Pre-Kickstarter Updates + Title: A World Of His Own

I'll cut right to the tl;dr. There will be a Kickstarter happening in a few weeks. Details on just when this will happen will come in the days to follow.


So, the last update was from a month ago, with the release of the Proof of Concept. In the time since, I've sat down and really looked into the project. The original posted release date was Q4 2015. While I probably could still hit that goal, the game would feel incomplete. There would be aspects that I would always look at and say I could have done better. As such, the following timeline will be kept, pending the success of the aforementioned Kickstarter campaign:


Mid-July: Kickstarter Campaign Starts
Mid-September: Kickstarter Campaign Ends (60 Days)
Late-October: Project Reaches 0.0.1.0 Build, First City Built
Late-December: Project Reaches 0.0.1.5 Build, Forest and Second City Built
Late-March: Project Reaches 0.1.0.0 Build, Game World Complete
Late-June: Project Reaches 0.1.5.0 Build, VA Complete and Enters Q/A
Late-August: Project Reaches 0.9.9.9 Build, Final Testing
October 31, 2016: Project Reaches 1.0.0.0 Build, Release Date Goal


Again, this timeline follows a "Best Case Scenario" standing. Depending on how things go, the release date can be pushed back toward the ending of 2016, upwards of a year plus depending on how well the Kickstarter campaign goes.


Next up, the Music Lead for the project has been selected. More of this will follow as pieces start coming in. At the moment, however, you can hear some of his work via Soundcloud.


Finally, I have decided to release the title of the project. The official name of the game will be A World Of His Own.


Remember to Like the game on Facebook, and follow the newly created Twitter account for Arseo Productions. You can also try out the Proof of Concept by downloading it from the official page.


Project Facebook Page
Arseo Productions Twitter Account
Proof of Concept Official Download Page

Demo/Proof of Concept Released

As of today, the first official Demo/Proof of Concept for Project Silence has been upload and released. The link will be at the bottom of this page. But first, an explanation on just what "Proof of Concept" means in this case.


When someone plays the demo of a video game, it is (generally) using somewhat final graphics and textures. Should the game have voice acting, the final voice actors are the ones providing the voices. Usually the final soundtrack has been inserted as well. You are basically playing a portion of a game that is mostly finished, with the team spending a month to polish that one part.


However, a Proof of Concept is something completely different. Unlike a demo, most of the graphics and textures are place holders and generic. Any voice acting is not final. The soundtrack is also mostly a place holder. However, it is used to show what the final project will become. It is a way of saying "This is the bottom line," and that the game can only move up.

Though marked as a demo, what was released today is more a Proof of Concept. More will be released in a few weeks, after the past few sleepless nights are recovered from.

Project Silence Demo/Proof of Concept

Update on the Demo

Let's cut right to the chase.

The demo of Project Silence will be released next week. I am saying Tuesday, June 9th at the moment, and this will be official barring anything else going wrong (at this point, I can't think of what). Below is a list of just what this demo has, and what it doesn't have.

               -Full spoken voice acting.
               -Background music.
               -Achievements.
               -Multiple difficulties.

Now, things to also consider...

               -The main character's voice acting is not final (I am NOT voice the main character).
               -The lead female character's voice acting was recorded quickly at the last minute.
               -I am NOT the one who will be recording the final soundtrack.

As of this writing, about eighty-five percent of the lines have been recorded, with only the Loop, the Developer's Room, and two parts added well after the fact needing to be recorded. These will most likely be recorded Sunday morning, with the final testing happening Monday, and the release on Tuesday. Again, this is provided nothing goes wrong. Needless to say, however, the demo WILL BE released this coming week.

Game Updates and the Future

So it's been a week shy of a month since the last update. Today, I will discuss a few items of importance relating to the game, the forthcoming demo, and the future of Arseo Productions.




1^st – Hospital

As I mentioned, work is progressing on the Hospital, the first large (and honestly, largest planned) area the player has the option to explore. As mentioned I believe in the video, the player can decide to visit all of the open areas of the game, or simply sprint for the ending, getting the bad ending along the way.

The hospital, so far, is mostly just hallways with some plan for where rooms will go. Even so, the number of maps are staggering for just hallways (the first floor alone is somewhere around twenty maps). With three floors, a basement, and maybe a few extra spots to explore, it will take a some time for the player to make their way through if they want to find everything.

