Project Updates for Thief's Roulette on BackerKit Page 9

Tiny Update + Trailer Talk
about 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 04:46:44 PM

This time I really don't have anything to show. Gonna rant about trailers since I don't have anything else right now!

What I've been working on since the last update:

Finishing the remaining Challenge Rooms (just visual polish at this point)
Working on alternate character art for some unique moments in the game. Very vague, I know.
More CG art
Still working on the trailer

I would love to show more of what I've been working on, but with the trailer coming, and the release of the game shortly after, there's only so much I can show without feeling like some players will go into the game knowing too much. I know personally, many times when I go to watch a movie trailer, halfway through I end up regretting having seen the trailer at all. Just that small feeling of "I wish I didn't know/see that" is enough to change the way you inevitably view the final product. I just always find myself thinking about the two "timelines", if you will, where you play a game or watch a movie, without seeing a trailer, compared to doing that same thing after seeing the trailer. When you go into that game/movie with little knowledge, the tiniest of things turn into a series of surprises. That's something that you're essentially robbed of just from watching one trailer; and I'm guilty of making 3, going on 4. Since this marketing material is important to selling your creation, you definitely have to make them, so what needs to change is the approach.

Thief's Roulette is in a fortunate spot where much of what you see in those first 3 trailers have either been removed, changed, or repurposed. Still, there's a lot of surprises that could have been, that are gone now. This 4th trailer is going to add to that list, but I have to make it so that the current state of the game is represented in some way. I couldn't sell Thief's Roulette using Trailers 1-3 because the game has changed in so many ways since then. It would be both misleading, and an unflattering representation of the game.

Getting back to the "approach" that I think needs to change; I haven't fully figured out what to do, but I think I'm doing some things with this new trailer (and even the demos) that are in the right direction. Speaking of demos, each demo that I made, was sure to never show how the main character got to Lady Luck's facility (one example). There's even demo exclusive parts that are meant to keep you a little bit unsure of what to expect from the final version. The Stanley Parable notably made a demo that was completely separate from the real game. Its purpose was to simulate the feeling of the game, without letting you play through the actual moments of the real game. I can't say that this is the "correct" approach, but I do think it's in the right direction. In my mind, demos and trailers should strive to evoke the feeling of the finished product while exposing as little as possible of the actual creation. The problem with that is it begins to get dangerously close to being "misleading." I don't think its good to mislead people, so you have to be really careful there. So for me, that grey area between misleading, and allowing the consumer to let their imagination run wild is about where I'd like to have my demos and trailers going forward. I wouldn't want a player to feel cheated or tricked, I would want them to feel like they don't know exactly what to expect, but are sure that they want to find out. Now, I've watched plenty of trailers, so this idea is not something I came up with, but I would love to see it become the norm. And of course it depends on the kind of game/movie/thing you're making. So lots of factors to consider. At the very least, it will become the norm for games I create. In other words, look forward to Trailer 4, or skip it!?

I could probably keep rambling about this subject but I'll stop there. Go watch that new trailer for Splatoon 3, the second half of it totally hits on what I'm talking about. That's just the most recent example I could think of, it's got some cool stuff. If you've seen that, watch any trailer for the Silver Case games.

Anyway, that's all I got. Have a nice day.

LINKS:

Update Time
about 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 10:39:21 PM

I don't have much to show or talk about for this one. I've just been working on putting the whole game together. Things have been pretty tedious, but that's how it goes at this phase of development. I can show 2 new screenshots, but besides that, this is a very light update.

I think going forward, when I don't have much for an Update I'll talk about something game development related (not specifically about Thief's Roulette). That could be cool if I think of some good topics. I've wanted to make YouTube videos where I just talk about development things, but that'll definitely start after Thief's Roulette is done. I've been really in the zone lately, so it's been hard to put time into really anything but the game. Which is a good thing, of course.

That's all I got for now, have a nice weekend.

