Dev blog #3

It's the nicest weather of the year in Stockholm, so we have been enjoying our evenings in the fresh air. But just because it's July doesn't mean the content train has stopped rolling. This month there are lots of little things going on in the office. We welcomed a new design assistant, Andy, who has been helping integrate all of the song packs and dialog data into the game. I just finished giving my talk on studio management at the annual Game Developer's Conference, and now I have my sights set firmly on the Tokyo Game Show at the end of September, because we're releasing a demo!



Exactly two years ago this week we were exhibiting our first playable demo of Hexagroove: Tactical DJ at NärCon in Linköping and less than a month away from submitting to Nintendo for release. This time around though many things are the same, some are completely different. Backbeat is a huge undertaking for our little studio and we're building three to four times more content for our new puzzle/strategy game. In addition to the standard custom song pack we build for our games, in each of Backbeat's levels we have a much more detailed environment with 3D playable characters, NPCs, and a storyline about four dreamers with their eyes set on the future (over 25000 words!). I can't believe it's all coming together at once, but here we are.



This month we've started pouring more energy into increasing the flair and style of Watts' adventure through Hornsburg, adding things to the beginning and end of every level. After solving one of the puzzles in Backbeat, you receive a special music video built from all of the choices you made in navigating the environment. We kick this off with a little metronome animation. The first version looks something like this. In the next milestone we're going to do all the heavy lifting to add those camera cuts, wipes, and decals to dress up the band members' funkiest maneuvers through the level.



Every apprentice needs a master to guide her on the road to glory. In Backbeat this is Cliff, bassist of the funk band that inspires Watts to stop playing covers and become the master of her own progression (musically and professionally). There's a subtle reference in here to a legendary funk bassist, can you guess which?



Cliff runs his management service in tandem with his band's tours. Often when Watts is in need of some musical advice, he's not around so she has to give him a call. In 1995 tiny supercomputers in your pocket were a distant science fiction dream... it was a miracle if you could reach anybody without use of a payphone. Fortunately for Watts she's taken her tips from a certain Zach Morris and has her own cutting-edge technology for enlisting help.



Finally, I'm happy to say the story is 95% complete! This means we are just a stone's throw away from sending it off to translation services for the Japanese version. Backbeat's story covers more than twenty scenes over three acts and building it out with the writing team has been quite an experience. I played a lot of Sierra adventure games growing up with my family, and this love of sharing stories compelled me to try out acting and film studies in college. Writing has been something I've always been interested in but never done professionally, so this has been a very eye-opening experience for me. Writing a short story and creating narrative for games are two completely different things and it's a serious challenge to work in character development and drama alongside the more practical physical conflict that games often require for motivation.

The next two months we have a long milestone to nail everything that we need to get the demo version running smoothly. When that's finished you can enjoy a free taste of the game mechanics, music, and characters of Hornsburg. Look for an intermediate update at the end of August.

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Do you have an idea for a dev blog topic? Curious about the team and story of Backbeat? Comment on this post or tweet at me, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers!
-- David, Creative Director

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