A Puzzling Thriller inspired by the Zero Escape and Danganronpa series.
All purchases help support the development of the game.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
An Update you can SKIP
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 12:22:45 PM
Seriously you can skip this one, but I have to stick to the schedule!
I want the next Update (January 30) to be a massive one, and a good way to end the month heading into the Demo release on February 3rd. It will have a bunch of new screenshots, final revamped art for Lillian, Roland, Isaac and Roger. I've got some new features done as well to show off. It'll be a big one!
That's it, lol. Bye.
Character Art Updates, Game Updates, Dates
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Jan 03, 2021 at 10:39:02 AM
I can't seem to stop making more work for myself, so instead of simply improving character art, I've been redrawing them entirely :)
I spent some time trying to update Lillian and Roland, but eventually I just conceded that they needed much more than basic adjustments. So, I began recreating both characters, but there wasn't enough time to get them totally finished. Roger was also included in these art improvements, but he didn't get enough attention to show off.
They'll be done in a couple days, and I'll need to get to their expression sprites right away.
I finished Isaac's new art... but I'll probably give it 1 more day to get it just right. His eyes are meant to be a little dead, but this might be pushing it.
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Next is a look at the new and improved Pause/Options Menu:
This looks much better than it did before. I need to add in a lot more options than this. Some buttons clearly don't work, and others are placeholder to get the visuals nailed down. When the demo rolls around, these things will all be addressed, and more.
You may have noticed the English and Spanish options, but I'll say right now that only English actually works lol... I setup a system that allows me to change the language of character dialogue, but there's only 1 line of spanish dialogue in the game that I translated using an online translator (just to see if the system worked). The good news is that the system does in fact work, and I can switch languages when I want. Unfortunately, it's going to be a while before I can claim that the game has multiple languages.
You can see it in action here, along with the single translated line. Not sure if that translation is truly correct, but that's what the internet gave me. Hopefully I can get Spanish as a second language, along with some other languages. That would be cool.
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Now to end this pretty short update, I will officially be releasing the Thief's Roulette Demo on February 3rd, apart of the Steam Game Festival. It will be so far ahead of the previous demos in every aspect, and I hope you look forward to it :). Of course, there will be some minor spoilers of what's to come in the full game, so if you want to go in as fresh as possible, don't play the demo!
I'm thinking about releasing a new trailer either that same day or the next. January will be a big month for progress, and February will get the game spreading. Full release is approaching quickly, but I can't confidently put an exact date on it just yet.
More Progress, New Screenshots and Improvements
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 04:42:22 PM
Today I've got some new stuff, and some follow ups to older stuff. To end it I'll go over things that I've spoken about in previous Updates that I haven't addressed.
To start off, I wanted to include some new Character Art, but it's not done! I've started making the final final touches on Lillian, Isaac and Roland. They're all practically finished but I still need to refine some of the linework and get them colored. So instead of that, let's take a look at the Dialogue Update.
Unfortunately I did remove the 'ITEM' Option that I introduced in a recent past Update. The reason for that is it was just a lot of work and I don't think there would be much use for it for most players. Challenge Room 1 has 7 Items, and that would mean 28 dialogue lines if you were to ask each Character about each Item. Challenge Room 1 has the least amount of Items in the game, so those lines are only going to increase. Technically it would be very easy to implement, but with the tedium of writing it all, and the fact that most players aren't going to see or need to see the vast majority of these lines, I decided to just cut out the ITEM Option.
Anyway, back to the Dialogue Box itself, this is visually much better. It also feels nice to use.
Click to expand! I think this is pretty cool. The progress of the game's HUD, featuring Inamori. Also, looking back at her original artwork is a very weird feeling for me.
