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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsBurn Me Twice - Death is only the beginning [Adventure game]
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Author Topic: Burn Me Twice - Death is only the beginning [Adventure game]  (Read 6102 times)
Null Reference
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« on: February 25, 2020, 04:00:39 AM »

News: Play Burn Me Twice for FREE now! The game launches on May 25.







Premise

Burn Me Twice is a narrative adventure game for PC. It combines investigation segments that allows you to explore the town of Düstenburg and trials that test your knowledge about the case.

In each new case, the witch Abigail must solve a crime in order to not be sentenced to be burned at the stake by the Inquisition at the end of the day. Everything changes the day she fails and is killed. After dying, an unknown entity gives her the power to resurrect and repeat her last day alive.

Explore the districts of Düstenburg, revisit the same day multiple times to interact differently with its charming inhabitants and solve the mysteries that plague the town.


Highlights

•   Explore the town of Düstenburg and the surrounding areas
•   Charming villagers full of secrets
•   Three chapters full of mysteries, intrigue and unique puzzles

•   Relive the day again and put into practice what you've learned previously
•   Using your new powers, you can speak to the dead. Even to the victim of the crimes you investigate!
•   Take part in medieval trials

Current state of the project

We are working on:
•   Chapter 1: Done!
•   Chapter 2: Done!
•   Chapter 3: Done!


Links

•   Store page: Steam storepage
•   Twitter: @NullRefStudio

« Last Edit: May 29, 2020, 05:04:28 AM by Null Reference » Logged

Null Reference
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« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2020, 04:01:36 AM »


New area: The Cursed Slums

Today we showcase a new area of Düstenburg, the Cursed Slums!
The only things you will find here are abandoned houses, tramps, thieves, rats… And trouble.
In the past two years it has been the focus of infection of the so-called White Fever. Lately, it grew stronger and almost everyone who lives in the area is infected





And to celebrate the milestone of surpassing 500 followers on Twitter, we give more context to the image we posted two days ago!
In it, we can see the Murky Sea and a very high cliff, both located next to the Cursed Slums.
So you can definitively add "if the house collapses, I fall to my death" to the list of millions of reasons to not live in one of those old wooden buildings.




« Last Edit: February 28, 2020, 04:45:05 AM by Null Reference » Logged

Null Reference
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« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2020, 03:47:54 PM »

Project status update

Hey! A few things have changed since the last devlog we published.
We've finished new levels that we will showcase in the future, we are preparing a closed doors playtesting to get feedback on the first chapter of the game, we are working on a press kit and a trailer...
But here's the real game changer: HAT PHYSICS!



Yeah... It may not look like such a great deal, but for the team it is a big win. After months seeing that hat being constantly still, now we can admire that smooth movement every time our main character walks.
Now the game feels 1000% better because of this, trust us.

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Jasmine
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« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2020, 06:18:10 PM »

Man, I am really loving the premise (and look) of this! What inspired you to make a game in *this* setting in particular?
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Null Reference
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« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2020, 02:52:11 PM »

Literary inspiration and our approach to witches

 A few days back, Jasmine asked us the following:

Man, I am really loving the premise (and look) of this! What inspired you to make a game in *this* setting in particular?

Thank you Jasmine!

We've found inspiration in many different influences that helped to shape the project in one way or another. As you probably know, the games that are released usually are somewhat different from their original concept. Therefore, our references shifted a bit between these stages of development (maybe we should talk about more it one day).

Something that always was in our minds are witches, but there are many different interpretations of the concept.
At first, we were keener on the "Harry Potter kind", focusing more on having a large variety of spells and being more friendly towards its neighbors... But we found more interesting to ditch that and showcase a story with a witch protagonist that's oppressed by the Lunnarian Inquisition, which could only be believable if we gave her a set of more limited powers.
That’s the reason why Abigail has the power of speaking to the dead and reliving her last day instead of elemental spells, for example. We needed a more grounded protagonist to better fit the narrative we wanted to tell in Burn Me Twice.

So, after this looong piece about what type of witch we ended up choosing, we have to give credit to a book called Malleus Maleficarum. If you are not familiar with this manuscript, it's a treatise about witchcraft written by Heinrich Kramer, a German inquisitor. It helped us to find many details that we incorporated to Saint Lunnaria and to find this approach to witches.


