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[thefoolishbrave]

12/13/2015 - Updates: New areas! Screenshots of Demo NPCs! Added character descriptions!


STORY

Finale is the tale of Tristan’s, a failed game dev life after learning he only has 7 days of life left in this world. After spending the last 3 years of his life trying to produce a hit indie game after getting fired, he is faced with the reality of his dream fizzling before his eyes and his own human mortality. To make things worse he's also been tasked with saving the world in only a few days against an unknown enemy...



You'll be able to explore, break rules, go on dates, and attempt to ensure the future of the human race and more all while following through to the game's conclusion! This game is more about the journey than the Awesome-O violence, but I promise to include both!



TLDR: You've got 7 days to live, and before you die you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and try to save the damn world. You're 28. You've done nothing remarkable with your life, and you can do just about anything now! How the hell are you going to make it count?

















Areas will include:

-The Arcade
-Dream World
-Subway
-Pizza Shop
-The Deli
-The Apartments
-The Peaks
-The Hospital
-The Strip Club
-More!


and more!


Characters




Tristan – Age 28, Sarcastic and Mellow

Approaching his early 30’s Tristan finds himself unable to figure out a way to make his life feel purposeful. While he will try to find the good in any situation, he still prefers on taking a cynical realist approach to life. Out of work nearly 3 years after getting fired, he refuses to pursue anything less than fulfilling only to find out he’s rapidly dying from a terminal illness.




Winry – Age 27, Optimistic and Caring

Winry has just moved to New York City after receiving a promotion. She can often be naïve and caring to a fault. Recently out of a toxic relationship Winry feels New York City is the perfect chance for her to get a fresh start and begin an exciting new chapter in her life.





Chadrick – Age 27 Hot Tempered and Arrogant

Winry’s ex-boyfriend. Chadrick is a rising star who’s on the verge of a promising career playing professional football. He comes from money so working has always been optional, which has afforded him the opportunity to pursue whatever he desires and bail himself out of any trouble. This has also resulted in short temper and a distaste for being told no.


Interface


I've known what I wanted to do with this for a while, I'm going to have the pause screen dictated by a simulated iPhone. So Tris will be able to end the game, change options, or check items from the iPhone, not sure what else I wanna add to this little gadget but that's the gist of it! Once I get a feel for the game a bit more I'll decide what extra UI features will be necessary for new players!




Why make such a morbid game?

To be honest, despite trying super hard, I haven't gotten where I've wanted to get in the past 2 years, especially with game dev. This game is loosely based on my life. After a 2 ½ years of QA Testing at a now defunct game company, I sought out to learn my way around creating my own games in order to pick up new skills to advance in the industry. After 3 years despite crushing a number of milestones, 200 cover letters and resumes later I still find myself without corporate or indie success. I’ve struggled a lot emotionally and to feel like I have a purpose and often wondered if I should give up on my dream altogether. In these times I remind myself to be grateful that I’m alive and capable of improving or not wasting away in a jail cell. Which sort of gave me the idea to make a game where I didn’t have that time or opportunity. What would I do? How would I make it count? I feel like a lot of people can relate to the struggle of the indie grind so I just kind of felt for me and for anyone else who’s been in my shoes, this game needs to exist. I hope you’ll enjoy it once it’s ready!


How is it played?

Basically the game is all about exploration. By playing you'll figure out who his friend's are, what he likes to do, help people, shop, meet girls, go on dates, enjoy colorful hallucinations, stick it to your ex-bosses, all while defending the planet.





Also be on the look out for lots of not so subtle game references :D




Feel free to follow a more frequent devlog here: http://omgpizzastudio.tumblr.com/
And of course my Twitter! https://twitter.com/TheFoolishBrave

I'm always happy to connect with fellow artists and gamers!


-Tristan

[thefoolishbrave]

Happy Sunday! I wanted to do an update on the game butttt... nothing seems to change when it comes to trying to creating a game and trying to continue developing your personal and social life I will try to make this as effective as possible!

SO. I am still continuing to work on the environments for the game first and foremost. I have a number of NPC sprites going, as I said before it's my goal to ensure that no NPC gets repeated through the duration of the game.

SO. Let's take a look at a new environment yeah?





TADA! It's a very very exciting conference room. In the earlier portions of the game, you'll get a look into Tristan's work history, and the events leading up to his untimely release from his job.

*I've also been working on The Market and wrapping up The Arcade!



Some interesting descriptions, for some very non-interesting items!



