The interactive science fiction comic.

Synopsis

After 4 years of successfully terraforming Mars, the International Space Agency (ISA) sends two of its best astronauts, Lupe García and Yun Lao, to collect biological samples and bring them to Earth. But they don´t know the dangerous situations that await them… Only your decisions can help bring them home safe and sound.

Concept

Mars Oddity is an interactive comic book with a “choose your own adventure” feel. It is about the misadventures of a pair of astronauts on a Martian base and the obscurity and secrecy that surrounds their trip. There are two different narratives for each of the protagonists, which both develop in parallel. As the user/reader, you will have to make the first decision which will determine the type of story that you will read: Will you follow Lupe or Yun? Your decisions matter as they determine the future of the relationship between the two astronauts and the story they will follow.  

Project

Mars Oddity was initially created within the subject of Scriptwriting and Interactive Audio-visual Communication design. Three students of Audio-Visual Communication and one Information Engineering student came together in 2015 to develop an interdisciplinary final project together based on interactive comic books. Not wanting to Mars Oddity to be left on the shelf, the team decided to move forward with the project outside of the university. They soon obtained residency at StartingLab, an incubator of interactive projects from UPF and Incubio. They consulted with various professionals from the video gaming industry, such as Jordi Mendieta, the head of Moonbite Games and the president of the Audio-visual Cluster of Catalonia, Carles Sora, who is also a professor at MIT.

Team

Ana Mar López – Project Manager

Pilar Villanueva – Art direction

Eric Sueiro - Sound designer

Roser Pruaño – Technical Lead

Marcos Buenacasa – Unity developer

Sergi Ballesteros - Background artist ​