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« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2020, 02:26:05 AM »

I like that your only progress report so far is about hat physics. :D

But do show the gameplay!
Is it like the book of unwritten tales?
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Jasmine
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« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2020, 03:21:14 AM »



Something that always was in our minds are witches, but there are many different interpretations of the concept.
At first, we were keener on the "Harry Potter kind", focusing more on having a large variety of spells and being more friendly towards its neighbors... But we found more interesting to ditch that and showcase a story with a witch protagonist that's oppressed by the Lunnarian Inquisition, which could only be believable if we gave her a set of more limited powers.
That’s the reason why Abigail has the power of speaking to the dead and reliving her last day instead of elemental spells, for example. We needed a more grounded protagonist to better fit the narrative we wanted to tell in Burn Me Twice.

So, after this looong piece about what type of witch we ended up choosing, we have to give credit to a book called Malleus Maleficarum. If you are not familiar with this manuscript, it's a treatise about witchcraft written by Heinrich Kramer, a German inquisitor. It helped us to find many details that we incorporated to Saint Lunnaria and to find this approach to witches.




I personally prefer a "darker" story, so I'm already digging the shift. Not saying Harry Potter wasn't dark, it definitely was. Perhaps it would be better if I said I enjoy a deviation for a more fantasy setting.

Also, the fact that you've taken inspiration from literary work that delved into witchery of an earlier era is REALLY cool! I'll definitely be checking out that Wiki link!

I'm not sure how early you are in development, but is there any audio influence as well? I feel a lot of games like this tend to gravitate to a particular whimsical orchestral style. I'm curious if you and your team are thinking of meandering down a similar path!
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Null Reference
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« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2020, 03:25:09 PM »

Coronavirus update

As ironic as it may seem, the development of our game (that features a weird illness that is quickly spreading and no one really knows what or who caused it) has been impacted by the recent Coronavirus outbreak.

Thankfully, everyone in our team and our families are ok. But as a result of the recent recommendations and measures dictated by the Spanish government, we will have to isolate ourselves and work remotely for some time. At least two weeks, maybe more. We are not completely sure to what extent this situation will influence our planning, but right now we don’t think that it will change much.

As you’ve probably seen, our social media activity has been reduced compared to past weeks. Coronavirus is also a big part on this, because it’s a very serious and sensitive topic and we feel that right now it’s not the best time to talk about our game’s White Fever, as it was planned. We are changing our marketing plan accordingly.
Soon we are going to share a lot of exciting new information about Burn Me Twice to compensate for this sudden stop.

Thank you for your understanding.
Stay safe everyone Smiley

- Null Reference Studio

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Null Reference
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« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2020, 12:23:01 PM »

Answering your questions #2

Hi guys, how are you doing?
Today, we will be asking some of your questions!

But do show the gameplay!
Is it like the book of unwritten tales?

Thank you for your comment Rarykos!
We are working on a trailer that we plan to release soon™ and we will show gameplay, a few characters, short clips from our cinematics... All of them from the first case of the game, we are trying to avoid spoiling the game as much as possible Wink
And no, Burn Me Twice is not a point and click adventure game, it will be fully playable with a controller.

I'm not sure how early you are in development, but is there any audio influence as well? I feel a lot of games like this tend to gravitate to a particular whimsical orchestral style. I'm curious if you and your team are thinking of meandering down a similar path!

Thank you for your new comment, Jasmine!
We are planning to release a couple of the tracks of our OST on the next devlogs, so keep an eye on them, you will hear the musical direction we are taking soon Smiley



We leave you for now with this GIF of the Cursed Slums we shared on our Twitter last saturday.
Thank you, see you on the next devlog!


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Null Reference
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« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2020, 02:13:26 PM »

Before Burn Me Twice #1

In honor of #tbt, today we are starting #BeforeBMT.
We are going to share weekly sneak peeks of other prototypes the team made before the one that spawned #BurnMeTwice!


Pirate Revenge


We begin our old prototypes showcase with a pirate themed RTS!
It has beautiful procedurally generated islands and a group of pirates that want to get the treasure to their ship. But those skeletons won’t make it easy!



TRPG Heist


Our next prototype is a crossover between a heist and a tactical RPG.
Rob a bank using the unique abilities of each character in true Ocean’s Eleven style. Distract the guards, crack open the vault, take the money and escape!



We’ll share other discarded prototypes and the original Burn Me Twice prototype in the future, stay tuned!
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Null Reference
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« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2020, 08:01:34 AM »

The Courtroom


Today we are teasing the courtroom!
Inspired by games like the Ace Attorney series and Danganronpa, our game also features trials in it.


They serve to conclude each chapter and to put you up to a test.
Do you have enough evidence to build you case? Do you know who the culprit is?



