Hello! We are so thankful for your attention to Still Wakes the Deep thus far. Here is the first of the written Development Diaries for the project that we're hoping to deliver to you monthly. Let's go!
[h3]Art / Animation / Lighting[/h3]
ā The scale of the rig
"From the outset, we were excited about trying to illustrate the sheer monolithic scale and weight of an oil rig. I knew they were impressive structures especially when seen from the sea but the more we researched the more I was surprised by how many jaw-dropping views you get from being on the oil rig itself. With this in mind, one of the first tasks for Environment Art was to build a series of 3D blockouts that captured the scale, drama, and variety of spaces on a rig.
From this pre-production period, we ended up with a list of must-see rig locations. We had the under-rig where the enormous North Sea waves were the star of the show as much as the rig itself, vertigo-inducing moments where you are climbing down or looking up at the sides of the rig, the main deck where you get the best view of all the different quadrants on the rig, and finally, there are all the huge structures on top of the rig itself like the flare stack, cranes and the derrick."
To be continued...
Laura Dodds, Associate Art Director
[h3]Audio [/h3]
ā Scouting for the Announcement Trailer song
"Early on during the process of crafting the concept for
the announcement trailer, our Project Creative Director John McCormack āstumbledā upon a YouTube video titled āScottish woman sings emotional folk songā and used the audio of this in the first trailer concept he created.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
I loved the intimacy of that song and the sound of the woman singing it and decided we should forge ahead with including a Gaelic folk song in the final version of our trailer. I found out that the singer in that video was Flora MacNeil and started to listen to a lot of her and also other singersā renditions of traditional Gaelic folk songs.
I made a shortlist of my favourite songs and then looked up translations of the lyrics. Fath Mo Mhulaid A Bhith Ann, a sorrowful song about wanting a lover to return home, struck me as poetically relevant to the core story of our game. Iāll not give anything away, but while Still Wakes the Deep is horror game, there are strong themes related to family woven into the gameās narrative. The titleās translation, āBeing here has caused my sorrowā also fits perfectly with the setting of a terrible thing gone wrong on an oil rig.
This story has now been
covered by the local press in the Outer Hebrides, too! That interest was a lovely surprise"
To be continued...
Daan Hendriks, Audio Director
[h3]Code / Programming[/h3]
ā Working with realistic water
"Water in Still Wake the Deep plays a major role in the game. The ocean surrounds the oil rig and has you trapped and isolated in the middle of the North Sea. We want the player to experience emotions of fear and dread when confronting water in-game. It's a deadly obstacle the player may have to navigate and survive. To provoke a genuine emotion of fear, the fidelity of the water needed to be realistic and believable. From the way the water is simulated, to the way the character interacts with and moves through the water, it all must contribute to a sense of realism.
Working with a water simulation creates challenges as soon as any object needs to interact with it. Objects floating in the water, VFX playing on the surface of the water, the character moving through water all have an added level of complexity simply because the water surface is dynamic."
Joe Wheater, Programmer
[h3]Community / Comms[/h3]
ā Comms thus far
"This department is pleasantly relieved by just how many kind words the announcement has received so far. We have so much in store for you all, but the road is long. Right now, weāre figuring out where to gather all our community. Here, of course, but also our
Reddit ought to get more active in the very near future. And of course, weād love for all our players to join our
newsletter where you will be receiving all the most elaborate updates on our studio and its activities, and thereās a lot going on! Do feel free to message us in any way you want with your ideas as to which community spaces you prefer and use the most.
We can also reveal that we will be sharing more special impressions about Still Wakes the Deep at the end of this month. Weāll be sure to update here!"
Marijam DidžgalvytÄ, Senior Marketing Executive
[h3]Design[/h3]
ā Doors, and all the problems that come with them
"Doors are such a frequent thing we use in our day-to-day life; it means that our brains have been trained to notice every detail about them. Their speed, the sounds they make, how easy they are to push or pull, the way we step out of the way to pull it toward us, or that we close them behind us. We don't even notice it, but our brains have memorised everything about doors, and if you get just a tiny thing wrong with them then the experience will be bad for the player.
There are so many questions that you must answer. When you interact with them: do you want to always open them fully? Open them just a few centimeters to see if something is behind? Or do you want to be able to push them away slowly? If you have too many options, people will get lost.
Do you want doors that can only open in one way to be more realistic? Sure, but then sometimes the door will be in your face and that doesn't feel good at all. A door you pull open requires you to back up in the real world to step out of the way; thatās another issue that slows the player down, and they might not like it."
Jade Jacson, Senior Game Designer
[h3]QA[/h3]
ā The QA Experience on SWTD
"QA for Still Wakes the Deep is not for the faint of heart! For every new person that joins we ask them to play the game alone (preferably in the dark) to see how they manage.
Even now I get caught out by the occasional scary moment, and I've played it hundreds of times. One of our external QA couldnāt deal with it and had to leave the project because they were so scared (theyāre absolutely fine now, please donāt worry.)
However, within QA we arenāt just responsible for reporting how scary something is, but also whether the game contains bugs or crashes. The Chinese Room is a tight-knit team, making it a fun and collaborative process to improve the game. By providing this data in a clear and concise format, we empower the other departments, especially Production, with all the information they need to make important decisions with clarity.
We are always the first to see new changes and features and we experience the game exactly how a player would on release, which gives us an invaluable perspective of the final game as it currently stands for the team. Itās also really fun!"
Seb Axel, QA Tester
[h3]Production[/h3]
ā One team, one dream
"When you join a company, or a studio, they always tell you about the friendly work environment, how everyone gets along and how āweāre all one big family.ā Imagine my surprise when I joined The Chinese Room and found that every single one of those statements were true.
Being a producer can be really easy or really hard, and this depends entirely on the team and the project that you are producing. With Still Wakes the Deep, Iām surrounded by game designers and developers who make each day something to look forward to. There are challenges of course, there always will be, but I face those challenges in the knowledge that weāre all pulling in the same direction, and everyone is working their hardest to achieve what we know will be an incredible game.
I know, this is bordering on hyperboly, but I canāt help myself. This is a one-time love letter to my colleagues, and I hope they read this before the next time Iām harassing them about something."
Jacob Jackman, Associate Producer
[h3]Misc[/h3]
ā SWTD Announcement Party
Our seafront venue was filled with our studio members, friends of the studio and a brilliant atmosphere. We danced to 1970s tunes, ate 1970s culinary staples, had a photo booth, merch, game-themed cocktails, and that show-stopper of a cake!
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