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[Gnaff]

Hi Lucas, I discovered your game on Gamemag. Is a very interesting game. I don't speak english very well (I'm italian), my hobby is compose orchestral music. I'm not a professional composer, just an hobbyist. If you want can we talk togheter to help you about soundtrack (I don't want to spam my soundcloud).

I can't wait
Here my last piece finished last monday: http://www74.zippyshare.com/v/37652983/file.html
And here a little sample made this evening: http://www63.zippyshare.com/v/16516246/file.html
(download for better quality)
Both for menù.

Tell me your opinion (even if suck).

 

[dukope]

[...]One other thing is that it didn't "feel" to me like I was on a boat - unless I looked at the horizon.[...]

I get sick really quickly with a lot of camera wave movement. The current wavemotion isn't tuned though so I'll work on improving it.

[...]I made a video showing what I mean, and actually during the recording I made it to the lower decks of the ship![...]

Stowaway in the lower decks! (Thanks a bunch for the video, I'll fix the shit out of this.)

[...]The voice acting is actually quite good, but I agree with some of the other posts about its need to match the card timing leaving it a little stilted sometimes-just out of curiosity, do you think the subtitles are even really necessary?[...]

The subtitles are mostly a stylistic choice. I originally had silent movie style frames around them but that was too distracting. I personally like them enough that they'll probably stay in. There are also some cases where I expect the voiced dialog won't actually be clear enough (like during the storm), and subtitles are important for clarity.

[...]About the scene skip and details - some kind of automatic notes would be really nice. Having to keep paper on my desk is like pulling me out of the game repeatedly.[...]

Later death moments will have more going on and I'm really hoping that the "want to skip through" problem won't be as prevalent. If you have to check up on 80 crew members in 1 minute, I imagine the issue will be too little time instead of too much.

But I'm also starting to think about some kind of in-game note system. We'll see.

[...]my hobby is compose orchestral music[...]

I appreciate the samples and they sound fine, but I'll be composing the music myself on this game. Sorry!

[dukope]

Character Modeling Timelapse

Another long annotated timelapse. This time just in Maya. Character modeling, texturing, posing, etc. If you haven't played the development build yet, don't watch this!

[ucupumar]

Thanks for the timelapse. It's incredible how fast you creating those characters. 
It's really inspiring me.

Is it all really done in one session? And in what speed your timelapse is?

[dukope]

Is it all really done in one session? And in what speed your timelapse is?

Definitely not one session. At least a week of work for everything, spread out over a month or so. In between recordings I was working on other stuff; code, audio, ship modeling, etc. I adjusted the timelapse speed for different sections so the video wasn't insanely long and boring.

[Jasmine]

Just finished playing the demo.

WOW!

Would definitely pay for a finished title.

As much as I would love to offer some constructive criticism, I have none to give.

Keep up the fantastic work!

[Gnaff]

I appreciate the samples and they sound fine, but I'll be composing the music myself on this game. Sorry!

I hear the soundtrack and I think it can be more touching and powerfull. The first chord change (when the notes go up) is seems to be out of tune with the context and the string should be more big (like a big orchestra) with higher dynamic but hey! this is not last version

IMHO

Good job and good luck 

[ReverendTed]

Really looking forward to the full version based on the playable build.

The attention to detail really shows in the audio work, though I found the "bubbling" noise on the lower decks somewhat off-putting in the audio preview video.

I did manage to trigger a door-open animation from the opposite side of the door by activating it from off-angle.

Did you agonize at all about the title?  I ask because a ship returning with nothing but corpses aboard (as far as we know) might qualify for, say, "The Curse of the Obra Dinn", or perhaps "The Scourge of the Obra Dinn".
The Fate of the Obra Dinn?
The Tale of the Obra Dinn?
Remembering the Obra Dinn?
Obra Dinn: The Quest for Curly's Gold?

[Playaction]

Thanks for sharing the timelapse. Really fun to see your process.

[Obreht]

Hey, just played through the demo and really enjoyed it. I'm not too much of a gamer myself and I've never experienced anything quite like the look-back-in-time kind of thing, it's a lot of fun though! The transition thing that fills the screen is really cool, and I never got tired of the little tune at the start.

Was also really excited to find that a crew member comes from my hometown (Trondheim, Norway)! I was surprised by the amount of foreign crew actually, and all the different misspellings of non-english names were amusing. I'm curious if the names of the crew are placeholders for now, though? Because it seemed most of them had quite british names despite their place of origin. If you ever want help to find more culturally and time accurate names I'm open for lending any assistance you need.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Brilliant little preview, was really enjoyable to figure things out.

