next »

[Thomas_]

Hi there dear readers!

A lot happened since the last post.

- We polished and published a closed alpha demo (only in french) on Apple and Google stores.

- We made a google form survey for our kind testers.

- We started to compile/analyze/discuss all the feedbacks to improve Somewhere and make it top-notch.

- We made a presskit, a retroplanning, some refactoring, etc.

- Also, we almost finished to bake a fresh and crispy website inception.

Here is a screenshot:

(Yes, it embeds the engine )

Maybe Aniki will post later about some iOS Hell / JS Hell we experienced. :D

Cya and take care!

Atavismus

[Aniki]

Hey there!

Long time no see ^^
We've been pretty busy with the demo delivery, and I faced the well known 'last 10%' thing where it seemed my backlog was continuously filled with new stuff while I was trying to clear it out.
But now it's done, we've had ~20 french testers, gathered all their feedback and learned a lot on the way!

• iOS & Android packaging & delivery process
  I've learned a lot on the process of packaging our game into suitable iOS and Android packages.
  It is pretty straightforward on Android side, and Google Play Store has really cool alpha/beta functionalities where you can actually deliver your game to the store exactly as if you were releasing it for real, choose between closed or opened alpha/beta release, gets clear metrics and so on.
  
  On iOS side it is much more painful, I had to struggle for days with xCode and Apple certificates & profile hell. And our testers had to install an application called TestFlight in order to download the demo.
  
  
  
• Using Google Forms for gathering feedback
  Google Play Store has a simple way to gather feedback since testers can simply rate the game and leave comments directly on the PlayStore game page. On iOS side there is a very basic text field within TestFlight which testers can fill up.
  But we wanted to gather all these feedbacks in a single place and also be able to get some metrics from it in order to easily figure out what needed to be improved.
  We tested a few survey online services and finally used Google Forms, which is free, simple to use and provide metrics.
  
  
  
• The 'report a bug' button
  An example of these last 10% thing that I mentioned earlier was this 'report a bug' button. I wanted the testers to be able to report any bug, typo or narrative issue by email at any point in time so that we gather them as much as possible.
  Also I wanted this button to take a snapshot of the game and attach it to the email so that we can clearly see what happened and also easily locates where the player was from story perspective.
  
  This has been pretty useful and we received a lot of feedback through this channel, mainly typos and bugs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The iOS issues
  Two critical issues have been raised on iOS : game save loss and notifications not working.
  The first one is because I use the native browser localStorage in order to store game saves. Thing is this localStorage stuff can be deleted by the OS at any point in time whenever the phone storage space runs low. And this happened to a few players.
  
  Regarding notifications, I use a cordova plugin which was not stable enough on iOS because of the recent iOS 10 release and its API breaking changes.
  
  I was pretty disappointed regarding these issues cause it has strongly affected iOS players experience.
  But it's a good thing that we faced these issues and learned from them now. The save issue is now fixed and I properly store save data in the app storage area. The notification issue is more sensitive, I'll have to see if the plugin I use is fixed wrt iOS 10 or I may have to contribute to its development, although I never developed in Swift so far.
  
  
  
• Players feedback
  The feedback we received was globally positive.
  - choices: 3.8/5
  - story 4/5
  - rhythm : 4/5
  - sound: 3.8/5
  - design: 4/5
  - readability: 4.5/5
  - global: 3.8/5
  
  But beyond these numbers, we were particularly interested by what players actually felt, and there are a few aspects where we have a lot of work in order to improve the game:
  - Cat is not that much appreciated, and seems to act a bit like a sermoniser. Also she shall be more stressed/afraid of what happens to her.
  - The game seems punitive, game over don't seem fair to players and they feel there is no way to identify which choices may lead to a game over or not.
  - The plot is cool, but story is way too slow, players want to be more implicated and know more about Cat's investigation.
  - Globally, waiting phases are a bit too long, and game phases too short.
  
  
  
• What's next
  It took a few weeks to gather all players feedback, some testers showed off after the demo was released, others faced many game over before to reach a checkpoint and had to start from the beginning several times, some others loosed their progression because of the iOS localStorage issue, etc...
  
  While our testers were playing, we decided not to change a single word to our story since we wanted to get their feedback before to proceed any further.
  So in the meantime we took some days off and brainstormed a lot, built a website, a presskit and a trailer.
  These things are not available yet, but they should be on air next Saturday
  
  Here is a screenshot of the website, it forced me to look into the translation aspect of Twine content, I am pretty satisfied with the result, since the language switch is immediate, meaning that it shall still be reasonably fast with a large content :
  
  
  
  
  
  There is still a long way before the release, and we now know for sure that it won't happen before the end of the year. There are so many things to learn and do in order to properly release a game commercialy!
  But this is a great feeling, I continue having more and more fun doing it, and I can't wait to know what you guys will think of the game
  
  Cheers,
  Aniki
  
  (Sorry for the length of this post, I realize I should simply post news more often ^^')

[Thomas_]

Hi there!

