This is just a quick update to bring you up to speed on what's going on in the world of LockedOn. I know barely anyone reads this blog, so I'll probably repeat some of this information in my next update.
So, I've been working on The Evolving World: Catalyst Wake and WOW am I happy with how fast it's going. Not having to animate these scenes makes everything so much easier! I'm already mostly done with the first story. It's a really important one that involves the crux of Oliver and Arrdo's conflict.
The backgrounds and art are already looking better than Part 4. It's really going to be something. If you've been following the series, there are a ton of easter eggs to concepts that I never fully developed. Also, I got Logic Pro X and have switched to that for composing. Initially, it was hard to work with, but within three days I finally started to get it and I'm glad I made the change. It's more powerful than GarageBand, and I can make my own instruments much more easily, which is important. The music in TEWCW has more of a "World" feel, to distinguish it more from my other scores. I spent a good week and a half on the backgrounds, which have a new treatment that is different from the "fake lines" of the old.
Now for the bad/good news: I have 29 stories planned for this novel. TWENTY-NINE!
True, some of them are very short, and others I've already basically finished in comic form, but still, it's going to take a lot of time to get all of these out there. However, don't worry about it, because I'm going to do something a little different for this project.
I've decided to release the novel prematurely, before all of the stories are finished. The reason for this is that this novel's probably going to take at least as long as Part 4 to finish, and I don't want another "dry patch" of LockedOn content, if you will. This release format, which is similar to Telltale's "episodes" style of releasing, will be very simple. The initial release, which will be called the "Alpha" version of the novel, will include the first few stories — maybe four or five. I'll keep updating the project on itch.io as more chapters are released. Once only a few chapters remain, I'll pull it off the site and finish it. When it's complete, I'll re-release it on itch.io and put it on Steam Greenlight.
I really feel like this is the way I should've been doing it all along — I can deepen the characters and lore, and involve people in the story in ways I couldn't before.
Speaking of, I'm a little nervous about Broken Minds on Steam. I still don't know what to price it and it's still not really long enough, (one of the trends on Steam is complaining about the length of indie games). That's why I'm expanding the ending to be more interesting and fun. Broken Minds is an odd mystery game because it takes place from the perspective of the client and not the detectives. This means that I am unable to create games where you solve the mystery yourself. However, I've figured out an awesome way around that and it's heavily related to psychology — a perfect fit for the game. I'm almost done, the game's 80% complete, but the ending really needed a kick in the pants and so I'm taking the time to make it better, on top of all the additional polishing.
And that's all the news this time! Like I said before, nobody's reading this, so I will be posting an update as soon as I can, (maybe when I've finished more of Broken Minds).
-- LockedOn.