LINKS:

Update Time
about 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 28, 2021 at 03:04:08 PM

I have some screenshots and a visual I'm working on that I might as well show.

But first, a rundown of things I've done:

Nearly finished with all of the character expressions.
I've been working on a mockup document for the Artbook. I've gotten page layouts and a cool structure for it all. It's going to be part Artbook part Making Of, so there's lots of information and visuals to work with. Along with that I've been putting time into getting the rest of the backer rewards finished.
I finally got around to working on the original Backer Characters ($400 Tier). Took me a while to get to these, but the good thing is my art has improved a lot since the start of the campaign so they'll turn out much better now. I still have a lot of work to do on them, however. Another bonus of waiting until now to get to them is I've been able to weave those characters into the game's story in a lore friendly way. I'll have to keep the specifics a secret even to those backers!
Trailer gameplay footage is 100% captured. Putting finishing touches on some art/visuals that will go into it. After I edit it all together it's just a matter of having a release date to go at the end! So when I know the exact release date I'll be dropping the final trailer.
I'm working on some gameplay systems that will make things play smoother. One example is a Quick Use button that will let you easily USE an item you're holding if that option is available. The only one you may have seen thus far is the Letter Converter in challenge room 2 that requires you to go into the Inventory then select Use in order to bring it up. My idea is to implement both a Quick Use function and an Item Change function without opening the Inventory. This will let you go from 1 item to the next while still moving about the game world, and quickly activate it if needed.
Also, I should say that I may or may not be participating in an upcoming visual novel game jam: https://itch.io/jam/spooktober-vn-jam-2021. I have a little idea for something that would take about a week or two to finish, but I'd only do it if I could work it in around my schedule. So I really don't know if I'll do it or not, but just in case I do, don't be surprised by a sudden release on my Itch.io page.

Now to end things:

Still working on this one, but it'll be going into the trailer when it's done.

That's all I got for now, have a nice weekend.

LINKS:

Quick Update
over 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 12:57:01 AM

Just another rundown of the progress I've made over these 2 weeks.

Still working on CGs and the game's final Trailer. I think I've been pretty good at making each trailer better than the last, and this final one is definitely the best. The previous 3 trailers can all be seen in this Youtube Playlist. I really need to use Youtube more.
Finished the final draft of the game's script. At least I think I won't be changing it anymore... I would say that my writing is what I'm most nervous about with the game. I've improved quite a bit since the beginning of the project, but I know that it's still an area that I need to keep working at.
Putting finishing touches on the 'Finale.'
Been refining/updating the game's puzzles. My approach recently has been to focus on more observational puzzles instead of ones meant to confuse you or halt progress. So it's more like an adventure game than traditional brain teaser puzzles. But I also like to combine those styles and that's been leading to cool puzzles.

View Video

The updates have been too boring so I'll try to show a little more of the game. This is a small part of a puzzle in which you're meant to investigate 6 prison cells. The physical cells have things on the walls and items to find. There is also a database (shown in the video) that stores additional information on each of the prisoners. So you're combining info found in the physical cell and the digital ones to solve some puzzles. It's pretty cool I think, but I'll only show this little piece of it!

I'll end with 2 more screenshots:

That's all I got for now.

LINKS:

Update Time - CG & Screenshots
over 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 31, 2021 at 05:49:21 PM

Another quick update, but this time with pictures:

This is actually not the CG I wanted to show (still needs work), but this is cool too I think. This is going to be a small animated scene of the main char turning around. I still have to get the background done, and need to get the rest of the frames finished.

Some other stuff I've been working on:

Secrets... I've been adding in some things for you to find in game. Little bits of hidden lore, small side content, that sort of thing.
Finalized Challenge Room 3 (all polished and done)
Updated the game's intro scenes. I won't go into specifics, but it started out pretty slow and wasn't that interesting. The new intro gets you used to the gameplay right away without the need of a traditional tutorial. It should be pretty cool.

And lastly, two screenshots: