Post by rtech on Jun 24, 2022 11:59:08 GMT -5
Hello fellow volunteers, associates, and enemies.
My name is rtech, and my partner and I are making a video game based on ATWQ.
We've been doing a ton of writing, sketching, reading, programming, researching, and planning. This is easily the largest project we have ever taken on, in any medium, but we have been enjoying it immensely. We've been doing some gameplay tests in a couple different styles and mechanics, trying to figure out what is really the best way to tell this story.
The biggest challenge for us has been ensuring we capture the tone, story, and characters as accurately as possible, while still introducing game mechanics that are fun and engaging, story lines that expand out some and allow for new mysteries for fans of the series to try for the first time, and also keeping it accessible and fun for new fans to the work.
Originally, we started writing the game in the style of a point-and-click adventure, similar to Monkey Island and other Lucasarts games, but found some parts tricky in that style. We haven't ruled it out, however, and is still high on our list. Finding clues is fun, working out and designing puzzles was easiest in this format, but it's very easy to get pedantic, boring, cumbersome, and clunky. Plus, the original story is missing a lot of the "clue-finding and puzzle-solving" that is normally found in point-and-click games. Snicket is given and finds only a few items over the course of the game. So we found ourselves inventing a lot of obstacles, clues, hidden items, things to make it more like a game, but we thought we were losing some of the core of the story. I'm a big fan of the genre, so I naturally started with it as our first draft, but my partner does not share my affinity for it. We started trying other techniques.
We then started doing some tests in a "Nancy Drew" type game from Her Interactive. I don't know a lot of people who played those games, but for those that haven't, they're charming and spooky and I recommend them. We found the static scenes to be really good for finding clues and exploring rooms, but lacked a lot of energy and urgency. It has a few issues with that style; not being able to move quickly, lack of mobility of the character, cutscenes and action became very difficult, and we've learned that not being able to see Snicket is a drawback. We like having our character be on screen, so we've dropped the first person style completely.
We have swapped the style to something closer to Night in the Woods, Limbo, Oxenfree; a game that is entirely 2d side-scroller, walking through town talking and interacting with the world. Snicket walks across Stain'd, finding clues, meeting with residents, checking out the few remaining stores and shops. He can go into open buildings, talk to anyone he meets, and enjoy a quasi-open world. Days advance when Snicket returns to The Lost Arms to sleep, allowing players to go at their own pace, exploring as much or as little as they want each day.
Pip and Squeak currently operate as a sort of fast travel, you can meet them at their taxi and request rides to far corners of town that would be too far for Lemony to walk. We've been using that mechanic a lot, helps keep Lemony in certain areas of the game at certain times. My partner has been writing tons of very cute car ride conversations with the brothers, and they're adorable. I can't wait to share some!
We do not plan to change much, and we aim to retcon or change nothing from the books, but we've been expanding many aspects. Most of the mysteries in 13SI are being included, but have been lengthened and extrapolated, to create more interactions and mysteries around town throughout the story. We've written dozens and dozens of extra interactions with all the Associates, allowing players to deepen their relationships with any of them, but without changing anything or confirming any theories. We want to make sure we stay very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very faithful to the original text, while adding more to take it from a 6 hour game, to an 12+ hour game.
We've been creating shops, stores, street names, closed down buildings, random NPCs around town, and a lot more. We have been trying to flesh out the city, at least a tiny bit, to give more fun interactions and puzzles to solve throughout the story. Side missions! Yay!
Snicket has a commonplace book, a little journal, that we've been using as a quest tracker, writing down important case notes, character bios as you learn more about them, and item management. It's been a cute way to do a UI screen for the player.
The art style is currently directly influenced by Seth, the illustrator of the series, and the classic New Yorker Cartoon aesthetic. We are trying to keep things monotoned, black and white with shades of grey, but with dashes of color, similar to the books green, orange, purple, blue, moody colors that add a bit of that film noir vibe. These books are atmospheric as hell, and we want to match that tone. Typewriter sounds, soft slow jazz, brewing coffee, windy nights, tons of shadows, shady figures in the distance.
We have been struggling with denoting race and color onto some characters. We want the game to match the world of Snicket, which is full of people of all shapes, shades, and sizes, but doing a racially diverse cast has been tricky when it's mostly black and white. We are still working on that though, art has been one of the hardest parts to really nail down. All I do know, is that we are not doing pixel art and we aren't doing full 3d. We don't have enough experience in 3d modeling and animation, so we are sticking with 2d, sorry guys!
We don't really wish to do voice acting in the game. This is for several reasons; we don't have the money to hire VAs to record 100s of lines of dialogue each. You should see how many lines Theodora and Snicket have right now. Many of the games that we've been playing and exploring while designing ATWQ have not had voice acting and we never found it detracted from the quality of the game. Plus, so many of the characters' dialogue is said without an inflection described, allowing readers to make their own assumptions about motive, deceitfulness, sarcasm, and feeling. This lends itself more to Snicket's style, as well as keeping things mysterious. But, if we get lucky, I see no reason why we can't add it down the line, it would be a simple addition since all the dialogue would be already written by the end.
Narration is also proving a challenge. Being able to know Snicket's thoughts is important, we feel. Snicket doesn't tell us everything that he's thinking, but his interruptions in the book serve us important details, and we've been playing with thought bubbles, pop ups on the bottom of the screen, and even having Lemony break the 4th wall and just look directly at the player and talk to us. We still don't know how we are going to include Snicket's thoughts, and they might even be relegated to his notebook, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
We are 2 people working on it, and we are not that amazing, so it is taking us a long time. We have jobs and goals and other projects, but this has been, and is, our main creative focus. But I do want to set expectations and let everyone know that this won't be finished this year, and might not come out in '23 either, just due to us really wanting to do this right.
This will never be put on sale, for obvious reasons, but I will of course distribute it for free. Once we have some playtests going, I'll post updates on here so you can all give us feedback and try it out.
But I want to hear from everyone here! I want to know what you think? What's on your wishlist for a Lemony Snicket game? What do you think an ATWQ game should be like?
You are all the best Snicket fans on the internet and there's no one's opinion I care about more than y'alls.
My name is rtech, and my partner and I are making a video game based on ATWQ.
We've been doing a ton of writing, sketching, reading, programming, researching, and planning. This is easily the largest project we have ever taken on, in any medium, but we have been enjoying it immensely. We've been doing some gameplay tests in a couple different styles and mechanics, trying to figure out what is really the best way to tell this story.
The biggest challenge for us has been ensuring we capture the tone, story, and characters as accurately as possible, while still introducing game mechanics that are fun and engaging, story lines that expand out some and allow for new mysteries for fans of the series to try for the first time, and also keeping it accessible and fun for new fans to the work.
Originally, we started writing the game in the style of a point-and-click adventure, similar to Monkey Island and other Lucasarts games, but found some parts tricky in that style. We haven't ruled it out, however, and is still high on our list. Finding clues is fun, working out and designing puzzles was easiest in this format, but it's very easy to get pedantic, boring, cumbersome, and clunky. Plus, the original story is missing a lot of the "clue-finding and puzzle-solving" that is normally found in point-and-click games. Snicket is given and finds only a few items over the course of the game. So we found ourselves inventing a lot of obstacles, clues, hidden items, things to make it more like a game, but we thought we were losing some of the core of the story. I'm a big fan of the genre, so I naturally started with it as our first draft, but my partner does not share my affinity for it. We started trying other techniques.
We then started doing some tests in a "Nancy Drew" type game from Her Interactive. I don't know a lot of people who played those games, but for those that haven't, they're charming and spooky and I recommend them. We found the static scenes to be really good for finding clues and exploring rooms, but lacked a lot of energy and urgency. It has a few issues with that style; not being able to move quickly, lack of mobility of the character, cutscenes and action became very difficult, and we've learned that not being able to see Snicket is a drawback. We like having our character be on screen, so we've dropped the first person style completely.
