The Non-Vegan Final Bed
Hello everyone !
It's been a while and I must confess I have my plate extremely full so I kinda (but only kinda) postponed to write a new blog post ( I must confess that I also took a small week of holiday in all that). But do not confuse the lack of blogpost for a lack of advances in the game ! Things have been moving forward and today, I am here to show you (some) of it.
The curse of knowledge
if you have questions about the title of this blog post, check ou the etymology of the word: sarcophagus ! (this is also part of the knowledge curse somehow).
A little warning, what I am going to show next could easily be considered spoiler. So you'll say "As everything you showed before no ?". And ... yes but now that the development is advancing, more involved elements are being shown. What was shown before can be considered the teaser of the adventure, now we are entering in the real action of the game. So be warned, if you want to maintain the suspense about the game and what's happening in it, I would strongly advise you to trust me and stop reading here and any blog post coming.
This is actually a tough decision for me to make. As an individual, I do not appreciate spoilers and enjoy movies and video games much more when I discover everything by myself. Which, in my opinion, is tough nowadays where trailers and teasers show so much of what's coming. Starting a video game without priors has become nearly impossible. Unfortunately, it is even more problematic in an enigma based video game like I am creating in that showing/spoiling the enigmas or the solutions goes completely against the enjoyment of it. If you see the trailer for a first person shooter, the enjoyment comes from living the shown action. That is much less spoiling than if I show you an enigma and its solution and ask you to enjoy finding the solution again.
On the other side of the coin, buying something you have absolutely no knowledge of is a tough bet that I do not particularly enjoy taking. Years ago when internet was not that omnipresent (yes, I am that old), I clearly remember buying 80 bucks games that caught my attention only because of the cover (which amounted to all the information I had about this game) for it to be a most disappointing experience.
So there is a fine line to walk between showing enough for future players to understand what they are going to live and showing them too much that they understands what they will do. I am trying to do my best selecting the information shown so that it is at the very best a motivating teaser. I'd be very interested to hear about your opinion on the matter. Do you prefer knowing too much ? too little ? nothing about a video game ? Where do you draw the line between teasing and spoiling ? Please tell me on twitter or anywhere else !
Now that I wrote enough to hide the potential spoilers ... let's dive into it !
The Heart Of The Pyramid
Welcome to the heart of the pyramid ! The funeral chamber, the last room of the pharaoh AmunRun, former owner and regent of the land. But definitely not the last room for the adventurers to visit.
This chamber offered me the opportunity to do something I've never really done before: a cinematic ! In To Be Headed Or Not To Be there was a small animation at the end of the game but that was a really small thing. Here I am trying to convey a much more cinematographic and epic moment. There is still work to polish it but I am quite glad to have committed to making it. It is well on the way but I will not show it yet (or maybe ever outside the game cf. the discussion before).
A New Challenger Approaches
Obviously what comes with a sarcophagus ? Its tenant ! AmunRun's mummy is a bit grumpy from the uninvited visitors but it will be playful with them anyway (in a deadly manner obviously).
I really appreciate the quality of the mummy, it fits right in the overall style of the game and has this spooky jaw that I like very much. Without saying too much about the mummy, you can expect to see it multiple times at different locations. I am in the process of designing and refining precisely its implication in the adventure.
IRL Stuff
On a side note that is directly related to the game itself. I have been invited to present the studio's creations at the HeroFest in October and it was an amazing experience, so I would like to thanks them and particularly @TheNorthernNerd for the invitation and the organization.
I hope you enjoyed this update ! Have a nice day and take care !