I briefly mentioned improving the game's performance in a previous Update, so let's look at that a bit closer:
My computer isn't weak... but it's definitely not a powerhouse. An AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor and a GTX 1050. Not the newest parts, and not even the best from its time. Point is, the game runs very well on my computer, I just need to find some weaker computers to get some information on. Obviously, when I finally release the dang demo I could get that info lol. Consistently low CPU Usage and below 700MB memory usage. The footage is from Challenge Rooms 1 and 2, but the later Rooms don't push it any higher.
This is a good spot to be in, and I have means of bringing it down even more, I just need to figure it all out. The last thing I want to do is bring the game's file size down as best as I can. I'm not done with all of the game's content, but it's looking like it'll be around 1GB in size when it's all complete. So performance and optimization is going really well.
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That's all for the content in this Update. Now I'm going to clear some things up that I've mentioned in previous Updates:
First of all, who remembers the "Side Game." That clearly never happened, but that doesn't mean I didn't work on one... or two... or three. Honestly at that time I had hit a point in development where I thought things weren't going the way I had hoped. I was stumped with both a problem in the game's development, and some financial problems unrelated to the game. That led me to think that I should quickly make a small game and release it to make some money and take a break from Thief's Roulette to reevaluate the game as a whole. From there I genuinely did begin working on some side projects. I started working on a small game that would introduce the world of Thief's Roulette, but I threw that out. Then I started working on a horror game and threw that out as well. Next, I started working on a mech game but and threw that out too. Finally, I snapped out of it and just went back to working on Thief's Roulette. Then I landed a cool Publisher and things started to make sense again. One or all of those thrown away games are going to become real one day, but for now it's just Thief's Roulette.
Another thing I brought up before was a big, new piece of Promo Art. The composition of that is all drawn, I've just put it on hold at the moment. The picture features all 15 Thieves, and considering I've been redoing a lot of the Character Art, I wouldn't want to lock myself into any particular designs on the promo art until that's all done.
The current status. I like the composition a lot, but I can improve pretty much all of it, it's just a matter of time.
I guess for last I can quickly talk about the Demo. The gameplay sections of the demo are all done. I could release it as is and you could get a good feel for how the game is meant to play, but that's not all I want to do with this demo. I'm planning on adding a little more story/character moments to get it just right. I don't want to spoil TOO much, but I want it to be clear what this game is going to be like. On top of that, it would be very ideal if I could get Controller Support perfected for this Demo. It's really annoying to figure out, but I know I can get it done. All of the mouse-focused elements of the game makes using a controller very clunky and I just want it to feel good. This, again, is just a matter of time.
Things are going very well, and hopefully that remains true. That's all for now, till next time.
Just Some Progress
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Dec 05, 2020 at 06:23:43 PM
This was one of my slower 2 weeks, but still some good work was done. This will be yet another quick Update as most of what I've done is internal (code, dialogue).
When I have nothing else, I just post the MC's Apartment:
It's getting messy
I'm continuing to update all of the game's locations. I also try to put a bit of time most days into the Character Art (which is almost all done). On the technical side of things, the game is much more optimized than it was for the first Demo. I believe I've said it before, but if not, my goal is to make this game as small and low spec as possible. I want people to be able to play the game without worrying about whether their computer is strong enough. Of course, that also makes porting to consoles much smoother; which is a big plus.
This week specifically, I've pretty much got Challenge Room 2 finished. Both visually and in terms of playability.
Here's a teaser for one of Challenge Room 2's Puzzles. It won't make sense until you play it, but it's better than showing nothing. And yes, it is meant to look that ragged.
Challenge Room 1 is a pretty straight forward introduction to the game's mechanics and to what you're expected to do in a Challenge Room. Challenge Room 2 introduces some new mechanics and will hopefully surprise players with the kind of puzzles I plan on introducing. The most fun part about making Thief's Roulette thus far has been coming up with unconventional ways to present conventional challenges. Something as simple as finding a Code, or a Key will turn into something unique. I want Challenge Room 2 to be the first example of how I plan to spice things up.
From C Room 2 onward, I think players will have a lot of fun seeing the next encounter.
