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[gabrielcarioca]

So, let's make a more complete log this time, I think today I have a lot I can say about what we are doing in Ambize Studio.
First, we are migrating our engine. We started making this game when we were in an iOS development program and it was just a project for iOS, at this time we didn't plan to make it a full game and deliver it commercially. When we decided to make it a complete game we could send to the store we also decided to migrate from Xcode to Unity, for a lot of reasons and I think the most important is that we want to deliver this game to PC/MAC/Linux also, not only mobile.

Second, we are structuring some things in our company, mapping some production process and make some documentation to make our work flow viable. We noticed we were having some problems to make some changes in the game, some things we have to change and we started making this documentation of things internal to the company. We now have our pre production and production process mapped, specially the things related to the art production, concepts, mood and mindset of the game and this creative stuff. Now that we can look to it we now each change we have to make what it will impact in the entire development chain and it's helping us a lot. If anyone want to have a look at our process, learn from it, do a benchmarking, feel free to send me an email, I would love to talk with you and share experiences, we can mutually learn and improve our work with games talking to each other (I talked to some people before finishing our process and it helped us a lot seeing other people work and process)

Third, we are trying to make some cover art for our game and some promotional art too, so I'll share some of them with you

For today that is what I would like to share and thank you all for the support.

[lobstersteve]

yes <3

[gabrielcarioca]

Progress with documentation and team structure:

So, all the things we made the last two weeks and all the time we spent structuring our team are giving us results. We are documenting some important things for our game development and we are seeing some things we didn't see before taking some time to reflect on our process, we are identifying points for our game that would help us take decisions, like design pillars (now we have it clearly defined and documented and it's not only on our minds), moodboard to have a reference of the mood of our game (we already had one before, but we spent some time complementing it and now we have a lot of references that we didn't have before, specially about the ambiance of the game) and we discussed a lot about some interface problems we were having, in inventory for example, when we decided what we will do to solve it.

About our design pillars:

• We want the story to be significative and the player to be immersed in it, so the story is a big point for us to focus
• We want to have an unique and significative art, that is why we are doing this hand-drawing art style, we want it to be unique and mean something to us and the players
• We want the story to progress in a way that when the player ends the game he will feel that he made an intervention in the story, guiding it to a better end (no spoilers )

Besides that I forgot to share, but IndieCade featured us in it's art wall :
http://indiecade.tumblr.com/post/149043465932/indiecade-artwall-white-lie

I'll update more things when we have it clearly defined and documented.

For those who want to see how our creative and production process are, here are some preview of it:

[gabrielcarioca]

After structuring our process we spent some time fixing some documentation and pre-production problems we were having (better do it know than let it scale and become a bigger problem in the future) and since it's our first project we want to make a product and launch in the market we are learning a lot in our journey and some people helped us a lot. We are participating in the Core Labs game accelerator and they have some great mentors and I would like to thanks some of them that helped us create that structure that will make possible the deliver of the game and they also gave us a lot of tips about team management for a game development, specially how to manage an artistic and creative team. I would like to thanks Tanya Short from Kitfox Games and Ray Mazza from Super Evil Megacorp. They really helped us a lot and the insights they gave us we will also take with us in the future of our company, not only for this game. So thank you!

We also got some new artists and to keep things consistent for the art of the game, along with all the documentation and structuring we are making an art guideline. For this we are creating some key scenes (they will not be our final art, but some concepts that translates the mood and emotions of our game and we will use them as a base for the final art) that will be used by the artists so they can know what our game is about, how to draw and make the art consistent and some feelings we want to pass to the player. Below are some examples of scenes we are designing.

Just some thought about how having a structured process and a better pre-production stage is influencing our project. A lot. It's way easier when you know where you should go and it also makes easier to identify when you are not going there and see what needs to be changed. But we already knew that, the only problem is that we didn't know how to do that. It's not easy to structure the work flow for your team. You need to take people in consideration, how everyone works and thinks, how to aggregate it all in your team in a way that works good for everyone and use the capacity of each member of the team together to take the team forward. We spent almost one week talking with each other in meetings just to see what documents we need, what have to be defined before producing our game, what was missing in the way we were doing things and in this process of knowing each one better we got a result that fits us. The key point is that there is no formula on how your team should work or how you should develop your game. There is a lot of cycles and methods and you have to find the one that will help you and for that you really need a person to look to your team and takes everyone in consideration. Sometimes you have to try and see what didn't work and why. Doing frequent post mortem helps seeing what is going right or wrong.
  
Last thing I would like to thanks Jovan Vesić one of the creators of Columnae a really cool game and worth checking out. I asked for some tips to structure the marketing and pitch of a game, specially for crowdfunding and he gave me some nice tips and links that helped me a lot and is still helping in the structuring of our business. Thanks Jovan!

[gabrielcarioca]

We have some more concepts we are using to set the mood, ambiance, characters and environments of our game




Those are not our final art, only concepts we have to look to see the mood of our game and get inspiration to keep drawing it. It's kind of a guide to show us what feeling we have to pass while the game progress.

[next2indies]

Love when games have art this unique!
Also, we love when production is done right. Kudos on that sweet agile system! Do you have a producer or the whole team manages all the production on their own in a cohesive way?

[gabrielcarioca]

Love when games have art this unique!

Thanks! It really motivates us hearing people noticing our art style and giving credit to it.

Do you have a producer or the whole team manages all the production on their own in a cohesive way?

In a way I'm working as a producer. I'm not exclusive working with it, I'm handling business and marketing too, but I'm managing the team and creating this cohesion. Besides that we have our art director and she helps creating coherence within the art and the game, since it's one of the most important pillars to the game and the main motivation of the team (create beautiful games). But having a small team sure helps in this, since it's easier to communicate and keep the cohesion during the workflow (we have 6 people working in White Lie).