I didn't really mind being stuck in the flashbacks. Nice to be forced to be measured and paced with my approach. Think most games now cater to the quick plays and letting the player control how quickly they want to play, so it's a nice change. Once you figure your locked in this flashbacks you learn to approach them in a specific way so you don't need to constantly go back.

Looking forward to uncovering more of the mystery and the fates of the crewmembers.

[LyndonHolland]

Wow, this is very good. The art style works incredibly well in 3D - much better than I had anticipated. It feels perfectly acceptable to have a thick black outline to maintain the optimum resolution, I would go with that version if I was you.

I'll echo others thoughts about a slight confusion in the beginning finding the box. I wasn't quite sure of the context of the opening conversation. Initially I thought that we were hearing thoughts from the dead and so I was looking around the ship to see if the box was located in one of the rooms. It's a small point I suppose, but if I understood that I was boarding the ship from the dock or another salvage vessel etc, it would make more sense to check the side of the ship.

The main mechanic is brilliant. I was excited to read that there are so many names in the ships manifest. I can definitely see the potential for some real detective work through use of deduction. Sort of like how in a crossword you might have several options but cant be sure which is right until you fill in another clue, which gives you a vital letter that narrows down your options.

I'm a big fan of the music that you have composed for the frozen sequences. It has an objectivity, almost callousness towards the fact that these people are being killed. It reminds me of the work of Michael Nyman in Peter Greenaway films. He uses music in a similar way.



If anything I would just experiment with filling it out a bit more - doubling instruments, maybe look at a different reverb - but I don't think it needs to be more complex, the simplicity works well.

One small nitpick. The music sting as you open the watch seems to speed up on the last cadence. I like boldness of that sting, but it just feels a little rushed and unnatural in that final moment.

Thanks for sharing your work!

[alienwoods]

Hi dukope!

I just tried out this playable demo, and its very enjoyable!

The art stíle with this black and white early pc graphics theme is very fun, it feels like playing a game back in early 90's . I really enjoyed the dagger's swipe particles in the back cabin of the ship.
The vioceovers and the music totally sets the feeling, it reming me a good old Sherlock Holmes tv episode. My favourite audio clip is the one that plays when the Murder Watch reach the end of a reminiscence scene. You totally got it!
About the gameplay, i was also confused how the game starts, because i started to look into the cabins for the box, and in a 3 min, i realized "maybe its outside somewhere?". I think it can be fix be changeing the starting orientation of the player at the begining, or addig more model detail where i can see there's a ladder for the ship where i walked up etc. nevermind .

So i totally looking fowrard for the next version, because this early prototype is already shows that this concept is pretty fun!
I wonder how it turns to be a full game .

PS.: Did you thinked about the idea, if the player could change the present by moving and switching actors in those  reminiscence scenes?

[HolyMBison]

Thank you so much for releasing an early build for us to play around with. Now that I've actually gotten a taste of the game, I am more excited for it than ever before. Most of the concerns I have with the game are already being addressed, like the ability to end moments prematurely and the speed at which the hand comes up to indicate something that can be interacted with.

But I'm also starting to think about some kind of in-game note system. We'll see.

An in-game note system sounds like a great idea, but I don't think that automatic notes are the best way to implement them. I think that automatic notes have the potential to allow people to bruteforce through the game by giving them hints when they look at something rather than making them piece together the clues themselves. I think a much better solution would be to include a manual notes system, something like a journal that you can type into or use the mouse to scribble in or both. Ideally, the journal would also have some sort of simple way to organize your notes, like with tabbed dividers or something.

Either way, I am loving the game so far and can't wait to see more of it in the future.

[ReverendTed]

There was something that bothered me about the motion of the boat and the horizon and I couldn't put my finger on it until this evening.

When inside the cabin, there's some noticeable camera movement as the boat rocks.
On the deck however, it seemed like the boat was stationary while the horizon moved.  I tried to convince myself that was just a matter of perspective, but that's not how you respond to a rocking boat - remaining perpendicular to the deck.  Typically, you'll remain close to upright while the deck pitches and rolls beneath you.

Bottom line: I think there needs to be some slight roll and sway of the camera to communicate that the ship is moving.
I know you're concerned about motion sickness, but...whoa.
I got halfway through that thought before I realized how awesome this would be on a Rift.

[Recs]

very very nice style and great idea.

following.

