A Puzzling Thriller inspired by the Zero Escape and Danganronpa series.
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Latest Updates from Our Project:
ICE Updated, New Challenge Room Screens & More
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 05:44:12 AM
Update 40, cool. Also, the "Anniversary" of this Kickstarter was last month (Sept. 8) and I forgot to mention it then. So that's cool too. I can't say that this is exactly where I expected the Project to be a year after launch, but I'm happy with the work I've done. Additionally, development has really picked up, so good things are coming.
This Update will be a lot bigger in Content than previous ones. Updates have been much too small lately. Ice was one of the 6 Characters that I showed on the launch of Thief's Roulette's Kickstarter. Since then, him and some other earlier Characters have fallen behind in the design department. This month I've been revamping many of the Cast, and Ice is the first to be completed:
Besides the obvious changes, I've also adjusted his face a bit, and I believe I'm getting better at the Character Art in general. This was a big step in unifying the designs of the whole Cast. Some of the Characters right now are either too bland (in my opinion), or simply don't fit with the rest of the Cast in terms of Quality and Style.
Ice is just the first of these Character Revamps. There will be another to reveal in the next Update.
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Now, just a little bit more of Challenge Room 2:
Looking down
An unfinished Room
Closer look at that Room and some details
A look through a Window outside that same room
Progress on this C.Room 2 is steady, but it's still not yet ready for social media, or anything like that. The structure is complete, but its not very pretty. I'm slowly refining the design of it, and adding in details where I can.
Along with Challenge Room 2, the Designs AND the Blockouts for Challenge Room 3 and 4 are done. "Blockout" referring to the rough Grey, 3D images I posted in the previous Updates for C.Room 2. Just something I can run around and test in, but none of the specific environment details have been incorporated.
Actually, Challenge Room 4 is in that short video with Ice up above. It will probably look familiar because it's something I started working on months ago but never went beyond that one section I showed off. Now it's a lot more refined and looks pretty sweet, but I'd rather not spoil anymore of it than I have already. Challenge Room 3 is still unseen. That Room in particular is something I don't want to spoil right now, I imagine stepping into it for the first time will be pretty exciting.
Here's a Teaser of C.Room 3 that shouldn't mean much at all just yet:
lol
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I have also continue making more Devices and "Tech Pieces" as I call them. Just some objects that will be used in the Challenge Rooms. The Wheel Rolling Device in Challenge Room 1 would be one of those tech pieces.
A big batch of them - Their uses will remain a secret
Making these sorts of things is really fun, and something I can just spend a whole day sketching, then building the 3D models. I'll likely include some more in the next Update. Maybe some shots of them actually In-Game?
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The last thing I've been doing is the groundwork for the Dialogue Option and Hint Systems. In the game you will get chances to make Choices, so I need to get Dialogue Options running. The Hint System is something I've said would be implemented from the beginning and still hasn't so I really want to get that up and running asap.
Just a Quick Concept!
This is a super simple, 2 second "Concept" for how the Hints can be incorporated. In the Demo, you walk up to Talk, and they'll just say their one line and that'd be it. Now, I want to change the way Dialogue works. When you approach and Interact with a Character, you would now get a simple greeting like 'What's up?' or 'What do you want?' Then, you would have these two Boxes on either side of the Dialogue Box that you can select what to do next. In this case, TALK would have you make small talk with the Character. HINT will have the Character tell you a hint regarding the Challenge Room and the Puzzles.
I had those Boxes on the Left and Right from the start and never really had a use for them. Now it seems I've found it. I'm going to pretty it up and get it working. This should make things much more interactive.
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And that's it for this Update. I've had a really great 2 weeks and I hope things stay that way.
More Challenge Room 2 & Puzzle Stuff
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Oct 06, 2019 at 11:03:18 PM
This Update will be more of Challenge Room 2, then some new stuff for Puzzles I'm working on.
Looking down from the top of the Lift Shaft
Challenge Room 2 is all vertical. I went over most of that in the previous Update, but it's worth showing off a bit more now that the structure itself has been completed.
Labeled to get a sense of the Scale
This is the full 3D structure of Challenge Room 2. It's not polished In-Game, so I'm going to leave it at this for now. I still need to add in all of the Puzzle stuff, Materials and Textures and any additional details that would bring it all together. But this image here should let you get a feel for the size and show off the vertical nature of the 2nd C.Room.