We started without this roles well defined and we had some troubles, since we are new to game development we didn't predict some things, but when we did kind of a post mortem and identified that this was missing to our team and we decided to divide responsibilities better, things started working more fluidly.

[lobstersteve]

<33

[gabrielcarioca]

Some more concepts we are creating to help seeing the mood of the game (they are not what we will use as the final art, only inspirations for the ambiance and atmosphere). Even tough they are not polished as our game art they are still helpful and the whole team uses it to see the nature of our game.

[io3 creations]

Looking good. Even if those are not final art, I like them a lot.  I'm looking forward to where you'll take them. Those remind me of a few animations but have certain unique aspects to them.

[gabrielcarioca]

Looking good. Even if those are not final art, I like them a lot.  I'm looking forward to where you'll take them. Those remind me of a few animations but have certain unique aspects to them.

Thank you
Since we are finishing some things in pre-production we needed to draw some key scenes to have concepts ready when we start implementing it in game. One of our artists likes to make this smalls concepts without color so it can be done fast and the team could have this scenes to see what the game will look like and how the player should feel while playing it. We have another artist that draws colorful concepts with a lot of green, he is making some things and as soon as we have something to show I'll share it here too.

After we finish this things in pre production we will start making a demo to test some things.

[next2indies]

Love when games have art this unique!

Thanks! It really motivates us hearing people noticing our art style and giving credit to it.

Do you have a producer or the whole team manages all the production on their own in a cohesive way?

In a way I'm working as a producer. I'm not exclusive working with it, I'm handling business and marketing too, but I'm managing the team and creating this cohesion. Besides that we have our art director and she helps creating coherence within the art and the game, since it's one of the most important pillars to the game and the main motivation of the team (create beautiful games). But having a small team sure helps in this, since it's easier to communicate and keep the cohesion during the workflow (we have 6 people working in White Lie).

We started without this roles well defined and we had some troubles, since we are new to game development we didn't predict some things, but when we did kind of a post mortem and identified that this was missing to our team and we decided to divide responsibilities better, things started working more fluidly.

Oh! Congratz on that. It's important to identify what can be improved and actually improve it! (:

[gabrielcarioca]

In the core of your mind exists a monument where your most precious memories are kept, where your secrets are held. This is the place where you must confront the truth, where you must face your true self.

Maybe in the most remote corridor you will find some darkness you will have to accept before going further into the essence of your existence. Is Emma in the top? Is Emma in the bottom? Maybe she in the underground. The Tower is huge and to find a way in it’s labyrinth is to find a way into yourself.

But a place this important isn’t easily accessed. Some mysterious creatures travel the only way in. Maybe there is another way. But you will probably need to ride some of those carp. The world without Emma is huge and you must learn to be strong or she will be lost.

.
.
.

Besides that:

We are finishing some sketches for our prologue, so we can make a storyboard and start implementing it. We are also testing some things with light and effects in our images to see how it works and how to better implement it using Unity.

[gabrielcarioca]

While working with the game we are also structuring our Marketing and for that we create an email list. We will use it to send newsletter that can be important updates or some exciting news, like when a demo are released or we are participating in some event, this way if you are near you can pop up and talk to us. If anyone wants to subscribe here is the forms:

http://eepurl.com/ciEyrn

[friendlydog]

I also concur - it¨s super beautiful!

[gabrielcarioca]

I also concur - it¨s super beautiful!

Thank you for the kind words

[Bricabrac]

Following for the prettiness.

[gabrielcarioca]

Following for the prettiness.

Thank you

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below are a new concept from our new artist, Cynthia. She recently joined our team and is in the process of adapting to our timeline, workflow and learning our art style. This first concept is based in one of our moodboard images and is going together with the previous art we are creating to help us see the mood of the game, some key scenes and important moments we will have to implement in the gameplay.

"We all have memories locked in some deep place of our minds. Things we want to be forgotten. Actions we wish we wished we had not taken. Relationship we didn’t want to have spoiled.

But a time comes when we must face the truth. When you look into this cages will you want this memories to stay there or will you set the free to become part of what you are?"

[sidbarnhoorn]

This looks beautiful!

[gabrielcarioca]

This looks beautiful!

Well, thank you
Never expected to meet the composer of Antichamber and Stanley Parable here, you did an amazing work in those games.

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Just a quick remind: We now have a Facebook page, so if you want to follow us there your like would be very welcome and appreciated.

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What are we doing with the game?

We are trying to implement a system to get input and make the player walk through the level. Since we will be launching it primarily for PC/MAC/Linux we want player to be able playing in a controller/Keyboard. Also, since our inputs are not complex and our game could be easily played in mobile devices, so we will port it to iOS too, to increase our market. The problem is that it requires another way to process inputs, because we will be dealing with a touch screen.

We have implemented a way to work with mouse/touch. We create a path and define a region the player can click/touch. If a input is processed in this region we calculate how much the character should walk, generate a path and move him to where it should go. The green area is where the player can walk and the yellow one is where inputs will be treated as movements one. We could easily change it create a walking area for each new level.

It's is easing dealing with this kind of input but it won't work well with an analog stick or keyboard arrows/WASD. If we would use this system we will need to check the direction pressed each frame and keep calculating and generating a path to follow, so we are thinking in create a path limited with colliders and make the character walk the usual way. We would still need the two ways to process inputs and movements, because one is better for a specific input and bad for the other. Using colliders would make harder to generate a path and walk to there using touch input, compared to the other way.

We will do some tests to see what works best for us. If anyone has any suggestion it would be very welcome. I know that Oxenfree did a really smooth path and the characters walked through it very well, but I don't know how they did that

And thank you for following our TIG!