We're all aware, I dare say, of the Indie Speed Run currently going on and being judged by the Escapist's very own Yahtzee Croshaw. And I dare say several of you reading this got involved by making something, whether it was good or not, or else by playing and voting on other people's entries. I'm assuming most of you steered well clear of the entry I helped make, and for very good reason.
Yes, I was part of a team (who shall remain nameless, for our own dignity) who submitted a game that turned out, shall we say, less than great. I was the writer and came up with a concept and a game mechanic that was rather unique (not majorly so, but I had some clever ideas for it), but it was much too ambitious for us to develop over 48 hours. Things were made worse by us deciding to make our game at New Year, when I was also working, so we each had less time to develop anything, and then our artist fucked right off halfway through with almost no work done, forcing us to grab whatever we could from the internet's freeware sites to make up the art. The result was a complete mess and not worth anyone's time.
That being said, the idea hasn't died for me. I still have a fully-fleshed out story in mind, ideas for game mechanics and how to continue the concept, and I really want to make my thoughts something real and worth playing. Which is why I now turn here, to the Escapist. I hope that as a member of this fine community I'll be able to find like minded people with the interest, and the skills, to help me in achieving my goals.
The game would take visual cues from games like Dear Esther and The Path, and would be trying to evoke an eerie atmospheric feel. It's set in the Scottish Highlands (at least, the first part would be), and follows a young woman named Niamh who wakes up in a forest with little memory of the night before, and her friends and boyfriend completely gone. As she investigates their campsite, she starts to get starnge flashbacks and starts to piece together the previous night's events, but it soon becomes clear that something is wrong when the memories she's getting aren't her own. Any more plot info would spoil it, but the plot would effectively split at certain points into various paths, running simultaneously, and the strange part there is that all endings would be canon. Further parts to the game would reveal how that can be so and start to reconcile the different endings.
What I need first and foremost are digital artists, people who have experience in using game engines such as (but not necessarily including nor limited to) Unreal Engine, Unity or Source, and programmers. Anyone who could provide a soundtrack would be useful too, although I do have a contact who has expressed interest in helping there. The plan would first be to develop the plot at the start and put together a proof of concept trailer and/or demo, and get that onto Kickstarter. I want to make this a fully financed indie title and release it commercially, so anyone who helps would be paid depending on the Kickstarter response and sales of the game. The main development phase would be funded by the Kickstarter campaign, plus any further donations.
I realise that this sounds incredibly ambitious, and it is. But it's not the first game I've been involved in developing, however, my previous projects have met with failure because people have lost interest (I was brought in as a writer for someone else's RPG a couple of years ago and by the end of it I seemed to be the only person still interested in making it work) - I don't want to see that happen here, hence the Kickstarter and salary concerns. I know that there are plenty of people here who want to get involved in making games, not just playing them - the Indie Speed Run is a good indicator of that. Anybody who wants to get involved can contact me here, or by email at trivunluzaic[at]hotmail.co.uk. If you have examples of previous work then I'd love to see it, so let me know!
Some further details about the game:
- I plan to make it a puzzle game, but with a slight twist - each puzzle has multiple solutions, and the solution that you find directly influences the flashbacks that Niamh has during her time searching for her friends. As a result, the events of the present influence the past, and that in turn affects the story in the present, leading to the multiple endings.
- To account for this I'm especially keen to hear from people who have experience of developing puzzle games, or if you don't have experience then at least have an interest in puzzles of any kind.
- Any developers will also have a bit of homework, to play at least (if they haven't done so already in their lives) the Myst series, the Rhem series, or the Siberia series, of puzzle games. They not only include the types of logical puzzles I want to use, but also have the same eerie atmosphere that I want to invoke in the game.
Yes, I was part of a team (who shall remain nameless, for our own dignity) who submitted a game that turned out, shall we say, less than great. I was the writer and came up with a concept and a game mechanic that was rather unique (not majorly so, but I had some clever ideas for it), but it was much too ambitious for us to develop over 48 hours. Things were made worse by us deciding to make our game at New Year, when I was also working, so we each had less time to develop anything, and then our artist fucked right off halfway through with almost no work done, forcing us to grab whatever we could from the internet's freeware sites to make up the art. The result was a complete mess and not worth anyone's time.
That being said, the idea hasn't died for me. I still have a fully-fleshed out story in mind, ideas for game mechanics and how to continue the concept, and I really want to make my thoughts something real and worth playing. Which is why I now turn here, to the Escapist. I hope that as a member of this fine community I'll be able to find like minded people with the interest, and the skills, to help me in achieving my goals.
The game would take visual cues from games like Dear Esther and The Path, and would be trying to evoke an eerie atmospheric feel. It's set in the Scottish Highlands (at least, the first part would be), and follows a young woman named Niamh who wakes up in a forest with little memory of the night before, and her friends and boyfriend completely gone. As she investigates their campsite, she starts to get starnge flashbacks and starts to piece together the previous night's events, but it soon becomes clear that something is wrong when the memories she's getting aren't her own. Any more plot info would spoil it, but the plot would effectively split at certain points into various paths, running simultaneously, and the strange part there is that all endings would be canon. Further parts to the game would reveal how that can be so and start to reconcile the different endings.
What I need first and foremost are digital artists, people who have experience in using game engines such as (but not necessarily including nor limited to) Unreal Engine, Unity or Source, and programmers. Anyone who could provide a soundtrack would be useful too, although I do have a contact who has expressed interest in helping there. The plan would first be to develop the plot at the start and put together a proof of concept trailer and/or demo, and get that onto Kickstarter. I want to make this a fully financed indie title and release it commercially, so anyone who helps would be paid depending on the Kickstarter response and sales of the game. The main development phase would be funded by the Kickstarter campaign, plus any further donations.
I realise that this sounds incredibly ambitious, and it is. But it's not the first game I've been involved in developing, however, my previous projects have met with failure because people have lost interest (I was brought in as a writer for someone else's RPG a couple of years ago and by the end of it I seemed to be the only person still interested in making it work) - I don't want to see that happen here, hence the Kickstarter and salary concerns. I know that there are plenty of people here who want to get involved in making games, not just playing them - the Indie Speed Run is a good indicator of that. Anybody who wants to get involved can contact me here, or by email at trivunluzaic[at]hotmail.co.uk. If you have examples of previous work then I'd love to see it, so let me know!
Some further details about the game:
- I plan to make it a puzzle game, but with a slight twist - each puzzle has multiple solutions, and the solution that you find directly influences the flashbacks that Niamh has during her time searching for her friends. As a result, the events of the present influence the past, and that in turn affects the story in the present, leading to the multiple endings.
- To account for this I'm especially keen to hear from people who have experience of developing puzzle games, or if you don't have experience then at least have an interest in puzzles of any kind.
- Any developers will also have a bit of homework, to play at least (if they haven't done so already in their lives) the Myst series, the Rhem series, or the Siberia series, of puzzle games. They not only include the types of logical puzzles I want to use, but also have the same eerie atmosphere that I want to invoke in the game.