The structure is all finished. Next month I will be working on Character Art and getting the Challenge Room functional. Having two very different tasks to bounce back and forth from tends to help me get the most work done.
And next, the Puzzle parts that I finished. You probably won't be able to tell what they do at the moment, but you will in due time.
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And that's all for this one. Next Update I will have some Character/Art stuff done, and potentially some more Challenge Room 2 to show off. Bye for now.
Challenge Room 2 Update
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:41:22 AM
This Update will be focused on Challenge Room 2. I'll show some of my progress with it and talk a bit about the Challenge Room itself.
Simple concept sketches
Here are some sketches for the Challenge Room. I'm not going to show the whole thing, but I'll give a glimpse and make sure you get a clear picture of how the Room will work.
The Lift
The Lift will be what takes you through the Challenge Room towards the Exit at the top. These are early screenshots of the C.Room. Still working out the specifics when it comes to how the Room will look, but the structure itself is totally worked out.
This Challenge Room is much different in structure than the first. Each Challenge Room will be unique. The special part of this Challenge Room is that progression is vertical. To progress you must reach the top.
This here is just the First Floor. There are 4 Floors to the Challenge Room. The Lift is powered by a specific sort of Battery (a big one). Unfortunately, one battery onlyholds enough juice to bring the Lift to the Next Floor. Each floor (besides the top) has a Battery that you have to retrieve, and bring it back to the Lift to make your way to the top.
Going up
The second floor
Here is the 2nd Floor. It's not yet finished. Currently, just the first floor is complete structure wise. Every Puzzle is planned out too, so now it's just a matter of getting everything built in game, then moving into getting the visuals right.
Just more under the hood stuff here. I feel I've finally found my "style" when it comes to modeling Challenge Rooms. So I feel really good about building future environments. I've got some really cool stuff that I'm super excited to work on and eventually show off.
After collecting all of the information I got from players of the first Demo, something I want to really get right is the game's performance. Regarding Challenge Room 1, I've got some simple Culling working now, along with a series of Trigger Spots in the game world that when you pass through disables some of the game's heavier elements. Usually they just disables large chunks of lighting, but they'll also disable entire meshes when necessary and it's helped performance a lot. Some of that has already been added into the current Demo, but I've gone much further on my end.
For Challenge Room 2 I'm going to be doing even more. Firstly, and I'm sure this is the obvious thing to do, I'll only have the contents of one floor loaded at any given time. So while on the first floor, the last 3 floors will all be disabled. The player wouldn't be able to see very much of a floor above or below them from any particular vantage point, so this is going to make performance really great. In Challenge Room 1, I had a minor "loading screen" when you go in and out of that first Side Room, and when you head into the Train Room. I'm moving away from that for good moving forward and I'll likely go back and update the first Challenge Room to fit the rest of the game. Doors! They'll actually open instead of there being a black screen. The Lift in C.Room 2 is not a loading screen, you will never get a black screen during anymore Challenge Rooms unless there is a Cutscene transition. I'm thinking of a way to handle the Ladder in Challenge Room 1, but if that winds up being the only instance of the black screen then I'll just have to accept it I guess.
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Lastly, I can talk a bit about what's going to happen next. This month I'll be totally focused on getting Challenge Room 2 complete. Next month I'll go straight into Character work (finally). There are a number of Characters that need some serious work, and others that just need to be finalized. What I'm hoping for is to have all 15 Thieves in their final states by the end of October. I can't really do much promo with these Characters since some of them will be changing in a major way. It'll be nice to have them all in their final state. November will be putting everything together and continuing to get the next Demo finished. That demo will be the "real deal." I didn't really feel that good about this first one. It'll have a lot more content and be a much better representation of the full game. I'll keep it there for now, beyond that point I do have a plan for what I'll do, but I'd rather not bring it all up until I'm sure.
Barely an Update
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Sep 09, 2019 at 11:39:55 PM
Since the last Update I did some minor fixes to the Demo, and worked a bit on the Casino in Thief's Roulette. If I never made it clear before, the "Casino" is just what Lady Luck calls the location the thieves have been taken to, it's not an actual casino.
