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Spenny

[Dev Log] Shadow and Colossus: Back in Action

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I want to create a short first person narrative piece. See if I can get some cool cinematic stuff going along the lines of 30 Flights of Loving. The game will star a Mr. Shadow, his car, the Colossus, and they have to get back in action.

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Yesssss, I love this episode title! Can't wait to see what you cook up!

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4q34c9L.jpg

 

Today was mostly testing the look and process I had in mind. It's a car!

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That sad window blind is such a great detail.

 

My girlfriend gave me that idea, really saddens the place.

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Well, I definitely scoped way to big, but that's half the fun isn't it? I'll be submitting something, a "preview" version that has the first 3 scenes.

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That was pretty great.

I love how you arranged the audio in the apartment scene. I felt like I knew which side of the building is on a busy street, and which side faces a feeder-street. That was cool. I also got a kick out of similarities to The Static Speaks My Name, you use that feeding-yourself-pacing very well to establish character. 

The dialogue options didn't seem that different from each other. I thought this was excellent because I got the sense that the player-character is very subtle in their speech. It gave them an cool, veteraned demeanor. Each one of those choices I thought about. Having to pick between subtly different phrases gave those subtle differences much more meaning. I really like that.

The art style is lovely. I just loved everything about this.

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This was great! Loved the last chapter, great music choice. Is the dissonance between art style and subject matter meaningful?

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That was pretty great.

I love how you arranged the audio in the apartment scene. I felt like I knew which side of the building is on a busy street, and which side faces a feeder-street. That was cool. I also got a kick out of similarities to The Static Speaks My Name, you use that feeding-yourself-pacing very well to establish character. 

The dialogue options didn't seem that different from each other. I thought this was excellent because I got the sense that the player-character is very subtle in their speech. It gave them an cool, veteraned demeanor. Each one of those choices I thought about. Having to pick between subtly different phrases gave those subtle differences much more meaning. I really like that.

The art style is lovely. I just loved everything about this.

 

Thanks for the kind words Clyde. I'm wondering if

you realized / picked up on the fact that the dialogue choices are mechanically meaningless? No matter what you choose the next line is the same, the only branching is when you decide to answer the phone or not. I believe that giving you the choice is meaningful from a play perspective (as you no doubt found yourself) but still curious if you could tell that the choices weren't really choices.

Also, if any of the dialogue felt weak to you, I'd be happy to know so I can punch it up in a later version.

 

Also, The Static Speaks My name was quite inspiring to this, and very helpful as it mentioned Ben Esposito's First Person Drifter Controller which worked well for my purposes here.

 

I really enjoyed that! It just oozed style.

 

Thanks!

 

This was great! Loved the last chapter, great music choice. Is the dissonance between art style and subject matter meaningful?

 

Thanks. I did not intend to create dissonance, so I'm curious what was the dissonance you found? Was it meaningful to you?

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I did pick up on that!

 

The dissonance I felt was in using a pencilled style for a stylish crime drama - it's not done in the style of a child's colourings, but it's close. It evokes someone's bored doodles in a meeting or something - makes it feel more fantastical and light, while the narrative is understated and grimy. I could read it in a number of ways - a satire on these narratives in GTA 5 and the like, or suggesting a narcotic state of mind for the protagonist...

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Thanks for clearing that up. Beyond the practical nature of the style being something I can achieve with the skills and time I had, in my vision the style has a shittyness to it that is consonant to a gritty crime story. I'm less concerned with the magic of your bored doodles coming to life, and more concerned with the mental state that brings on the bored doodles.

 

That said, even if your read was that the style was fantastic and dissonant from the story, if you read that as trying to create "a narcotic state of mind for the protagonist" I would consider that successful. I definitely intended a certain degree of dreaminess to it.

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I didn't feel there was a disconnect between the music/theme and the art style. The all gray pencil markings put me in the mind of someone jotting down lazily in a notepad. Someone tired of the mundane nature of everything.

Mood-wise, it was pushing the Hotline Miami buttons pretty hard. But I assume that would all shift once you get out of the car and uh...don't murder everything.

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Loved it as a mood piece, especially the bit in the car with the music. The writing felt maybe a tad bit cliche but I think that might be intentional and does work well with the audio-visual side of things. As per your Blendo inspiration, it felt more like reference and riffing because of the stylish and dreamlike atmosphere.

 

Solid stuff. Would love to see if you develop the story more, even if it takes a long time to put each piece together (which I'm guessing it might!)

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Thanks for the kind words Clyde. I'm wondering if

you realized / picked up on the fact that the dialogue choices are mechanically meaningless? No matter what you choose the next line is the same, the only branching is when you decide to answer the phone or not. I believe that giving you the choice is meaningful from a play perspective (as you no doubt found yourself) but still curious if you could tell that the choices weren't really choices.

Also, if any of the dialogue felt weak to you, I'd be happy to know so I can punch it up in a later version.

 

I only played through once and felt that the choices had meaning. It's not disappointing or anything to find out that they didn't have distinct mechanical reactions. Personally, I feel that narrative-based games such as this one don't have to worry as much about that type of thing as long as the player doesn't replay enough to optimize. Once they start looking for optimal paths, all those choices will be ignored, but you could say the same about most of the content and potential in games during a speed-run. Additionally if I compare the false-choice to no choice, I much prefer having something to click on and having decisions that might have an impact available; I like having buttons to push.

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I really liked this. The sound was really awesome, totally sold the apartment. The car starting sound, the music on the highway. Really nice.

The style really worked for me as well, kind of like a light noirishness with the lack of colour.

 

I found the dialogue engaging, I didn't spot whether or not the choices affected the dialogue but I did wonder about it. There was one point where I was wondering what I should be doing because the pause in interaction/visual change felt a teensy bit too long (and this is pretty minor really, it just caused me to look around and click stuff 2/3 times when there was nothing to do), just after having picked up the gun. There was a slight shadow of this just before the phone rang as well, but I think that pause was actually pretty great because the phone came as a pleasant surprise just at the right point.

 

Anyway, I really likes lots of elements of this game and I could totally get into it if it continued to delight/surprise with those nice touches and interactions. I definitely felt an echo of 30 Flights of Loving in there. \o/

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Great preview, and I really dig the art style, I've never seen such a papercraft-esque thing being done. Looking forward to more!

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