Another tidbit will be the notes and signs you are able to find littered around the game. Almost all of them will be unreadable, at least until certain conditions are met. This condition can be cleared right after you enter the city proper from the house you wake up in, can be put off until just before you leave the first city, or completely ignored until the game ends and you're stuck having no idea what anything around you says. Some may say this level of immersion into the game world is a bad idea. I say it is almost required.

2^nd – Demo

The second thing I want to talk about is the upcoming demo of the game. Not only will this demo be a small showcase of what the final project will look like, but it will also be a good judge for me to know just how much larger the game will be when full audio is implemented. For example, the current demo, sans audio, comes in at a whopping eighteen megabytes. This is without the twenty page script being recorded, background music being inserted, and any other audio issues I find between now and the publishing of said demo. When a later build was done, with only the voice acting for the first room added, it tacked on another three megabytes. This demo alone, at least in file size, my be larger than most full games built with this engine.

That also leads me to when the demo will be released. Seeing as the demo is more a showcase to show people whom I want to have work on the project with me, most of the voice over work will be done by me. During this early stage, almost all the spoken lines are given by the main character, Ian. As more characters are introduced later in the game, this will obviously change. However, while I can basically record my lines at will, I can't easily record the other character's lines. This is mainly due to the main female character being voiced by my sister, the aspiring voice actress Cheyenne Arseo. Her recordings will not be able to be recorded until her finals are over mid-May. As such, the demo of Project Silence will have a (subject to change) release date of June 2, 2015.

3^rd – Music

Next, I'm going to spend a moment and talk about the music. At the moment, I am in talks with an old bandmate to take up the position of the Music Lead for the project. I have heard various pieces of the music he has composed, and find it works with what I have in mind. While I do not believe there will be time to get pieces implemented for the demo, I do have high hopes of his pieces giving the game the music direction it needs. More information will follow as details get ironed out.

4^th – The Future

With my twenty-sixth birthday having happened this past week, one thing I did was take a day and really think about where I wanted this to go. Not just this one game, but my future in game design. When the original idea for Project Silence came into being over a year ago, it was originally going to be a full 3D game, almost little more than a Silent Hill clone. Rough concept sketches were made of the monsters Ian would come across. Several ideas for the story were written out, a few of which remain in the current version. However, lack of skill and the extreme learning curve a title like this would give me convinced me to shelve the idea. Instead, I took the idea into the 2D world.

Early on, some things remained. The main map changed designs several times. One character was cut from the game, for no other reason than his death being near impossible to replicate in 2D. Other things, such as the voice acting, took an even more important role. Yet this project also carries something more damning with it, the fear of failure.

Let me say this now. Project Silence WILL BE RELEASED.

This will also lead me to the future. The current public release date for Project Silence is Q4 2015. Provided I get it released by 11:59pm PST December 31, 2015 it will meet that release window. While I may be willing to change the release window a few months, the point is the game will eventually be released. At that point, it will be new projects that I will work on, some of which are already being planned in the strictest sense.

I will now publicly announce the next future project for Arseo Productions.

Project VN

Release Window – Q4 2016

Project VN will be a visual novel, and will spearhead one of the design branches for Arseo Productions. Plans will include to have custom drawn characters, backgrounds, and key visuals. Original music will be included. Full voice acting is unknown at this time, though I do hope to have it included. More details will come as Project Silence nears its completion.

Overdue Update

So, it's been over a month since I last uploaded something onto here. There is some news (obviously), and I figured I'd just go down the line with what's new.


Firstly, I doubt weekly updates will continue for a while. Even though progress is made week by week, it's generally not enough to have a weekly update. As such, updates will come at least once a month, maybe twice a month. Should something happen that's enough to warrant an update outside of that time frame, then will be posted. I'm sure though, that as the game gets closer to completion, the updates will become frequent enough o warrant a weekly blog.


Secondly, work on the actual game is going well. The locations are coming along, and text flow charts are outlining the areas I haven't made yet. As of current, the game should be released as planned by the end of 2015.


Thirdly, a small demo is currently in the works. While only being around fifteen minutes long, it will hopefully be enough to show just what is planned for this project. It will feature full voice acting (with the main character being voiced by myself for the demo only), and music. Expect it sometime in May, depending on how recording goes.


Please continue to view this blog, and Like the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/projectsilencegame) for more updates.

Look! A Video!