We have swapped the style to something closer to Night in the Woods, Limbo, Oxenfree; a game that is entirely 2d side-scroller, walking through town talking and interacting with the world. Snicket walks across Stain'd, finding clues, meeting with residents, checking out the few remaining stores and shops. He can go into open buildings, talk to anyone he meets, and enjoy a quasi-open world. Days advance when Snicket returns to The Lost Arms to sleep, allowing players to go at their own pace, exploring as much or as little as they want each day.
Pip and Squeak currently operate as a sort of fast travel, you can meet them at their taxi and request rides to far corners of town that would be too far for Lemony to walk. We've been using that mechanic a lot, helps keep Lemony in certain areas of the game at certain times. My partner has been writing tons of very cute car ride conversations with the brothers, and they're adorable. I can't wait to share some!
We do not plan to change much, and we aim to retcon or change nothing from the books, but we've been expanding many aspects. Most of the mysteries in 13SI are being included, but have been lengthened and extrapolated, to create more interactions and mysteries around town throughout the story. We've written dozens and dozens of extra interactions with all the Associates, allowing players to deepen their relationships with any of them, but without changing anything or confirming any theories. We want to make sure we stay very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very faithful to the original text, while adding more to take it from a 6 hour game, to an 12+ hour game.
We've been creating shops, stores, street names, closed down buildings, random NPCs around town, and a lot more. We have been trying to flesh out the city, at least a tiny bit, to give more fun interactions and puzzles to solve throughout the story. Side missions! Yay!
Snicket has a commonplace book, a little journal, that we've been using as a quest tracker, writing down important case notes, character bios as you learn more about them, and item management. It's been a cute way to do a UI screen for the player.
The art style is currently directly influenced by Seth, the illustrator of the series, and the classic New Yorker Cartoon aesthetic. We are trying to keep things monotoned, black and white with shades of grey, but with dashes of color, similar to the books green, orange, purple, blue, moody colors that add a bit of that film noir vibe. These books are atmospheric as hell, and we want to match that tone. Typewriter sounds, soft slow jazz, brewing coffee, windy nights, tons of shadows, shady figures in the distance.
We have been struggling with denoting race and color onto some characters. We want the game to match the world of Snicket, which is full of people of all shapes, shades, and sizes, but doing a racially diverse cast has been tricky when it's mostly black and white. We are still working on that though, art has been one of the hardest parts to really nail down. All I do know, is that we are not doing pixel art and we aren't doing full 3d. We don't have enough experience in 3d modeling and animation, so we are sticking with 2d, sorry guys!
We don't really wish to do voice acting in the game. This is for several reasons; we don't have the money to hire VAs to record 100s of lines of dialogue each. You should see how many lines Theodora and Snicket have right now. Many of the games that we've been playing and exploring while designing ATWQ have not had voice acting and we never found it detracted from the quality of the game. Plus, so many of the characters' dialogue is said without an inflection described, allowing readers to make their own assumptions about motive, deceitfulness, sarcasm, and feeling. This lends itself more to Snicket's style, as well as keeping things mysterious. But, if we get lucky, I see no reason why we can't add it down the line, it would be a simple addition since all the dialogue would be already written by the end.
Narration is also proving a challenge. Being able to know Snicket's thoughts is important, we feel. Snicket doesn't tell us everything that he's thinking, but his interruptions in the book serve us important details, and we've been playing with thought bubbles, pop ups on the bottom of the screen, and even having Lemony break the 4th wall and just look directly at the player and talk to us. We still don't know how we are going to include Snicket's thoughts, and they might even be relegated to his notebook, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
We are 2 people working on it, and we are not that amazing, so it is taking us a long time. We have jobs and goals and other projects, but this has been, and is, our main creative focus. But I do want to set expectations and let everyone know that this won't be finished this year, and might not come out in '23 either, just due to us really wanting to do this right.
This will never be put on sale, for obvious reasons, but I will of course distribute it for free. Once we have some playtests going, I'll post updates on here so you can all give us feedback and try it out.
But I want to hear from everyone here! I want to know what you think? What's on your wishlist for a Lemony Snicket game? What do you think an ATWQ game should be like?
You are all the best Snicket fans on the internet and there's no one's opinion I care about more than y'alls.