UPDATE8-Bit Funding PageSince this devlog began, OEM has been through 2 coders. minasss got a full-time job, so he left the project and Fareed took over. We scrapped the Python engine and started building in FlashPunk. Then Fareed got a full-time job and left the project. By that point Game Maker Mac had come out, so I started learning it and am, for the time being at least, making the game by myself.
What is it?It's a low-res adventure game with 4 characters. It's being built simultaneously on Windows and Mac in Game Maker, so far by just me, but I'll probably enlist help for certain parts of the game.
The game relishes in the specifics: it takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, with each location so far being adapted from real locations and neighborhoods. The city, much of the world in fact, is now occupied by the titular monsters. They live, they have friendships, they have insecurities, they have hobbies, they pass the time, they laugh and cry and sleep and make things.
They also eat humans whenever they can catch them.
Human society is mostly gone, which means the water is running cleaner, the hole in the ozone layer is slowly healing itself, and endangered species populations are on the rise. What's left of humanity is mostly young people from 10 to 30; older, slower people are the first to get eaten.
How Does It Play?You control four main characters:
Sebastian, Tek, Marshall, and Julie. They live in several shipping containers in the West Oakland shipyards. They live by scrounging canned and dried foods out of abandoned shopping centers, and occasionally bartering their supplies with other survivors for other resources. Each character has their own unique skills and personalities that you mediate between.
It does not play like a traditional adventure game. It also does not look like a traditional adventure game. And the plot is not going where you think it's going.
Who Is Working Has Worked On It?minasss worked on the first, Python-based engine.
Fareed worked on the second, Flash-based engine.
Aquanoctis has made a bunch of beautiful concept art.
Sparky has worked on backgrounds.
Everything else, from writing to art to the current Game Maker build, has been me.
How Far Along Are You?So close, and yet so far.
The core mechanics for character control are complete and working, so from here I move into prototyping puzzles.
The game is to be released in several short-ish installments, both to serve the way the story is told and to keep any one part of the game from being too big to complete.
Anything Else?There's a production journal over at
oneeyedmonsters.wordpress.com. It's updated
on Fridays and whenever
else I find something to say. There's also this recruitment video I made some time back, always still relevant!
Fire away with any questions you may have. We'll be updating a lot.
Cheers!