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[Transmission]

I haven't really shown enough process, so I'm going to start talking about different parts of the development and how things have developed thus far.  

Once the story was generally nailed down, I began working on some initial sketches of different areas.  They're all about tone and feel rather than details. I find that it's important to think of things as a cohesive whole right away, and how each color and value relates to the next and fit's within the "big picture"  Therefore, these little paintings were the beginnings of the color palette that the game has today.  It's very easy to get lost in the details and highlights on a specific object in a painting, and when that happens you end up with something that stands out too much or gets overworked.  If each element does this, then the overall effect is overwhelming to the eye with too much color, contrast, etc.  So balance is a really key and difficult thing to achieve.  

Here's some initial sketches to kick off the "feel":

 

Once these were at a good enough spot where I was happy with the palette and tone, then I moved into sprite creation.  For grounds, we're using tiles and then adding layers of rocks, etc. to add visual interest and break up and tiling pattern that begins to occur.  The rocks are painted in a way that they can pretty much interlock in any position, with some additional soft edged sprites (not shown) to help mask any weird spots that don't feel seamless.

This is a real balancing act, because I needed to make the sprites, and then do little test mockups to see if they worked together well, and then go back an readjust to make them work better.  

For larger objects such as the crashed ship, we had to break it into smaller quadrants for depth sorting to work properly.  I think this is also due to the uneven silhouette as well.  If it was just a square shape for example, you wouldn't have the same issue.  

Chris, the programmer, created some scripts in Unity so that you just select your foreground objects and then depth sort them based on either minimum bounds or position, and it pretty much takes care of the astronaut walking in front of or behind an object.  

I'm not sure if this is so basic it's not helpful to anyone on this forum, but I figured at least I'll share our process nonetheless!

[Transmission]

Here's a comparison to show the "final" screenshots vs initial sketches.

[purplemonkey]

I am really liking the look of this. You're doing a great job "translating" the initial sketches to in-game scenes.

[bbtombo]

looks so gorgeous!

[Transmission]

Thanks for the kind words!  Keeping it feeling sketchy and fresh is a challenge, especially with repeating sprites.  

[sidbarnhoorn]

Beautiful! :-)

[shadiradio]

Nathaniel this is coming along so well! Khang was watching a short WIP video you sent him in our office, so it was awesome to sneak a peek at the progress.

*Someday* we'll meet up for lunch, haha.

[Thorig]

This looks good. I am curious how the waterfall will turn out in the game. Keep it up.

[Christian]

Wow, this looks beautiful!

I noticed you mentioned a Kickstarter back in January. Still have plans to do a campaign?

[Transmission]

Shadi-Yes, and lunch is on me! 

Thorig-We've been working on waterfalls in general lately.  I'll post some process GIFs to show.

Christian-Thanks, we're still working on the trailer for the campaign, and that part is nearly complete.  There are a lot of other components to the KS campaign that need to be done, so we're still a little ways out.  I hope to launch at the end of summer now.

[Transmission]

Things have been pretty busy behind the scenes.  We've completely revamped the combat system over the last few months, and tightened up the main pillars of the game mechanics -Combat, Puzzles, Exploration 

Before, it was a much simpler style of combat, much like the early zelda games.  Something didn't feel right about that, and in the end, the game wanted to be more of a dark souls style of combat, with targeting and a deeper fighting style.  Combat is now much more involved, calculated, and definitely challenging!  It's taken awhile to get that system set up, but in the end it's well worth it.

On the other side of things, we've been working out platforming and puzzle systems. 

Puzzles are very much like Resident Evil in nature, which to me have roots in Point and Click Adventure Games.  They require some critical thinking and assumptions to solve.  We also have a good deal of physical puzzles, where you must turn on switches, press on floor plates, etc.  All in all, it's a nice mix that is coming together.

Here is a quick sample of how our combat pace feels.  In it we're specifically testing out some things with the shield system. 



And here is some artwork from one of our cut scenes being used as the background for our website for the time being. 



Our Kickstarter is getting close to launch.  If you want to sign up to get an alert, just visit http://www.transmissiongame.com to enter your email. 

All of our core game mechanics are in place, which means if the KS gets funded, we'll be able to hit the ground running and the majority of our time will be producing art and implementing it.  Easy right? 

[sidbarnhoorn]

Awesome! :-D

[Transmission]

It's been a long time coming, but our gameplay trailer is coming next week.  In the meantime, I've added some new screenshots, and more will be coming very soon. 

[Christian]

It's been a long time coming, but our gameplay trailer is coming next week.  In the meantime, I've added some new screenshots, and more will be coming very soon. 

Game is looking gorgeous. Still planning a Kickstarter?

[Transmission]

Hi Christian!  Thanks for the kind words.  Yes, the KS is still on.  It looks like it should be launching mid June. 

[alpha_rats]

It looks gorgeous! Can't wait to see more of it!

[Transmission]

Hey all,

We've finalized our trailer and it looks like the Kickstarter will be coming June 7th.

[sidbarnhoorn]

Awesome trailer! Looking great!

[Christian]

Really excited for this Kickstarter, but (and thus is a big BUT) June has to be one of the worse times of the year to launch a Kickstarter. April or May would have been much better

But June is E3 month, so sites are going to be far more concerned with the pre-E3 reveals, conference coverage, and then post-E3 analysis. If you're not Shenmue-tier and getting your Kickstarter announced onstage, it's super hard for a regular indie Kickstarter to get media coverage and coverage during June. Despite their solid presentation and promise, games like Twin Souls, Song of Horror, We Are The Dwarves, etc. failed.

Not trying to be negative, but just saying you might have find it more difficult than usual to get the word out during the mid-June stretch

[oldblood]

That trailer is really, really fucking good. Seriously. Looking forward to the Kickstarter guys, day 1 backer...