A Twisted Tale News

[p]
It’s time for a little insight into what’s been happening behind the scenes with Chapter 2 of A Twisted Tale.[/p][p]As many of you know, development continues to be entirely hand-drawn and animated frame by frame – and with Chapter 2 being significantly larger than Chapter 1, there’s now even more to illustrate and bring to life.[/p][p][/p][h3]Scenes, scenes, scenes...[/h3][p]Most of my recent work has gone into backgrounds – especially the lush jungle areas. While I’m careful not to reveal too much, here’s a small glimpse from deep within the swamp… which may or may not feature a claw machine. I couldn’t resist.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Jungle foliage in particular takes a great deal of time. Even though I’ve become more efficient at suggesting detail in the distance, I still tend to lose myself in the process. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]At one point, I realised I’d completely lost track of how many scenes were still ahead – so I grabbed the nearest thing at hand (a piece of kitchen roll, naturally) and scribbled down a rough plan.[/p][p][/p][p]The result: 21 scenes, an as-yet undefined number of quest-specific ones, a map, and several close-up views. About half of the core scenes and some of the close-ups are already complete. The first testing phase will begin without the quest-specific content, which I’ll build in parallel.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Characters and animation[/h3][p]Chapter 2 doesn’t just bring new locations – it also raises the bar visually. To match the more detailed environments, the characters you’ll meet are being drawn with greater nuance, and their animations have become noticeably more expressive.[/p][p]One of these characters is Montoya, a gifted fencer who plays a key role in Chapter 2. He’s already become a personal favourite to work on.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Compared to Chapter 1, the process of animating characters feels far more natural now. For the first chapter, I hand-drew hundreds of animation frames – every movement frame by frame. But many of the early character animations (such as the antique shop owner or Ned) were created in the earliest stages of development, and are relatively simple as a result. By contrast, the game’s intro – which I completed last – taught me a great deal about timing, motion and emotion. That learning now flows directly into the animations of Chapter 2, and I’m excited for players to see the difference.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sound & atmosphere[/h3][p]The world is also beginning to sound more alive. I’ve started integrating early ambient sounds and musical sketches, and even at this stage they bring a lot of depth to the atmosphere. I'm delighted to be working again with Maxim (sound) and Micha (music), who both helped shape the experience of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 builds on that foundation and already has its own distinct feel.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]That’s all for now – thank you so much for following along! If you enjoyed Chapter 1, you can look forward to a bigger, richer and more vibrant continuation in Chapter 2 :)[/p][p]Greetings from Germany,[/p][p]Eva[/p]

[h3]Hello dear adventure fans,[/h3]

since you have requested updates here on Steam as well, I am trying to make this possible with a devlog that runs parallel to the Kickstarter updates, but is of course tailored for here. I hope to be able to involve you better.

Having already presented you with a first scene & teaser for Chapter 2, I'm all the more pleased to show you a little more. Not only am I currently drawing the backgrounds for all the scenes (and there will be a few more than in Chapter 1), but I'm also trying to polish up the atmosphere a bit.

So I've been working on the parallax effect and the creation and integration of lightmaps. It is certainly a question of the extent to which these elements can still be described as retro and can be authentically integrated into the 90s 2D design style. I have to admit that this was the main reason why I hadn't even thought about it for Chapter 1. As Chapter 2 will be much darker in some parts, a light map is the most practical option for me. Another alternative would be to recolour and replace Vio's animation sprites, but that would take an enormous amount of time and wouldn't be technically clean either.

With the parallax effect, I really like the play with depth if you don't overdo it and impose it on all the scenes. But it can add a lot to the atmosphere. And I was surprised when I realised that even Broken Sword uses this effect (was it always like this, or was it added in the later versions?).

In any case, I don't want to withhold the results from you. Please note that the screens and tests are not final, so I will still be adding work and effort:

[previewyoutube][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]






At the moment I'm working really hard to get all the scenes more or less finished and technically integrated, in the next step I would add all the necessary elements so that a clickable rudimentary version is created. I'm trying to add animations late, although I have to admit that I really want to make the fire dance in the fireplace and play with the candlelight. :)

I hope you like this little insight into the current state of things. It's still a bit difficult for me to estimate how much information you want and how detailed it should be. That's why I'm looking forward to your feedback - so don't hesitate to write it below.

This concludes the first entry of the devlog for Chapter 2 here on Steam.
Stay healthy and until next time,
Many greetings from Germany,
Eva

As many of you know, I'm currently working on Chapter (episode / book / tale) 2, and have been for a while, so it's about time for an official announcement.

So I'm really pleased to announce publicly that Chapter 2 of A Twisted Tale is going to be more Caribbean than Hermann's (you know which fisherman) wildest dreams.

The graphics are still hand-drawn, but I've decided to overdraw the hard outlines in the colouring process as well. This makes it easier for me to draw and I personally like the look better this way, as Vio blends in better with the environment.

For you, this also means a reunion with familiar and new faces, a large portion of clichés and some cliché-breaking. So you'll come across a lot of things that you wouldn't necessarily expect in a setting like this ;)

Apart from that, I don't want to give too much away, but let the screenshot stand for itself.



Greetings from Germany,
Eva

[h3]Hotfix online[/h3]

+ It is now prevented that the language changes every 2 or 3 clicks if you look at the items in the antique shop in English (sorry, that was a really stupid bug)