Apotheorasis News

December '21 Devlog

Now that the holiday mood is on, I've got some good stuff to share ::

🎯 Free Prologue Released !

As promised on the last devlog, Act 1 (which features an improved version of the demo, and expands it into a 40-minute adventure in the dark) is now available on Steam for Free.

[h3]👉 Get it here 👈[/h3]

It is "in-sync" with the main game ; any progress you make (including achievements) gets stored locally and will be transferred to the main game when it releases.

👂 Steam Audio integrated

The Free Prologue brings with it a shiny new 3D Audio Engine ; clean, sharp audio allows you to tell exactly where things are.

An improvement on the demo both in terms of output quality, and accuracy.

🎙️ Voice Over Disclaimer

The Voice Overs are still "By the Dev" quality while the script gets finalized, but have been re-recorded with more passion, better equipment, and a bit of practice on my end.. doing my best here 😄

PS: December is a month during which I take a few days off, so honest wishes for a healthy, fortunate and satisfying 2022, try out the Prologue 👀 and see you soon.. (around mid-January).

November '21 Devlog (pt 2 of 2)

Production kicked-off pretty well these last two weeks, and so there's a few things I'm excited to share ::

⛏️ Act 1 (Cell, Caves, Bridge, Tunnel) is Complete !

Act 1 starts with a modified version of the cinematics and the tutorial scene included in the demo (a few changed lines), and continues your story once you wake up at your cell, down below in B3.

The plan is for it to be "in-sync" with the main game, so that any progress you make gets stored and transfers to the main game.

On December 22nd, I'll be releasing it as a Free Prologue

🎙️ VO Casting Started

For an audio game, voice acting is extremely important, and so I've started interviewing voice actors to find the ones right for this game : ) I will be posting samples over the next couple of months.

That being said, voice overs will remain "By the Dev" quality while the script gets finalized ; I'm really enjoying the creative freedom to change lines on the fly based on your feedback while the game is in this stage.

🎯 Roadmap Updates

The original release date of 22/02/2022 is still what I'm aiming for, but a few pre and post release dates have been added in.

- Dec '21 Free Prologue (Act1, "By the Dev" VOs)
- Jan '22 Early Access (All 3 Acts, "By the Dev" VOs)
- Feb '22 Early Access (v1.0 ; All 3 Acts, Final Quality VOs)
- Mar '22 Full Release (v1.1 ; Minor updates / improvements / QA)

Throughout production, I'll be updating the Apotheorasis playlist with "behind-the-scenes" videos as well, so feel free to subscribe !

Just finished an intense two-week pre-production phase, and I'm happy to report the following ::

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⌨️ Nothing has Changed | Everything has Changed

As is the case when sanitizing codebases , it's been a rather dry two weeks of refactoring, restructuring, and documenting the Unity3D project where the Apotheorasis game comes from.

The result looks (or rather, sounds) the same from the player's perspective ; but I am now able to work much faster when implementing new features. It's also less stressful when something breaks, as finding what's wrong when everything follows a similar pattern is much easier.

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📔 Narrative Designer Appreciates Thoughtful Programmer

Okay I'll admit I'm both people in this headline (which makes it kinda trippy) but there's no denying that the part of my brain responsible for doing the creative writing of Apotheorasis is definitely happier after the logical (?) side of me created a few neat parsers.

In a (hopefully not too technical) nutshell, I wrote a little program which reads in my Script, breaks it down in Lines (giving them an ID and noting who speaks) and stores it both as a lightweight .csv file (which a Voice Actor can print out and read from) and as a code file (.cs), giving me instant access to those lines in Unity so I can prepare the logic behind when they're called, who speaks them, etc.

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Stay Tuned and share your thoughts on the apotheorasis channel 🙂

Happy to report Apotheorasis' prototyping phase is nearing its end and I'll be happily heading into Pre-Production during November.

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⚔️ Gameplay Sandbox is out ! It contains 3 segments of gameplay that build on what the demo showcased, and are part of the planned final game.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DCBHNQfrPTKkr48_sGBXcIMP-Yk8zgxg/view?usp=sharing

Would love your feedback on this, as it's the most crucial part to get right.

📔 The Narrative is coming along nicely ; as the Complete Script is now drafted end-to-end. ! SPOILERS !
https://tall-guy-productions.com/Apotheorasis%20Script/
(if you read it send me a DM with your feedback 😉 )

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🎯 Planning up ahead, November will be split between cleaning up the codebase (nothing fancy, just some sanitization after all the prototyping I did in October) and getting the final content drafts ready (storyboards for cutscenes, level mockups, and the final dialogue draft).

Stay Tuned and share your thoughts on our Discord Server and the Steam Forums.

See You Soon !

As promised, I've created a brief roadmap of where things are, and what's next for Apotheorasis.

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After carefully reading all 53 questionnaires that were answered (see imgur picture), and analyzing the gameplay data to figure out "Where people drop out most" (see the reddit post for more info), I've come to a few conclusions.

1. 🎯 Creatively, the direction is on the right track ; the Concept is well received, and people are willing to forgive rough edges regarding the demo (for now)
2. 🎤 Though the Voice Acting ranged from good (girl in the car, instructor) to bad (female doctor), and I'm considering my alternatives within the budget I have, it seems to not be the main issue with the demo (for now)
3. ⚔️ The main thing that was missing was Gameplay ; and it's also the most elusive part to nail down in this type of game.
4. 📔 The Narrative (setting, themes, characters) was well-received, and it piqued curiosity as to where this game may go.

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So what this means is that the demo does a "good enough" job of demonstrating the concept, prompting players to wishlist and can therefore stay as-is, while I will focus all my efforts for the rest of the month on prototyping gameplay mechanics and reviewing the full game's script.

I've got a few ideas regarding gameplay that I want to try out, and I'll be sharing a demo containing small "situations" (ie. target practice, stealth missions, action sequences, puzzles, navigation, etc) to see which of them make sense to you. I hope I'll have your feedback at that time : )

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For now, have a look at the roadmap and share your thoughts on various mechanics here ::
https://trello.com/c/Tu0FgQ2M/1-prototyping-gameplay

- Questionnaire summary -> https://i.imgur.com/0AaUxuH
- Drop-out data -> https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/q6i4kk/

To get in touch with me and other members of this community, hop over on our Discord server
https://discord.gg/tallguyprods

See You Soon !