Developing Peeping Frame - after Jam

The term "Apartment Republic" is a familiar expression in Korea; especially Seoul. I, too, have lived in apartments my entire life, and it's common to see another apartment building through my window. While you can't clearly see into someone else's life through the window, it still made me uncomfortable from a young age. The thought that someone might be watching me, along with the curiosity about who might live over there, always coexisted in my mind. These experiences may have influenced the creation of Peeping Frame to some extent.

The structure of apartment living, where units are laid out in a grid, makes it easy to distinguish neighbors—next door, upstairs, or downstairs. This naturally led to the idea of incorporating puzzle elements into the game. 

The first thing that came to mind was the famous "Einstein Puzzle." This puzzle involves deducing who lives in which house based on a set of clues. The key components are terms like "first house," "next door," and "neighbor." You can give absolute position clues or hints about relative positions. In this puzzle, you fill in the blanks with elements like cigarettes, drinks, and pets, much like solving a Sudoku. I realized that similar logic could be applied to a game by using character traits, such as appearances or window shapes, to form game mechanics.

Due to the nature of a game jam, I didn't have the time to fully develop a story, so I focused on creating a puzzle by listing out these features. Even if the elements aren't intricately connected, I believed players could still use their imagination to form a shallow sense of coherence. Interestingly, one of the most common pieces of feedback I received about the game was that it stimulates imagination. Perhaps that aspect worked better than I anticipated.

Now, I'm thinking about ideas to expand the game. I'm considering different settings beyond just apartments and also exploring possible storylines.