Since my audio is now working, I decided to FINALLY record a video of Project Silence. I do apologize for my microphone cutting out about five minutes before the video ends. Basically, I go on about the characters speaking a different language than the main character, mention that I have a few people I am considering asking about doing the audio, mention that more videos will follow, and thank you the viewer for watching.

General Updates

So, nothing really new or big to report this week. I'm about a hair's breadth away from just getting an RMA for my computer's motherboard, since audio is still a problem.

 

Anyways, the house you wake up in at the start of the game (the “StartingHouseNEW” in the game's mapping) is pretty much redone. All that really remains is redoing the outdoors part of the house, and getting a few final scripts in place. It's my hope to have this done tonight, and have the first city more or less outlined by next Friday with work on the buildings starting the following week. By then I'll have either found a way to fix my computer or have sent back the motherboard and put the smaller one back inside the case.

 

In other news, I now have a Facebook page for the game. Please go and Like it.

 

http://www.facebook.com/projectsilencegame

Maps, More Maps, and Minecraft(?)

So, my computer is half-way fixed now. It will run, but audio doesn't work. Odds are I'm either going to have to tear the entire computer down and find out what's wrong (again), or I'll have to do a clean install of Windows 7. Of the two, I don't know which I'd rather NOT do.

 

Anyways, with little found on how to black out rooms until you enter them (at least with what I'm trying to do and in the engine I'm using), I've moved on to replicating the interior maps (mainly the building you wake up in) through the use of single-room maps. This is (sadly) not as quick as I was hoping it would be, but has allowed me an opportunity to make the maps better. Instead of odd-looking places with little logical sense to their layout, a building will now have some idea of uniformity amongst itself. While the original maps for this building will be used for the forthcoming demo (release TBD), I do not know if they will be accessible in the final build. I may leave it as an Easter Egg found in the developer's room, but I don't know for sure yet.

 

The original map for the basement level.

Some rooms may be locked until certain conditions

are met inside the game.

 

Passages from books can be read inside the game,

offering information, story, or random sayings to

throw off the player.

 

 

In other news, the building of the outdoor area is continuing strong. On the flip-side of the coin, however, the first large outdoor area is proving to be larger than I even originally planned on, with the original grid size of eleven maps by eleven maps showing to be a lot smaller than I originally thought. This could, of course, easily be averted through the use of small markers for large buildings, but doing so for a game such as this would be a cheat not only to myself, but to the player. Maybe in a future RPG that I've had floating around my head and hard drives for a while, I'll consider doing that.

 

Finally, I've also found a fairly decent way to test out how a map would work and look for various angles other than the simple 2D format of the game. Through the Creative Mode of the sandbox game Minecraft, I've started building the maps in 3D using the blocks in the game. This way, not only can I see a top-down view of the maps, but I can also walk through them and decide if they work. I may make the map available after the release of the game.

 

A top-down view of the map with the ceiling removed.

 

February 20 Blog Update Postponed

Due to issues in updating my computer's hardware, today's scheduled blog post has been postponed to tomorrow, provided everything works out in fixing what went wrong tomorrow morning.

Endings, Saving, and Deadlines

So it's Friday the 13^th, and nothing seems to be going right for me today, at work or at home. Nevertheless, things must still move on, and that means another update on Project Silence. For the most part, there isn't much to report here this week. There are no new pictures here to show of what I've been up to, because I've been working on the endings of the game.

 

The endings, for the most part, will be cutscenes where the only player interaction will be having to hit the “ACTION” key in order to move onto the next line of text (and even then, that may change). One difference, however, will be the one semi-playable ending. This ending starts with a cutscene that has multiple branches. Picking the wrong answer will end the game there, either right away or further along a path of nothing but dead ends. Picking the right answer will continue to move the ending along to its completion.

 

This (indirectly) leads to the next topic we will be discussing. The game will be missing a certain feature, the ability to save on your own. This has been something I had been think about long before I made the decision to make a 2D Project Silence for release. There is a reason for it, and there will be a way to save, I just won't be whenever you want.

 

Today's games will save for you, sometimes every minute or so, and it is laughable at best. Then you have the classic survival/horror games that inspired Project Silence. These games featured areas you could save, but only if you found them. Admittedly, some of them were closely spaced together. Other times, however, required you to backtrack to one central location of the map in order to save, provided you survive the trip (look at the map for Nowhere in the original Silent Hill).

 

As such, Project Silence will have single-use “checkpoints” found after major storyline areas. Want to save the game? Then make sure you select “Yes” to save. Don't care about it? Then hope you don't regret it. Depending on how you play, it could be some time before you see the save spot. This may change depending on how QA and beta-testing goes later in the year, but for the time being I would say you can consider this written in stone.

