[Introduction]

Welcome to the official DevLog-thread of The Flate Effekt!

Introduction
Hi, I'm Marcel Plix, an independent game developer from Frankfurt, Germany. I'm in the game scene for over a year now, but I'm programming since my teenage years. Currently I'm working on my game The Flate Effekt. I got the idea during my vacation in Montréal & Toronto last year. In this thread I want to keep you updated about the game and the stuff that happens on the project. Please note: I'm not working alone on the project. I work together with my team.

About the game
(Right now I can't say more like I did on other platforms already) The Flate Effekt is a police drama/adventure game set in the fictional city Apate. Apate city is based on the Greater Toronto Area. In the game you play as Richard Pine, a retired cop who works as private detective now. Richard does have the ability to investigate crimes in the future and prevent them before they happen. This ability is called Flate.

The Flate ability technically allows Richard to go to sleep and travel to places in the city where about a crime is going to be committed. Richard does have full access to the crime scene and his task is to investigate what happened there. The way how Richard investigates his crimes are by normal detective work. He investigates the crime scene for evidences, interrogate witnesses and suspects and solve the case during his dream.

The game will be released on PC/Mac/Linux and maybe some other consoles, but I can't give you any information about that at the current point of development.

Screenshots (Note: Currently under development. Graphics may change!)
Deleted the screenshots. I'll add a gameplay video and add the screenshots, as soon as the trailer released! Sorry.

Closing words

That's it for today! Thanks for reading and I'm open to answer any question you have about the game! You can follow the development here in this thread or on my Twitter which I linked below! More updates are following! We're also working on a trailer which will be released soon!

Thanks,
Marcel


My Twitter: twitter.com/marcelplix

Hi, I missed it. Logged in 1 day too late to this forum since months. :/

Are you going to plan more meetups/events/jams here in the Frankfurt area for indies? I'll be happy to help, because I'm from Frankfurt and I really need some meetups with people from the game scene here. I'm sure it's cool to hang out together and jam on games or just talk & play games!

You can write me anytime via private message or Email at [email protected]

I want to build my portfolio and I want to offer you guys free video editing! If you want game trailers, music videos or other stuff, I'll be happy to help you out! Like I said, all services are free, but you have to provide me the assets I need to work!

Contact me under [email protected]

Hey guys,
haha, at first: Sorry I forgot to check TIGSource the last time, but I have to do a lot in the last time. So anyway, here we go, get to the topic of the post:

I have a questions how I can combine 2D top-down with 3D first-person. The art-style is pixel-art. I think it's possible with trixels or not? Hmh, I open for your help! What you think about it?

- Marcel

I didn't bought tickets for the GDCEurope. But I'm at gamescom for the week. By the way: I live in Germany. So it's easy to travel there!

I've written Maggan Scavio (event director of GDC together with Carless) on Twitter that i'm excited for GDC'14 and IGF and she replied that. ^.^


 

And they changed it. GDC'14 returns March 17-21, 2014! :D YAAAAAAY :D

More news in the next weeks! Thanks. I don't want to talk about the game now, because yeah. I've deleted all the stuff in this thread. Anyway.

lol, why?

Okay, when I have here in Germany a meeting, I'll make sure, I post it there!

I love this movie. And I will love this new movie too! I've watched Indie Game: The Movie now about 400 times. Not a joke. Since January every day one or two times. I use this a motivation boost.

I really like to see now the scenes with Phil and Renaud. They have their first reaction winning the IGF Grand Prize on camera. Totally funny. Phil Fish and Renaud Bédard are the best two guys in the indie scene I know. And I don't say that, because I like FEZ. No, I say that, because Renaud gave me a few tips how I start as an independent developer.

I drew it again! Now it's pixel-art, right?



Thank you for your tips. Now I can use my Photoshop better!

I don't have PS in front of me but in the Image Size window you can click "constrain proportions" or whatever it's called, that will make sure you scale the image's width and height the same amount.  If you want you can also set the scaling to percents instead of pixels (under image dimensions) and use values like 200%, 300% etc to make sure all your upscaled pixels are exactly the same size.

16X20, what kind of resolution is that?
DEfinitely not pixel art

damn, checkmate

Okay, will take a look at it the next time! Thank you!

you are basically fish's brother   

lol

Yeah, when he means me, then it's a lol! a huge looooool! :D

you are basically fish's brother   

Who? lol

Totally!
Renaud is awesome and always reply to mentions which is pretty cool for someone like him.

Yeah, he said to me, I can start on TIGSource! That's a good start as an indie dev. So HE is the reason, why I'm here. :D

Just upscale it by x2 every time. Also use nearest neightbour, this way you preserve your pixels.

I have nearest nightbour, but what you mean with upscale x2 every time? I set the place where the texture is and hit Control+T and scale it up.

Btw: I use Photoshop CS2, because it's free for everyone!

16X20, what kind of resolution is that?
DEfinitely not pixel art

I upscale all. I think this is just the problem. But when I draw it, it's little. So how I upscale it and let them be pixel-art? Like in FEZ. The textures looking big, but always 16x16! And the blocks looks more big than my blocks that Photoshop create in a 16x16 texture.

hah. interesting. I'll consider. thank you.

No problem (:

Torontaru looks totally awesome. would like to meet these guys.

Yeah, and the best thing is, it's by the FEZ programmer! :D

udderdude and I are torontonians. there are some more too. I've never been to a meetup.

Then you should go to Torontaru. It's made by the FEZ programmer Renaud Bédard. At my last day in Canada is one, but I could not go there, because my flight goes a few hours before the Torontaru starts. Damn it! Here is the link for you: https://www.facebook.com/events/336688426461179/