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[Michaël Samyn]

The last week of working on a session per day has begun. This has been a nice way of completing the game because it immersed us in the spirit of the linear story (working backwards these last few weeks did mess that up a little).

But some elements in the game occur in many sessions, or have a similar work flow. And it's often faster to do many of these in a row that to do one per day. We've been doing some of those tasks on Fridays and in the weekend. But they take quite a bit of time, time that we could have used for actual pick ups.

[The_Observer]

I worry. I worry that few people will enjoy Sunset. We've made a lot of concessions and embraced many videogame conventions.

This was something I noticed early on about Sunset. It's more 'gamey' than your other games. But that doesn't have to be a bad or definitive thing. You see it as a concession, but why not as a learning or meeting experience? Walking a different path to learn the path you usually walk is the right one, or just to get a new perspective?
From my end I'm very curious what Sunset will bring!

I also like how this devlog reads more as a diary, than an actual devlog. Was that your intention or more like a 'side-effect'?

Good luck with the development!

[Michaël Samyn]

I just write things that I think about. I guess I think more about diary-like things than whatever an actual devlog is supposed to consist of. Glad to hear you like it.

I don't think concessions are bad. And I don't think there is any one "right" path. I am very much enjoying Sunset, both the work and the product. But that only has me worried more: if I like it then for sure everybody else will hate it. 

Anyway, we try not to think about that too much and focus on making as nice an experience as we can.

[Michaël Samyn]

Today is the last day of our session-per-day production schedule! Forty-four sessions at 4 sessions per week plus an extra week halfway through. Twelve weeks of non-stop crunching. That's three months. I can't believe it was that long. But we made it! And the game is looking great.



There's still a lot of things left to do. Mostly minor and easy to implement. But a sufficient amount of them that it does make me worry about bugs that we haven't discovered yet. And it takes a lot of time to play the game, to find those. Time we often don't feel we have.

I'm looking forward to playing the game, though! We haven't played it from start to finish yet. And I doubt we will have time before launch. Which feels a little weird. Will it work? Will it have the emotional impact we imagined? Will it be fun? Moving? Fingers crossed! There's not much we can do about that now anyway.

So Sunset, as a whole, will be as new for us as for the players on 21 May. So exciting!

[The_Observer]

Interesting, whenever I develop a game I always catch myself not playing it enough, but merely testing it constantly. A common pitfall perhaps?

My apologies if you've already explained this, but do you have some kind of story board or playbook with which you planned the course of the game and the different game-days?
Or how do you keep track of everything to make sure the game works as intended?

[Michaël Samyn]

We have a big spreadsheet to keep track of everything. Lucky for us Sunset is a linear game, so the spreadsheet is simply arranged according to time.

Also the structure of the Unity scene is very clear (at least to us). Objects are hierarchically ordered. The bulk of Sunset is a single scene file. 

[Joel Draper]

Good Luck.

As someone who's lived in Latin America, I'm so excited for this. It may feel like going back (to my metaphorical) home. I'm so excited and I wish you all the best.

Do you know what you're doing about soundtrack? Is it purchasable or with the game or..what?

[Michaël Samyn]

Thank you.

The Latin American setting if quite imaginary, though. We've only been to a few places. But then again, we were toddlers in 1972 (when the game takes place) as well.

Yes, the soundtrack will be available with or without the game. It will contain Austin Wintory's compositions as well as his collaborations with some of the Kickstarter backers. A very diverse soundtrack!

[Michaël Samyn]

This has probably been the most popular #screenshotsaturday in our entire career on Twitter. Enjoy!



This is a screenshot of Sunset's minimum quality mode. It was created to allow the game to be run on computers without proper graphics processor (ie those pesky integrated things that can only run 3D in theory). By leaving out the shadows and the reflections, the animated character and most of the image effects, we got pretty good performance but the game looked rather bland. So we added a pixellated and slightly posterized effect to that mode. It looks a lot better in our opinion. And as a bonus, it seems to be easier on the stomach of those sensitive to motion sickness in first person.

[The_Observer]

Or how limitations breed creativity.

Does it also work well when moving moving around?

[Michaël Samyn]

Yes, it looks great. Especially with the 2.5 D camera.

[Joel Draper]

I'm tempted to play it in the Min mode, just because it looks cool.

And about the Latin America thing, don't worry - I know that. It just adds to my excitement that it's set in Latin America.

[Michaël Samyn]

Play it in whatever mode you like best. We aim to please.

[Armageddon]

I didn't even know Unity could run on a system without a proper graphics card? That's nuts.

[Joel Draper]

I thought they meant metaphorically, not actually without a graphics card - as some people's graphics cards seem to struggle or the game doesn't recognize it properly so it doesn't work as well as it should.

[Michaël Samyn]

It's basically meant for integrated GPUs, like those infamous Intel things.

[Joel Draper]

Oh yeah, like my Intel 4000 with AMD integrated graphics that works like half the time. 

[Michaël Samyn]

We've been so busy with Sunset that we haven't developed a back-up plan in case the game flops commercially. I think that's the first time in our career. We keep bringing things up that we want to do "when this game is finished" but most of those depend on the game actually being successful. If it isn't, Tale of Tales will probably go bankrupt. Feeling a bit irresponsible now. Have no idea how I'll feed my family if this thing fails.

[quan]

this looks funky, posting to follow.

[Michaël Samyn]

I can drive myself crazy imagining how people will respond to Sunset. Will they like it? Will they find a way to enjoy it? Did we manage to make something accessible or is it still way too "Tale of Tales"? Will it live up to the expectations generated by the initial concept (it's intimidating how much some people like the concept of Sunset)? Why did I think this was going to work in the first place? Et cetera.

So I'm looking for the slightest signs, indicators in what people say to try to deduce what the response of the public will be. Did we do well? Will they get it?

But it's all moot now. Whatever would be wrong with Sunset could not be fixed before the release date anyway. So what matters now, to me, what I need to focus on, is finishing Sunset as the game I want it to be. Make it work for me. Make it please me. So I can be proud of my baby. So that when everyone hates I can still say "I love it! You're all morons!"