Thanks for all the kind comments on the previous entry, despite its total lack of information!

I really would love to write more on the blog at the moment, but I figure everyone would probably be happiest if I focussed fully on getting the game finished, and spoiling as little details as possible.

The endings, the new intro section, the little tweaks to gameplay here and there, are progressing well.  If you’ve been following my twitter you’ll have some idea of what I’ve been actually doing, but I think for the most part I’m happy keeping any more details a mystery at this point.

I can say this – I really feel the game is taking overall shape now, in the editing phase. And each day brings improvements, rather than additional content, which is actually really satisfying to watch.  It’s the part of a big project I enjoy the most, when the end’s in sight, and the worst bits are over (which were slightly before the end), and you’re just going back over things with a fine tooth-comb and polishing them until they shine (hopefully!)

I’m now happy with the story itself, which has been the hardest part (or rather, what of the story I reveal to the player, in each path.)  It’s taken several years to come to this point, and a fair share of angst, but I feel comfortable to let it out there in the sense that it is close enough to what I wanted to achieve.  In some ways, seeing it as a complete interactive work for the first time has made me feel that I’ve managed to do a few things I didn’t even set out to do with the story, but sort of happen as a result of the mechanics.  I’m being vague here, I know… I have to try hard to contain the urge to share my interpretation of the narrative, as soon it will be in the world, and everyone else’s will be equally valid.

I’m getting really close to finishing now, it really might be done in the next couple of weeks, and onto a short period of beta testing.  As we we enter that stage, I’ll be announcing the actual launch date and pricing (it probably won’t be February at this point.)

I’ll be contacting various distributors soon, as well as the press, making a new trailer, setting up a new site for the game, and overhauling this sorry place, especially the frontpage (if I even keep it.)  I know Soul Brother is still listed as ‘unfinished’…  Sorry about that!

Anyway, I’ll try to write again next week, even if it’s brief.  I may even have some more detail about the launch date then.

Slight hiccup today as I managed to lose two months’ backup of my music and graphics, my HD suddenly failed and I realised I hadn’t backed up for much longer than usual (Lone Survivor itself is safe, don’t worry!)  But this means I will be lucky if I’m able to put the Lone Survivor OST together after the game, as I think quite a few critical files (including the uncompressed masters) have been lost.  I also lost another couple of game prototypes I’d been working on over New Year and some art for those, and other mockups.  I should be back up and running in a day or two, providing the new HD is not DOA (machines like to die when I’m near them.)  It’s a bad blow at this point, but I suppose I’m just glad LS is safe, even if the soundtrack album has to be sacrificed.  I’m going to look into some kind of incremental backup, because I currently just clone my drives, but it scares me that you have to wipe them before updating the backup…

Amyway, now begins the final crunch, so wish me luck, and that no other mechanical failures occur etc!

2004

On my hard drive as ‘mygame.app’, for Mac OS Classic.  The beginnings of a point’n’click adventure around the concept of dream-logic.  Learning to code after 10 years out.

2005-6

Began to develop the editor I use for Lone Survivor (at least, the point’n’click side of it.)  At this time I was re-doing the art in 3D, and the game had a name: Amnesia.  Which as you can guess was never released (although another one was!)

2008

Made Soundless Mountain II for a one-month competition, using my ‘platform engine’, a separate framework.  Getting much more interested in survival horror as a new direction for Amnesia.  Or maybe a hybrid approach…

Began building Amnesia engine 2.0 – a hybrid of platformer and point’n’click engines, all powered by the scripting language.  Initially in XNA, then I reverted to my original plan of using BlitzMax. Began to develop complex lighting treatments, a simpler implementation of which still exists in LS.

It initially looked like this…

Then this…

Then this…

2009

And finally this…

The bedroom has been part of the plan since the start.  I spent a lot of time getting it right, then ended up with something much plainer in the end.

But it was getting too ambitious.  Each treatment more elaborate than the first.  I abandoned Amnesia at that point, and to contain my disappointment, I decided to work on something that was small, silly, manageable*.

Thus was born LONE SURVIVOR.

