Devlog #1 - Getting started

Hi all!

I’ve been thinking about this project for a few years and finally decided to go for it with this jam. This is a more story heavy endeavor than anything I’ve pursued yet, so I’m going to keep the main themes under wraps for now. I originally wanted this to be a visual novel meets adventurous side-scroller (similar to my entry into last year’s darktober jam https://hankworx.itch.io/whatshername), but have decided to strictly focus on it as a visual novel, perhaps with some minor point and click features if there is time. I’ve got the story about 2/3rds complete, and hope to have it finished by the end of the week. I’d like the game to maintain a retro/DOS aesthetic while also using Unity’s lighting and graphical features to do some different things visually.

One main theme at the focus of the story is morality. The player’s character, John, has made some decisions in his past, but the player has control over John’s decisions for the entirety of the story. There are plenty of opportunities for the player to decide what is right and wrong for John. I’ve been considering some different ways to psychoanalyze the player throughout the story, and am fairly excited about the routes I’ve chosen to pursue. Although there is no perfect way to do this, I think the choices and circumstances will give me ample opportunities to profile the player (similar to Until Dawn and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories).

I’ve started building the game by figuring out the mood. A friend and I are both participating in “Inktober” this year, and have decided to use our sketches for that as graphics for the game. The graphics will be a mix of hand-drawn and digitally drawn sketches, as well as some pixel-art. The images will be low color and minimalistic. I’d like to leave room for player’s imagination to build the scenes, but still provide enough to appropriately define the environments.

Audio-wise, I’ve produced one track so far, a sad, somber, spacey, wandering guitar track made of multiple layers and effects. I’d like to focus on a live-instrument soundtrack, as most of my projects are made of digital music. I’m also planning on a mixture of foley SFX to pair with the background music and story. A friend of mine has agreed to work with me in his studio to produce the soundtrack. Audio is my strong suit of game-development, and the main reason I started developing my own projects, so I’m not overly worried about the soundtrack and SFX. They will happen as the game does.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I’m excited for the project and hope you are too! I’ll try to regularly post some updates here. I welcome any questions and suggestions for the game, and am looking forward to people playing it.