Aqua Zoom 9000: The most efficient in water cooler technology. With this cutting edge water cooler you can leave your desk and dispense water at a speed faster than Bob from accounting can come by to tell you one of his horrible dad jokes.





Work Station: With bland colors, and internet safety locks, this work station comes with everything you need to feel like an unimportant cog collecting a pay check, did we mentioned it comes stocked with a non upgradeable version of Windows 98?



I promise a more exciting update is coming ^_^ I'm really glad to see how many developers can relate to this story on some level, and it's making me feel even more passionate about pushing this project regardless of commercial success. Again, this project doesn't aim to compete with all the other visually stunning projects on this site which is part of its charm and supportive of the overall theme. Out of all my projects I think this one will hit home more than all my others :D Until next week!

-Tristan

[thefoolishbrave]

Hello gals and gents! It's been a little over a week or more since my last updat! Holidays are here and- well, i'm sure you don't wanna hear my bullshit excuses :D!

I've created a lot of stuff but I'm still too busy finishing up the demo art to create a sexy master post for now so please forgive me by posting an area of the game I haven't shown anywhere else yet!



TADA! A hospital!


I am mostly working on the basic layouts of the areas (core objects like chairs, elevators, desks etc.) but I'd love to hear from you guys what other kind of items you'd like to see in these scenes to make them feel more nostalgic and exciting!

I've got about 3 more areas to wrap up and then I plan on adding an animation to each room!


I'll feel more comfortable and ready to share more about the game's narrative in characters when I have the world to back it up, until then I hope my dull graphics won't be too bad! :D

[thefoolishbrave]

Okay! It's been a couple of weeks and I'm finally ready to start fleshing out Finale's dev log! First things first, eye candy! I uploaded teasers of two new areas, the arcade upper and the market, still working out color schemes...







Second, I've finally rounded up the first batch of NPC's for the demo, and also threw up some character descriptions!






Tristan – Age 28, Sarcastic and Mellow

Approaching his early 30’s Tristan finds himself unable to figure out a way to make his life feel purposeful. While he will try to find the good in any situation, he still prefers on taking a cynical realist approach to life. Out of work nearly 3 years after getting fired, he refuses to pursue anything less than fulfilling only to find out he’s rapidly dying from a terminal illness.




Winry – Age 27, Optimistic and Caring

Winry has just moved to New York City after receiving a promotion. She can often be naïve and caring to a fault. Recently out of a toxic relationship Winry feels New York City is the perfect chance for her to get a fresh start and begin an exciting new chapter in her life.





Chadrick – Age 27 Hot Tempered and Arrogant

Winry’s ex-boyfriend. Chadrick is a rising star who’s on the verge of a promising career playing professional football. He comes from money so working has always been optional, which has afforded him the opportunity to pursue whatever he desires and bail himself out of any trouble. This has also resulted in short temper and a distaste for being told no.



Last but not least there's also some updated background info on why i'm making the game and the plotline so be sure to check it out! Extra bonus! I did a super rough portrait for Tris for the game, of course, this is not something I'm going to focus on TOO much until I hammer the final touches on some other things!




That's it for now! Be sure to check me out on twitter @thefoolishbrave or twitter.com/thefoolishbraveand my tumblr blog omgpizzastudio.tumblr.com

-Tristan

[thefoolishbrave]

Not much of an update, just wanted to share the sprite work I've gotten done for Tristan's animations! I'll be spending the rest of the week working on the demo script! Cheers!

[thefoolishbrave]

Happy Holidays TIG! Here are too sprites of me in a Santa costume, one appropriately titled "PLZ HELP, Broke Indie Dev" :D
I hope you all get what you want or at the very least have something to be thankful for! I've lost a lot however, I still have the ability to create and that is something i'm definitely gratetful for!

[thefoolishbrave]

I hope you all had a great New Year!

I was doing some thinking about the areas in the game and it hit me that this couldn't be a real game about my life if it didn't have at least one pizza shop, so...







PIZZA IS SERVED!
I'm going to dive into this week strong, design a train for traveling between areas and some more UI stuff, and then hopefully just hopefully I'll be satisfied with the amount of content for a short demo!

I'd love to hear what people think of the simplistic art style and world I'm building!

[nikwin]

Your game looks cool. It reminds me a lot of Always Sometimes Monsters, which I thought was pretty good except for the ending and the preciousness.

[johanbrodd]

I truly love your story behind this game. Such a deep sadness it gives me. Awesome story. You ought to get Markiplier to test it out.