The Thief Dorm Room (Work in progress)
Apart of the Casino are Dorm Rooms for each of the 15 Thieves. I've started getting the design figured out to get it running in game. The rest of the Casino is a lot more rough than this, so I'll just be talking about the Dorm.
You can come here during Break Time to sleep and progress the story to the next Day. But, if you'd rather spend some time with the optional content during Break Time, you have other options. Alongside talking to the other Characters and solving Side Challenges throughout the Casino, you can access a number of features through the Computer in your room.
You can access Lore that you have discovered over the course of the game. Things like News stories, and articles, photographs of the world outside the Casino, etc.
Access the accumulating data of the Cast Members. As the game goes on and you learn about them, the data grows. You can review that information along with how whether a Character has been Marked, and what Tokens they hold.
You may also review data regarding Challenge Rooms. As you complete them, they will be added to a list of completed Challenge Rooms. You can look at data such as how long it took to complete and the choices you may have made within them.
This Data also relates to the Time Trial mode. I put a form of Time Trial into the Demo for players to attempt to complete Challenges as fast as they can (called Speed Mode on the title screen). Through the computer in your dorm, you can replay any Challenge Room to try to get faster times. After completing Thief's Roulette, this will simply be added to the game's Main Menu to be accessed whenever you want.
And that's why I call this one "Barely an Update." Not much information to give at this time. I've been a bit distracted dealing with some things. I'll be good to go soon enough, sorry for the lackluster update.
In a Previous Update (#32 to be exact) I spoke on what would happen after the Demo comes out. Since then, and now that the Demo is out, I've thought a bit more about that Schedule. That's what I'll be doing for this Update. There's nothing new to show just yet, so I'll just be talking more about what happens next on the Development side of things. So if you don't care much for that, you're not missing anything.
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For starters, something I spoke with some folks in the Discord about, was a followup Demo. Although this Demo that I put out was a good look at what you could expect, I don't think I effectively hooked people with it. Because of this, I'm going to do one more Demo. On top of what is in this current Demo, it will also include the game's actual Intro Cutscene, which will let you meet every character instead of a short talk with 4 in this Demo. I'm applying feedback from this Demo to greatly improve the Challenge Room 1 Elevator Cutscene, and the Challenge Room itself. I will create more expressions for every Character, and get a good looking CG (or 2) finished. I want to extend the play area of C. Room 1, and introduce certain game mechanics that I spoke about but didn't include. Such as Characters giving Hints if you ask them. You will actually get to explore the Casino, see your "Dorm Room" and take part in the Break Time event that I talked about from the start. You'll also take part in the Marking Roulette, and a bit more I'd prefer to keep a surprise.
I had sorta wanted to make a minor update to the current Demo, with the Challenge Room extension and release it this week but I changed my mind. I don't want Players to play it twice, then play it a third time when I release the big Demo. So when you go through Challenge Room 1 again, you'll actually see some new content there along with the rest of the Demo. For the Demo I think I'm most excited to show off the Break Time segment. In Trailer 2 there was a "Side Challenge" that you can solve outside of the Challenge Rooms. There will be one in this next Demo for Players to find.
These changes and additions will bring the game's "Official" Demo in line with what I promised during the Kickstarter Campaign. I said I wanted all of this to be in the first Demo, but it didn't work out that way. So now I'm working on a much larger Demo that will surely hook people. I've gotten great feedback, and people generally enjoyed what they played, but it's not all there yet. Not to mention, the more feedback I receive, the more I feel like I should have spent a bit more time before putting out a Demo. Because of that I'm reluctant to even spread the current Demo around, cause I know I can do so much better.
So, at the top of my Development Schedule will be finishing this Demo. I plan to sync it up with the third Trailer for Thief's Roulette. The Trailer will drop just before the Demo goes live. That Trailer will have a glimpse of a lot more than just Challenge Room 1. I've already started working on Rooms beyond the first one, but I try not to show them much.
The last point is that I hope to get a bit more active on social media. It's not something I enjoy much to be honest, but I think it's an important part of the job. It's what got this game funded in the first place, so I need to start using it a lot more. I've even been slacking on Youtube content when I really could have put out at least a couple more videos by now. I said before I wanted to do Twitch, and that still hasn't happened either. So I'll be working to change all that.
Overall I still feel better than ever about the future of the project. This was not exactly a content heavy Update, but I needed to at least talk about my plans moving forward.
