Carceri

What is "Carceri" anyway?

Carceri [car-chair-e], noun:

Vibrant first-person explorer. Secret-filled sorta-open world. Chaotic Art-toy. Charming story about being trapped in jail, forever. Also, the Italian word for "prisons." Escape today!

Ok, that's nice, but tell me about the game.

While Carceri looks like a playful first-person adventure, it's actually an inescapable prison for fine, upstanding programs. This cold Reality is hidden beneath the warm, abstract vistas that unfold here at every turn.

Only a human, like you, can help these programs escape!

But hey, don't stress! Think of Carceri as a cozy, virtual vacation! After all, this is a place, not a game. You can do plenty of fun, non-jailbreaking activities here, like:  

• Jumping around where you don't belong

• Chatting with the inmates

• Finding LOTS of secrets

• And best of all: taking pictures!

You get a Camera on arrival, with tons of options that change the world's look. Just snap a picture and share it online! This isn't a separate mode that pauses the action, these world changes happen on-the-fly, and remain as long as you want. Collect hidden Trail Markers to expand these capabilities, taking you from tasteful tweaks to chaotic poetry!

And that's not to mention the boppin' soundtrack, the philosophy Forum, the Art galleries, the rock concert, and so on. So stop by, check it out...and do the jailbreaking part as well. Kind of important.

Hope to see you soon!

Meanwhile, behind the scenes...

Carceri is the spiritual successor to ULTRAWORLD EXODUS (an IndieCade 2016 Finalist), but no familiarity is required to enjoy Carceri. This game only takes a few hours to complete, though to see/hear/find everything requires a few more. The game also comes with the full 40 song soundtrack (which is only a bonus if you like the music)!  

Both Carceri and ULTRAWORLD were solo created by me: James Beech, an on-again, off-again AAA veteran that's worked on games such as Metroid Prime 4, Remnant: From the Ashes, Darksiders 3, and Crysis 3.

All games are Art, AAA included, but often it's hard to remember that when working on gigantic projects. So, Carceri is a focused game, designed to take advantage of our medium's unique properties, namely, that digital spaces can be seen as REAL spaces. When you visit Carceri, you play as YOU, at your computer, literally visiting this world. It's your virtual vacation! There's no crafting, survival, puzzle solving, loot collecting, boss grinding, or whatever other big trends exist right now, because honestly, why would you want to do that on your vacation?

Carceri was visually influenced by a series of prints by the same name: Carceri d'invenzione, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. These sixteen etchings, from the 1750s, show fantastical worlds of invented spaces, predating M.C. Escher by two hundred years! As a Level Designer by trade, that's exactly our job: create impossible worlds. So, to my eyes, Piranesi's prisons are akin to the origin of Level Design.  

Anyway, while I hope people enjoy playing Carceri as much as I enjoyed making it, trust me, I'll understand if they don't! C'est la vie!