[thefoolishbrave]

I'm glad to finally hear some people voice their opinions on the game so far!


Here is the updated version of the Pizza Shop:




I have also uploaded a speed drawing video of me painting it from the ground up!Just click on the image!

[thefoolishbrave]

Hiya Folks!

Introducing Finale's first object animation! A very very exciting fridge with all of your favorite 2-6 pixel foods! :D

As mentioned I plan on having a couple of every day objects animated in all the areas with quirky and sarcastic descriptions to go with most of the items in the game! This is just the beginning! I'd also be open to taking requests for objects you'd like to see in the game!

I'm hoping to post a bit more about the story in the next post so expect a huge block of narrative! :D

[thefoolishbrave]

So far I haven't posted any UI work regarding the game! Well that's because I didn't really get to that yet huh ^_^
I've known what I wanted to do with this for a while, I'm going to have the pause screen dictated by a simulated iPhone. So Tris will be able to end the game, change options, or check items from the iPhone, not sure what else I wanna add to this little gadget but that's the gist of it! I've also worked on a message box, for demo purposes this should work for now. Once I get a feel for the game a bit more I'll decide what extra UI features will be necessary for new players!

I'd love to hear what you guys thought about this UI concept!

[thefoolishbrave]

Hey everyone! Hope you are all having great weekends! Soooo, I did a couple more superficial animations, including a pizza box (for receiving pizza of course) and opening your laptop at home! I definitely want to try to give the environments in the game as much life as possible!





I'm also excited to announce, this week I'll finally actually start putting the game together! :D Many people have recommended game maker so we'll see how that goes...

I'm looking for a coder and music for the game if anyone is looking for a simple project to get in on!

[voltaicore]

If you need an audio engineer or audio producer be sure to message me so we can work something out for this project

[thefoolishbrave]

So I've been doing a lot of work on the intro scene and am in the process of delivering the first trailer which i'm excited for because it will finally set the mood for the game :D This game is major on plot, and obviously, is nothing ground breaking in the graphics department but I am confident that the serious nature of the game with the chosen style will make the game's depressing plot line more approachable/inviting!


Here is a concept I was toying around with for traveling to other places, the game will go "platformer mode" and the player can walk left and right to his destination. There will be a subway at the end of the street where the user can travel to other areas! What do you think?




I'm much further ahead than this, and I'll be mapking a more elaborate post tomorrow but here is a teaser for the pool party intro scene  :D



Your comments/thoughts are of course always appreciated!

[thefoolishbrave]

It's been some time since my last post!

I hit a huge hump of procrastination after getting re-addicted to League of Legends, but I've severed the evil and have been grinding daily on Finale Art! I am in the very last stretch of the initial area designs, having everything from trains, to bathrooms, closets, mail rooms, and dream worlds completed!

I am excited to begin work with a coder shortly and get you guys something you can play! for now please enjoy some more art featuring the dream world as well as some train designs! :D

The dream world will be a place that Tristan visits every time he sleeps. Because this game is a mostly non-fictional adventure, my loop hole around this was to have a side affect of his illness be bizarre dreams. I'm toying with the idea of having the protagonist fight evil manifestations of Fear and Doubt in these dreams to add level of action without it still being the focus!

Tristan will obviously ride the train to various locations throughout the game!

Let me know what you guys think! Super helpful to hear any feedback!

[swipefaststudios]

I like the Pixel art and the game idea!
Seems like you can put a lot of game play with only a couple of days to live!
Keep up the good work!

[thefoolishbrave]

Thanks! I'm glad someone out the is actually looking at this! I was getting worried!

[thefoolishbrave]

It's been a long while since I posted an update! I've been consistently working on the game and it has evolved quite a bit!

It started as a narrative about the life of a failed game dev with a terminal illness and playing through the last days 7 days of his life. Initially the game had no goal but to simply see how his life unfolded and cause ripples in what little time you had left. I also think there is some fun to be had with also trying to drive home some very real elements, there will be some fictional stuff in the game (literally low-key saving the planet) but I'm glad to say that the more fantasy elements will not be included into all the days of the game, and in fact, I'd like at least the first 3 days to be fiction free.

In any case, I should stop blabbing and get to the point. Expect a demo out towards the end of August early September!
I was looking for a collaboration but now with the art so far along I am aiming to hire a contractor to get the coding work done.

TLDR - EXCUSE NEW STUFF EXCUSE - PLAYABLE DEMO LATE AUGUST!



Some animations!





Some new areas!

[flipswitchx]

This seems cool! Got a earthbound vibe