They serve to conclude each chapter and to put you up to a test.
Do you have enough evidence to build you case? Do you know who the culprit is?
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2020, 01:55:00 PM »

Well, this looks interesting. Subbed!
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Null Reference
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« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2020, 04:53:21 PM »

Steam store page update

Hi, this is a small status update about the project: We've just started the process to open Burn Me Twice's Steam store page!
Sadly, we expect the approval process to take longer than usual due to COVID-19, but we wanted to share the good news with you anyway! This is our first game published on Steam, so even filling out the paperwork feels special Smiley




We’ll be posting updates on how the process evolves, so keep an eye on this devlog and our twitter @NullRefStudio to be the first to know!
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« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2020, 07:24:26 PM »

Heck! Props to the environment team- they look fantastic!
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Null Reference
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« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2020, 02:58:36 PM »

Trailer, Steam, release date and price!

First of all, you can wishlist Burn Me Twice on Steam now!
And here is the announcement trailer! Showcasing both gameplay and cinematics of the first case of the game:





How long until you can play it? Not much, because Burn Me Twice will be releasing May 25!

And finally, how much is it? Will there be a launch discount? We are proud to announce that Burn Me Twice will be a free game.
Yeah, that is right: THE FULL GAME IS FREE!

We hope that you will love Burn Me Twice as much as we do. Please, make sure that you wishlist the game on Steam to be the first to know when it's available to download!

See you soon in Düstenburg!
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« Reply #15 on: April 07, 2020, 01:23:36 PM »

The abandoned house

This Abandoned House is in the center of the Cursed Slums. At first sight, due to the amount of garbage that can be found on the floor, one could wonder why this placed is called "abandoned" when someone clearly lives there.




But upon a closer look, you realize that someone lived here before.




Behind this "apparently normal" home lies a dark and secret place waiting to be found.
What could it be? You may need to play Burn Me Twice to discover it Wink
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« Reply #16 on: April 07, 2020, 02:14:11 PM »

This looks incredible, but you know that already. What I want to compliment you on is the game's name: It is rare for a game's title to pull my curiosity strings as heavily as "Burn Me Twice" did. It is such a strong title. Good job!
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« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2020, 01:48:47 PM »

Before Burn Me Twice #2

After the good reception of the previous post of this type, here are more scrapped prototypes we did before Burn Me Twice:

The Red Burrow


We considered making a survival horror, inspired by the ones from the era of the original Playstation.
The player had to use the light from oil lamps to explore the world and to distract and evade the horrible creatures that lived in it. Made in Unity.




Paganum


And continuing with the horror theme, here is a first-person horror game made in Unreal Engine. The player takes control of a small child, that must escape from an orphanage where evil nurses try to keep him locked up.


That's all for now, we'll post other Before Burn Me Twice in a few weeks, until then the updates will be more focused on BMT. See you on the next devlog!
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« Reply #18 on: April 09, 2020, 11:22:14 PM »

The color scheme is very "nostalgic" for a horror, that probably would have given an interesting mood to the whole thing! Smiley
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« Reply #19 on: April 12, 2020, 02:28:06 PM »

Naming the game

A few days back, Dr. Büni posted the following:

This looks incredible, but you know that already. What I want to compliment you on is the game's name: It is rare for a game's title to pull my curiosity strings as heavily as "Burn Me Twice" did. It is such a strong title. Good job!

Thank you for your kind words! You've inspired us to do a devlog about the WIP titles we had during preproduction Smiley
 
In October (of 2019) the game was called "The Inquisitor", since some very early feedback suggested that controlling an inquisitor that investigates cases made more sense than being a witch.
But not shortly after, we went back to the original concept of being a witch, because having some kind of supernatural power could be really cool in an investigation game (and it makes more sense for a witch to have them than a inquisitor).

But then we realized that we had to change the WIP name of the project... So, we started to call it "The Inquisition". Yeah, it was still very bland name and didn't relate at all with what the game was. Still, we used it for some time.

Months later, we had to pitch the project and obviously a name like "The Inquisition" wasn't a very good starting point. We needed something more unique, because if you say "Inquisition" to a gamer, the first thing that will come to mind will be Dragon Age: Inquisition instead of our game.
We assembled the whole team and had a brainstorming session. After almost an hour, we came up with Burn Me Twice and everyone instantaneously felt that it was the one.



And that's all for today's devlog!
« Last Edit: May 05, 2020, 11:56:05 AM by Null Reference » Logged

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