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That's all of the progress I want to show today. Now I want to talk a little about creation, so if you're not interested you can evacuate now. But first, wishlist the game on Steam if you haven't.
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Something extremely important to consider while creating things is the consumer's attention and time. I believe, although I only have 25 years of life, that people's attention spans are not quite what they used to be. This isn't me saying we're "worse" now, just that the world and the media we consume has changed dramatically. If I had to guess, those changes are what's caused this change in our attention. I personally am very picky with what I play and watch, and if something isn't keeping me interested, I'm comfortable with throwing that thing away and finding something else. Because I know this about myself, I have to assume there are plenty more people just like that.
As a "Creator" of things, I have to make sure that what I'm creating can keep someone's attention from start to finish. I like to think of this change in people's attention spans as more of a challenge for the creator, than something to shame the consumer about. With Thief's Roulette I'm constantly trying to introduce new ideas. The game will be around 20-30 hours long, so I can't afford (literally) to create something that can't hold the player's attention. From the Challenge Rooms, to the Dreams, Flashbacks, and the story itself, I want the game to be engaging and surprising.
Personally, when I play something or watch something, the moment I stop doing that thing could very well be the last time I do that thing. What I mean by that is if I'm playing a game, then I turn it off (before finishing), I may never come back to that game again. The same goes for watching TV shows, which is why 'bingeing' has been pushed so hard by the various streaming companies. Try to stop yourself from doing a binge watch and see how hard it is to jump back in the next day. If you don't care to continue, without the pressure of binge watching, I would consider that a failure on the part of the creator(s) of that show. I think the same can be said about a game you can't bring yourself to pick back up and finish.
Creators need to be prepared to adapt. People are going to change constantly, and if you want to create things that rely on the engagement of those people, you need to take responsibility for failing them.
I'm not saying you need to cater to a mass audience, you just need to be aware of who your audience is. They must be taken into account throughout the entire creation process. I'm conscious of my target audience and I want them to be satisfied with the game from beginning to end. If nobody cares about Thief's Roulette and no one wants to finish it, I believe that would be a failure on my part, not society. Therefore, I'm doing my best to make something worth the players' time. I hope to make something the player would be excited to return to and complete.
This is just something I've been thinking about, so I felt like doing a little rant. I don't know if there was a point to make here, but if there was I may have lost it. Anyway, please look forward to the game, It's more finished than these flimsy Updates may make you think. Just give me a little more time.
Another Quick One - Final Viktoria art and current state of the game
over 3 years ago
– Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 09:13:50 PM
Quick One.
Viktoria is finished:
Her art was in the previous Update, but it wasn't finished and needed some work. All done now. Next I need to get some of her expressions done like the other finished characters.
Since these Updates have been low on new content, and I've been keeping so much to myself, I'll just show this Laptop from Challenge Room 2. It will play a big role in one of the Puzzles. If you don't want to see any of this puzzle stuff yet, don't look! Puzzles in C-Room 2 will be pretty unique I hope. Some visual things could be improved, but its playable.
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And that's really all I think I should show...
Thief's Roulette has gotten to the point where all of the little background systems are largely complete, and I've even had time to introduce new ones. For example, in the last Update I showed an "ITEM" dialogue option where you can ask the Characters about a specific Item you're holding. The designs for every Challenge Room is done, and I'm building them all one by one. Character Art is almost totally done and I'm creating expressions for each of them.
I already did my big rant on how far the game has come, but I'm seriously "in the zone" now. The game has changed in many ways for the better. From the story, to the characters, to the gameplay, I think Thief's Roulette is going to be very surprising. I want the game to feel unique and stand on its own, and at this point it surely does. I believe players will enjoy the unpredictable nature of the game.
If everything works out I hope to be known as a game developer that tries to be different :)
I may be a couple months too early to be thinking about what comes next, but I can't help it. Thief's Roulette is almost done and I'm excited for what comes after :)
