Here I would like to write a sort of retrospective looking back on the year and a half I spent developing Cyan Heart. I want to convey the intention behind why I chose to develop such an unconventional game.

The origin of Cyan Heart was my desire to turn the world of a game called "Magenta Heart" that I had been dreaming of for years into a real work. Back in high school I poured all my energy into developing this game Magenta Heart. I think it was a project with an overwhelming scale that could never be completed with my skills at the time and lacked a clear vision. I spent about two years repeatedly making and deleting things before it eventually faded away. It is no exaggeration to say that this experience is the reason I can make games to this extent now so I have no regrets as it was a long study period in a way.

The selfie perspective was born while making a prototype and I adopted it because I felt drawn to the act of recording oneself. During development I was feeling very anxious because I could never see a clear path to completion and lacked confidence in the skills I had accumulated. That is why I was so happy when I finally saw a clear vision and started development even without everything completely figured out.

I had always wanted to give shape to the world I imagined and let the characters I created walk through it. While I am happy to finally release it to the world as a game called Cyan Heart I also feel a great deal of anxiety.

I absolutely wanted the selfie perspective to be narratively meaningful. This inconvenience of not being able to see ahead was the only way to connect the protagonist Sarah's reality with the player. Normally you do not explore a place while filming yourself. Unless you are shooting a documentary film like in The Blair Witch Project.
Sarah the protagonist of Cyan Heart also has her own reasons for continuing to take selfies. That is explained in the game so I will omit it here. The only thing I can say is that it is simply my interpretation that she would have done exactly that in that situation with that camera.

Cyan Heart is by no means a game meant for everyone. There is no friendly UI no guidance and no easy-to-understand hints. Most importantly you can never see the direction you are heading when moving. Somewhere in my heart I think I felt a sense of discomfort or doubt towards the kindness of modern games (though I certainly do not deny that it is a refined and user-friendly design). Therefore I am releasing Cyan Heart as an antithesis to modern games. If even just one person can come to love this game that I created with full contrarian spirit I could ask for nothing more.

The sense of unease you might feel in various corners of the game has a proper meaning.

I stayed true to what I love and chose narrative necessity over gameplay novelty. There must still be many gameplay possibilities that can only be done with a selfie perspective. If there are any creators out there who feel drawn to the concept of a selfie perspective I genuinely hope you will pioneer your own ways to play with it and turn it into a game.