Shadow-Hopping Platformer SCHiM Began As a Colorblind-Friendly School Project

gamerant.com:

School can be a safe place to test out ideas for video games, often without the pressures of meeting demand on major AAA pipelines. Some teams come out of game design programs, such as the original Coffee Stain Studios working on Sanctum. Other games are the result of an individual's ambition, like Stephen Ddungo working on Sword of Symphony as a final University project. Ewoud van der Werf began working on SCHiM as an exam project in February 2020, and it has since grown into a much bigger endeavor.

Described as «a game about jumping through shadows in a beautiful abstract world,» SCHiM aspires to be like artsy indie games van der Werf enjoys; including Journey and Gris. However, one detail onlookers should immediately notice is its use of four colors per-level, a conceit meant to work around its creator's colorblindness. Game Rant spoke to van der Werf about SCHiM's history and how its visual design has evolved.

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SCHiM is not the first game van der Werf has developed. In high school he got a head start working on mobile games — though he feels they aren't particularly interesting to discuss. «They were an important way for me to get started,» he said. «Now I'm creating the sort of games I like to make.» He studied game design at Leeuwarden's Friesland College in the Netherlands, choosing to follow the development track rather than the art track despite having an interest in both.

While taking classes he met Nils Slijkerman, co-founder of indie studio Extra Nice who taught courses in game design at Friesland. Slijkerman introduced van der Werf to the studio where he would later start an internship; helping Extra Nice with its 2D