Arbor is an enchanting 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer with playable foreground and background zones set within the ruined Temple of the Arbor Goddess. To rejuvenate her ruined temple, the Goddess brings to life a clay doll named Votive. He must brave the wastes now overrun with Dark Miasma, crumbling architecture, and corrupt creatures, in order to save the Temple. Votive uses the power of the three Magic Leaves Magic Leaves to bounce, glide, and swing through the ruins in order to collect and replant the Sacred Bulbs in plots of Hallowed Soil, all while avoiding vicious Snapdragons, treacherous pitfalls, sharp thorns, and myriad other hazards. The gameplay and atmosphere come together into a final product the whole team is proud of.
Our group of thirteen talented and driven individuals created Arbor over the course of about four months. The game boasts a dark and spooky feel rendered in a stylized realism that was brought to life by our stellar art team. The level design team used the set of modular assets provided by the artists to build four distinctly beautiful and engaging levels in which to showcase Votive’s journey. With a lot of hard work, they filled these levels to the brim with clever puzzles, and there are just as many still on paper waiting for the Arbor expansion. And of course, none of the project would have been possible without the software development team, who contributions not only to building the game itself but also to the overall vision and scope of the project were invaluable to achieving our goals as a team.