 

Speaking of “written in stone” it's also time I bring up another behind-the-scenes aspect of the game. There are many features that I would like to have in Project Silence. Some of them, such as the multiple endings that I'm currently scripting and the voice acting, are features that I will push back the release date in order to have in this game. Other things, however, are not so set in stone. The deadlines for these, however, are set in stone. One of these deadlines is quickly coming up.

 

As the picture in the second post on this blog shows, a map for a building can show multiple rooms and hallways connecting them. For some areas, that may be all and good. Other times, however, it can reveal something before it should be revealed. I was looking for a way to stop this prior to moving on to building the many indoor areas of the game (hence the work on the endings), and have yet to find one that will work. Provided one does not appear by March 1^st, the idea will be dropped and instead each room and hallway will be a different map. This will lead to more files and possibly a much larger file-size in the long run, but for the sake of the horror element, it will be needed.

Rooms and Loops

Originally, I had planned to have photos showing the actual editor, with a video showing it off. None of the areas shown or the music played would be in the game, and just be used for show now. Sadly, work got in the way. Instead, I will talk about two of the areas that will be hidden inside of the game, the Developer's Room and the Loop.

The Developer's Room is just what it sounds like, the developer's room. It's where we take that thing called the “Fourth Wall” and rip it down while listening to Pink Floyd. Inside this room, you the player can interact with two people (the “Game Designer” voiced by myself and the “Voice Actress” voiced by my sister, the aspiring voice actress Cheyenne Arseo). As the game progresses, things are added and the player can question them more and more.

 

 

Along with information about the game, there will

be things such as this, where anime and gaming

culture will be mentioned to the highest point it

can without me being sued.

Little nods to people who actually know me.

And for the record, it's because I can.

 

 

Finding all of these require finding a specific key or checking something in the environment more than just once. However, if you decide not to check, the chance is gone until you start a new game. Finding all of them, however, can also lead to a unique ending, special only for those who find all of them.

 

The Loop is also just what it sounds like. Hidden in the game are various areas behind locked doors that do not have keys. Each of the areas behind them are infinite loops. In order to escape them, you need to find out what way to go. Sometimes you need to go back the way you came. Other times you need to continue going forward. Each one is different. Much like finding all the Developer's Rooms will get you a unique ending, so will finding all of the Loops.

 

Two different examples of Loops. Each one has

a different way to get out of it.

 

 

Next week, I will (hopefully) have the video that was supposed to be here this week.

What Is Project Silence?

So, I'm sure that the further along I go, the biggest question I'll hear as I go to people in real life will be just what Project Silence is. Just stating that it's a game can leave much to the imagination. When people hear the word “game” these days they see Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, two games that are often shown on television advertisements. If I go further and say that it's a horror game, people who play games may instantly picture another cheap Slender clone. The truth is, Project Silence isn't like any of those games.

 

Project Silence is a top-down 2D horror/mystery game. As stated in the first post on this blog, the basic story is trying to find out just why the main character (Ian Michaels) has no memories between driving home from work and waking up in a basement. This happens via finding notes, as well as talking with characters in what will pass for cutscenes, which will feature full voice-over work.
 

Another feature that Project Silence will include is an adaptive background soundtrack. Like many AAA games, the background music will change as the game progresses. Find something horrific, the tone and pitch will change. Find a calm area, and the music will be soft. The music completely fades, and something worse than horrific can be coming. More information regarding the soundtrack will come at a later date.
 

Another feature that Project Silence will boast is multiple endings and routes. Depending on your actions in the game, you may get a radically different ending than you may have had you done something different. Actions you have done can also result in different paths through the game world being opened or closed off. They can even reflect just what options you have when speaking to a character.

Check back next week for more on the development of Project Silence.

First Post

This is the development blog for the horror game "Project Silence" by Arseo Productions. The game is currently in the early stages of Pre-Alpha. Every Friday, I will be posting updates on the game's progress, as well as photos and eventually videos of the game.

Project Silence follows the story of Ian Michaels, who wakes up to find himself in a dark basement. The last thing he remembers just prior to waking up is driving home from work. With no memory and being locked in a house where things are not what they seem, he must find out what happened to him.

Project Silence is currently being designed for Windows. Ports to both mobile and game consoles may follow pending on how well the game works.