In the beginning, many centuries ago, there was just one big island on which reigned four goddesses in harmony…
Iroà – the journey to Amalào is a video game in the english language planned by four students of the HTBLVA Ortweinschule in Graz, Austria, who send their main character Iroà through many puzzles over beautiful flying islands in a three-dimensional world. The role-playing adventure game revolves around Iroà’s journey to find their missing mother and takes the non-binary character through four different cultures, whose war once caused her disappearance. With their parents‘ old travel backpack and the memories of many people and animals that Iroà constantly crosses, he follows the footsteps of his mother 20 years ago.
Single-player Video Game/Diplomarbeit 2023
In the beginning, many centuries ago, there was just one big island on which reigned four goddesses in harmony until they a quarrel broke out followed by a ruthless battle that took three days and nights and managed to shatter the island in many smaller parts. To prevent such an event from ever happening again the four goddesses split up and moved away as far as possible from each other. The kindest of the goddesses however, was lonely, so she created mankind. For hundreds and thousands of years the humans lived happily under the four goddesses, creating their own cultures and traditions. But for humans having everything they desired and more wasn’t enough and as soon some people’s greed grew stronger than their sense of morality. In the effort of some to rule all of the islands in the cosmic sea, a war broke out. A war, that was dark and bloody and forced a few determined humans to wander from island to island to gather followers to stop the war.
Iroà’s mother was one of them.
Iroà themselves was 1 when their mother left them and their father on a small outer island to fulfil her chosen mission and when Iroà grew up they heard only good and kind of their mother, even though she had never returned. Iroà decided early to search for her as soon as they were allowed to leave the island, not accepting her disappearance as unchangeable.
To find their mother’s path Iroà asks vastly different people for help: an amputee, a little kid, a musician as well as a shaman – and even more importantly, they search for memories of their mother wherever they go. Memories are strong like to stick to objects or places, forcing everybody who touches these things to relive them as if they were happening right at the moment.
Going through these different cultures, meeting diverse people and seeing the true happenings of the war, Iroà begins to understand not only their world but also themselves better every day.
Developer: Bianca Amberger
Animation: Sarah Windisch
Composer: Alina-Elise Bachler
Assets: Hannah Krusch-Bartuel
Single-player Video Game/Diplomarbeit 2023
In the beginning, many centuries ago, there was just one big island on which reigned four goddesses in harmony until they a quarrel broke out followed by a ruthless battle that took three days and nights and managed to shatter the island in many smaller parts. To prevent such an event from ever happening again the four goddesses split up and moved away as far as possible from each other. The kindest of the goddesses however, was lonely, so she created mankind. For hundreds and thousands of years the humans lived happily under the four goddesses, creating their own cultures and traditions. But for humans having everything they desired and more wasn’t enough and as soon some people’s greed grew stronger than their sense of morality. In the effort of some to rule all of the islands in the cosmic sea, a war broke out. A war, that was dark and bloody and forced a few determined humans to wander from island to island to gather followers to stop the war.
Iroà’s mother was one of them.
Iroà themselves was 1 when their mother left them and their father on a small outer island to fulfil her chosen mission and when Iroà grew up they heard only good and kind of their mother, even though she had never returned. Iroà decided early to search for her as soon as they were allowed to leave the island, not accepting her disappearance as unchangeable.
To find their mother’s path Iroà asks vastly different people for help: an amputee, a little kid, a musician as well as a shaman – and even more importantly, they search for memories of their mother wherever they go. Memories are strong like to stick to objects or places, forcing everybody who touches these things to relive them as if they were happening right at the moment.
Going through these different cultures, meeting diverse people and seeing the true happenings of the war, Iroà begins to understand not only their world but also themselves better every day.
Developer: Bianca Amberger
Animation: Sarah Windisch
Composer: Alina-Elise Bachler
Assets: Hannah Krusch-Bartuel