It was to be one level, one weapon, one enemy, simple survival mechanics.  Everything Amnesia wasn’t.

First three mockups I recently found, probably done on the first day of development.

I’ll share the development images in the next post hopefully.

*SPOILER It didn’t turn out small, silly or manageable.  It turned into Amnesia, but at least I’ve finally made it now.

Just to say why the feeds have gone quiet in recent weeks… I’ve had to take a little time off due to various ailments, and when I tried going back to work on LS I relapsed.  For that reason I’m going to take until the new year off, or at least just gently planning the rest of the work.  That way, when I get onto the final short push, I’ll be rested and ready.

Hope you all have a great 2012.  Hope Lone Survivor will be with you soon into it!

It’s been another really productive week.  In fact, content has gone in so fast I’m playing Lone Survivor and it’s different every time!  I must say, despite the stress and exhaustion, I’m really happy with this part of the game.  It’s a chance to use all the skills and mechanics the player has learnt up to this point, it’s a lot less linear than the other areas, there are multiple solutions to how to get from A to B…

There are two rooms which actually have a mini-challenge in them You can repeat, because the idea of the city is to stock up on resources before entering the final level.  One of these gives random loot which is a lot of fun, the other is a place where you can stock up on a different commodity, or trade things, much like an earlier room (cryptic at all?)

The city itself is really important to the plot in a visual sense. I’m leaving a lot of clues around.  There is actually about 30% more background art than there was two weeks ago, to give you an idea of how much my drawing claw aches.

All that’s left to paint and script are three locations, which leaves just under two weeks this month to add:

– A new enemy.

– A couple of cutscenes and a ‘boss sequence.’

– Extend the parallel story arcs which begin in the first 2/3 of the game (for characters you can revisit, the radio, the diary etc.)

– … before starting on the final level (whose location I can’t reveal!)

Anyway, I don’t often write down the specifics of what I do on this blog, I tend to leave those on devlogs, such as on TIGsource… but I thought I’d share every stage of the process from now until completion, once a week if possible, as a kinda motivating factor.

It’s sooo hard to keep up the urge to push onward, when evey day you’re making a tiny dent on this terrifyingly huge list…  But breaking it down helps, and I think my setting milestone deadlines is also the right thing to do for the project, as it’s a game that’s in danger of attempting to include simulations of pretty much everything (I have a toothbrush item drawn, for example.  I’d definitely add shaving if I could – although it would be hard to show visible without You’s mask.  Deadly Premonition flies perhaps?)

I’ve decided I can easily release the game in a tighter form, and add additional ways to look after You, sidequests and so on, without throwing the balance of the game off, at a later stage.  I’m still going to put in everything I realistically can, though.

Next week I’ll try and share some behind-the-scenes stuff, to show you how it’s all put together.  I’ve been meaning to do this a long time, and if I write it down here, I may feel guilty enough that I have to do it!

For the last six months, I’ve been ‘just about to start the city’ environment in Lone Survivor.  Instead I’ve been honing the first three worlds to a finished standard, gradually adding, changing and even dropping mechanics.  The game has got a lot wider, but very little longer.

The IGF version I put together, as with all the others since before my Indiecade entry, ended with You stepping out of the Wing Court Apartments onto the street for the first time.  That door has always led nowhere, and that fact has become increasingly daunting.

Well I’ve finally broken that barrier, and I’m working hard on the new area.  It took a long time to work out the scope, and eventually the map I was going to use.  It’s still likely to change as I have a time-budget now I can’t really afford to run over, so cuts will be made if need be to simply get this game out the door!  There’s plenty of stuff to do in LS already, so I’m not going to pad the content out if it doesn’t need it either.

So in the city I plan on having a couple more sidequests like the coffee ones.  Even though these are not crucial to beating the game, and add time to development, the flavour they add I think is essential to the game’s subtext.  My inspiration is definitely Deadly Premonition in this respect, a game I loved very dearly.  In fact the more this project rolls on, the more I realise I’ve subconsciously been influenced by its mechanics – not just the coffee!

Outside Superflat World