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
Monday, July 6, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, June 5, 2015
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.
-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.
-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.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
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.
1st – Hospital
1st – 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.
2nd – 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.
3rd – 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.
4th – 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.
Friday, April 17, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, March 13, 2015
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.
Friday, March 6, 2015
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.
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