[paladin_t]

Nice graphics, interesting story!!!

[rudson]

The visuals are great, so stylized and simple. Love it. After a few minutes, I really felt like had been transported into this world, and was intrigued by what I might discover. I want to open each cupboard, and chest!

Great job so far!

[santarcade]

Hi dukope,
I finally had time to have another run of the game and I noted down the following things:

• Steps while walking: when I start going forward after standing still, the view moves too far away before hearing the first step. Even by advancing by just a little, it seems you can walk without producing any sound: this interacts with my suspension of disbelief
• Consecutio temporum: the first thing I double checked when I was inspecting the skeletons was: who died first, what was the death sequence? I suspect this is an aspect  you already planned to play with, if not give it a shoot
• Dynamic contrast: I think it could be worth to test to change the colors of your 1-bit palette according to the lights and dominants of your environments

Keep it up!

[Jinan Dangor]

Wow! Really blown away by this brilliant concept! I really enjoyed playing through the FTB, me and my brother thought it was a brilliant concept and can't wait until further playable builds come out!

Just thought I'd mention some stuff we noticed while playing together. 

Firstly, we managed to get a brilliant 4 out of 2 fates of the people on board :D 200% effort :D There was the captain and first mate which I believe were the ones you were meant to get, but we presumed the women in the bed was the first mate's sister (started with an A, can't remember now  ), and that she was killed by 'the devil's storm' (How I remember it: "Yar! This storm is the devil's work! Yarrrrrrr") and we went to the first man listed as an 'able bodied seaman' and said he was killed by the captain with the knife (as the captain did kill some guy with a knife) and when we checked the first page, 4 out of 2 fates! :D
I guess the main thing I thought about there was: if you see a passenger get eaten by a crocodile, you can theoretically just go through every passenger and try out that death on them, and although the fate system appears to have been made to prevent guessing, as long as you get the person's method of death, and especially if you guess their occupation, you can kind of wreck the whole detective element of the game. I don't know, maybe the player should have to figure out the occupations as well as the fates, but the occupations aren't necessary, just the fates, the occupations just help you deduce things. I don't know, it just seems like (especially due to the large crew size) you're pretty close to making a game where you can't just guess your way through (which I love) there's just that little snag I thought I'd point out

Secondly, I found it kind of off-putting that so far all the real clues are in the dialogue (unless I missed something). I mean, we found the guy with the knife in his mouth making his way across the ship to sneak up on the captain, mid-air jumping onto the balcony, and we felt like geniuses discovering some cool secret! I just think if finding those things actually helped with the deduction of fates and provided more clues it would be more exciting. It would encourage a bit of exploration of the area other than just the scene where the guy's getting shot and make you feel like a real detective when you notice those two passengers are kissing in the shadows over in the background so ah-ha! I discovered what Archibald Smith's wife Violet Smith looks like!
That was a terrible example, but more visual clues would have been cool, I guess is what I'm saying

Finally, I think I remember you mentioning this at some point, but some kind of note-taking system would be cool. One thing I thought might work with the whole 'player's hand' concept you have going is a magnifying glass. When you look directly at a person's face the magnifying glass goes to it, and you can capture it and attach it to a profile (either a name from the register or a mystery person). And the game wouldn't necessarily have to tell what anything you captured means.
So he's looking at a locket, so what? How will this information help me? *20 mins later* Oh! A letter telling Richard Brassington to look after the locket his mother sent him! That guy must have been him!
And a character's profile with deductions in it like what they look like (or you think they look like), their relationships with other crew, or things a player could fill in like:
<verb> <noun> <motive> <person> <date/time>
<Seen with> <knife> <to kill> <the cook> <unknown>
<Heard with> <flowers> <to give to> <unknown> <21st September, 4:35pm>
I don't know, something like that :D

I guess I'd just like an in-game way of keeping notes, maybe not just on characters but maybe even on events the characters take part in. And as I already said, I'd like more visual clues to look for, and more interaction with the murder scenes.

Other than that, so far so good! Honestly, I can't wait for more updates, this game is going to be so amazing! :D
-Jinan

P.S. I remember hearing you mention in one of your posts how you could, for example, say someone was alive in Europe, then dig deep to find a clue saying they are alive in France? Brilliant! The idea you can put in that extra bit of effort once you have a little information is great! I could see how you'd already kind of implemented that in the deaths too, you can leave things unknown so you can come back later and fill them in with more info. I just can't wait to see what kind of stuff you do with this!