Our website is online with a short trailer:

http://www.somewheregame.com/





Mind, the website is partly emulating the gameplay, so you'll have a clearer idea about Somewhere.

Cya and take care,

Atavisleaks

[Aniki]

Hi!

It's been a while since we didn't share news on Somewhere.
We've been facing the typical gamedev roller-coaster and all... but we are back on track

First of all, we wanted to share with you the (only) visual assets of the game.
Here is the splashscreen (story starts in Berlin, but as you can see it will lead Cat far away from home!):

And here is Cat!
This will be the icon of the game:

We still need to rework the design of the game in order to be in line with these visuals.
Also, the avatars need to be done (there are 10 characters whom Cat or the player will discuss with in the game).

Here is the state of the art in terms of features:

• Real-time, using device notifications
• Save
• Checkpoints (used in case of game-over)
• Change language
• Random events
• Answer in a limited time
• *Geolocation / device informations (brand, manufacturer, os version, phone number)
• Rewind story and change previous choices
• Dynamic sound ambiance
• **Fast mode

* These informations are then used in the narration.
** Once fast mode is unlocked, it allows to get rid of real-time and explore the different branches easily.

There are also some comfort features which are still to be implemented such as configuring notifications, font size and reading speed.

Here is how it looks when the player has to make a choice in a limited time (sorry, still in french):

On the writing side, story is now ~40K words and there are ~800 passages spread into a dozen of Twine files.
But we are not done yet... we just started writing the final chapter with all the different endings, and we will then have to translate it from french to english.

By the way, if ever you can read french and want to test the game, the beta version is currently available on Android and iOS, just PM me


We are now considering to work with a publisher, mobile market is so tough that we don't feel we can handle the promotion by our own. We have some names in mind but if ever you know a serious one, please share.

[Aniki]

Hi there,

I just created a facebook page for the game : https://www.facebook.com/SomewhereGame
Don't hesitate to share if you like it

[Thomas_]

Hi there!

What about playing Somewhere all together using Twitter polls?

Here is the ingame screenshot:
https://twitter.com/somewheregame/status/860856787674816513

Here is the poll:
https://twitter.com/somewheregame/status/860858711937617920

Hope you'll like it!

Cya and take care!

Atavisleaks

[Thomas_]

Let's #PlaySomewhere all together on Twitter [Part 3]!



tl;dr

I'm in a hotel room.
Someone is trying to pick the lock.
I locked myself into the bathroom.

a)	Call the police!
b)	Cry for help!
c)	Hide, quick!
d)	Can you see a window?

The poll is here: https://twitter.com/somewheregame/status/862684896506114048

[Aniki]

Hey there!

We've been away for a while but we're back on track now and we will release the game on Android and iOS in February!
Also, it will be available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Beta testing
We're currently having a beta on -> Android <- so feel free to give it a try and tell us what you think!

Also, please follow us if you like it and want to get notified once it's released:
somewheregame.com
Twitter
Facebook

Main features

Cheers!
Oh, and we wish you all a happy new year!

[Thomas_]

Hi there!

"Somewhere: The Vault Papers" will be available 8th of March on iOS and April 26th on Android.

You can preorder it now on iOS:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/somewhere-the-vault-papers/id1340903844

We have 80k players on Android (demo):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tanuki.somewhere
Show me what you got Apple people! :D

But wait.
Maybe you even don't remember what is this game (or just never read/heard about it).

"Somewhere: The Vault Papers" is a real-time narrative game with a branching storyline and multiple endings.
It tells the story of Cat, a journalist caught up in a thrilling whistleblowing case.
She accidentally reaches you via text-message and urge you to help her investigate and... stay alive!

If you like Lifeline, Snowden or "choose your own adventure books", you should check Somewhere.

I guess I already wrote too much.

I leave you with this screenshot from the store:



I'll be glad to talk with you about the game, so don't be shy.

Cya and take care all!

Atavisleaks

[Pixel Noise]

Congrats on releasing soon! Been following this for a while and I love the concept - hope you have a great launch!

[Thomas_]

Hi guys and gals!

Our publisher organizes a little contest to win some iOS keys of the game.

More info here:
https://www.playdius-games.com/somewhere-contest/

Good luck!

Congrats on releasing soon! Been following this for a while and I love the concept - hope you have a great launch!

Thanks a lot Pixel Noise!

[Thomas_]

Hi there!

We are back with the full android version!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tanuki.somewhere

Already 330K players downloaded it, they can't be wrong! :D

You can just try it, the trial is free.

Thanks for your support!

Atavisleaks

[Pixel Noise]

Wow! Great that you have so many downloads already. Hope you reach 1mil+ 

[Thomas_]

Wow! Great that you have so many downloads already. Hope you reach 1mil+ 

Thanks Pixel Noise!
Would be great and would deserve a drink indeed! :D