follow along with their progress on Discord.
Puppet: I am here with Wil from From Hell Studios. And we are here at.. what is it? GeekFest West.
Wil: Yes. GeekFest West 2024. Yeah.
Puppet: Yeah, very cool. So, um, to start, tell me, what game are you working on? What game are you with here? And what do you do?
Wil: Yes, we are with Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts. It’s a 2D point-and-click focused on narrative. It's a sci-fi adventure. And we're trying to find a blend between the classic point-and-click adventures, which have a lot of puzzles with a little bit of narrative or storytelling elements, where you have decisions that matter and will shape the course of your story.
Puppet: Yeah.
Wil: Yeah, and my role, yeah, we're a two-man army, so I do a little bit of everything from like coding (that is my main role), to art (my second role) to a little bit of everything else, like writing classes on level design, and finding effects and music throughout the web to put it on the game.
Puppet: Cool. And tell me about the other half of your team. Yeah,
Wil: Yeah, the other half is a friend of mine, Azrael, and he is in charge of basically writing. We write together level design and web design as well. And also kind of the promotion on social networks and all that. So, yeah.
Puppet: Important stuff. Important stuff.
Wil: Yes. Very important.
Puppet: Um, so for you, in particular, what originally got you into game development?
Wil: Oh, that's a nice story. I remember when I was a kid, I used to have a Super Nintendo. And I was pretty fond of games like Mortal Kombat, Zelda — one of my favorite games ever. And I said to myself, I want to make one of those when I'm older. And then when I was like, 17 or 18 years old, a friend of mine told me like, “Hey, you need to learn how to code to make games.” And I was like, “Code, what is that?” And then I started like, learning code languages and stuff. And at some point, I did a few games, a few game jams, and then started working as a software engineer — I graduated as an electronic engineer but started working with software — and now I'm making games as a side project, as a hobby. And yeah, dedicating like free time to this wonderful medium of art. Because it’s beautiful. So, yeah.
Puppet: Yeah. So what's your favorite Zelda game?
Wil: Oh, man, that's a good question. I would say Ocarina of Time, but Breath of the Wild is a masterpiece. So maybe between those two. I would say Ocarina of Time because of the nostalgia. I played that as a kid, so it means a lot to me.
Puppet: Yeah.
Wil: But Breath of the Wild is beautiful. So, yeah. Between those two.
Puppet: Yeah, really. For sure. So, um, what are.. tell me about this game. In particular, what sparked the idea? And what was the process in its beginning?
Wil: Oh, interesting. It started as a game jam game. So, I was participating in a pretty interesting game jam called JS13k. Basically, you have to make a game in a month, in 13 kilobytes. It's a web game, an HTML game; you cannot use any libraries, you cannot use any external resources. So it's super constrained. And it puts your creativity to the test. So, I wanted to tell a story in 13 kilobytes. I wrote a small story and it turns out that 13 kilobytes were enough to tell the story. And I did some of the core mechanics, some mini-games, and puzzles for this game. And then I said, “You know, what? What if I combine these little puzzles with the storytelling but I make a real game out of it?” So, I took the idea from the competition and started working on it. And then everything started to shape, and I say, “Oh, this could be a really nice point and click.” Then I started like, messing around and mixing all the elements. And then I think the idea was born and has been maturing throughout the years. Now, I would say we have a solid core. But that’s kind of how it started everything.
Puppet: Yeah, very cool. So, um, what are you most excited about in this game?
Wil: To see it out and see people playing it. I'll be like, that will make my day, for sure.
Puppet: Yeah, yeah.
Wil: Seeing people enjoy part of the story that I have created and seeing how people get familiar and maybe start talking about these characters and the tasks because something interesting — and this is kind of a fun fact — for Hope, for this game, I started to like writing some background story because I wanted my characters to feel deep, and feel that they have something to tell and you can explore. So I ended up writing something like — for the context and backstory, milestones and things — it can give me to write up a 300-page book. So I have a lot of background story, a lot of lore. And I would be like, amazed to see people trying to find out like what happened here, or this event or this part of the story from the character. So those things, like, make me smile. But, anyway.
Puppet: Yeah, I have to say, when I was playing the demo, that was one of my favorite parts was the lore.
Wil: Oh, nice.
Puppet: And when I first started playing it, I had a certain idea of what it was, and then I started reading more in the lore, and I was like, “Oh! Things are not how they seem, and this is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.”
Wil: Yeah. Nice. That is the kind of reaction that I'm looking for. So that makes my day and makes me happy.
Puppet: Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed it. So, if you could go back in time and change something or give yourself some advice when he first started this project, what would that be?
Wil: Oh, let me think… That’s a really good question. I guess it would be… don't pay too much attention to small details, try to like, finish the big rocks — there are things that I call the big rocks, and also known as a Pareto Principle — try to find the 80% that you want to do, because that will take you 20% of the time. But the other 20% will take you to 80% of the time. So trying to focus on the big rocks first and try to nail down then the script at the very beginning because we ended up redoing a lot of stuff because we didn't have a good script. So we have to redo things, sit down and write the script and do them again. So script is very important. And the script will change. But having something like solid to rely on is very important for narrative games. Yes, yeah.
Puppet: Yeah, very cool. Well, thanks for spending time with me.
Wil: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Puppet: Absolutely. Before we end, tell me where we can find information about your game online.
Wil: Oh, of course, you can find it on Steam. We have a page on itch.io but we're migrating towards Steam. So yeah, on Steam, you can check the game, you can wishlist. There is a link to our Discord server where people can join. We post updates of the development process there, announcements, and stuff about the development process if you like to follow that. So yeah, Steam, Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts. Yeah.
Puppet: Perfect. Well, thanks so much, Wil.
Wil: Thank you very much.
