​Posting this early sprite mock up on the AGS forums for feedback proved most fruitful. Comments came from all directions, which was great. But not only that, other talented artists generously did their own fantastic takes, which helped Shaun further refine his own example.

After some deliberation, we agreed that the sprite mocked up by Wadjet Eye artist Ben Chandler, was the perfect fit for this game. 

Deciding between these different sprites was a close run thing- but after much deliberation I think we made the right call. Opinions were split across all the looks, but Chandler’s less cartoony sprite was the most befitting to the mood and subject matter of this title. And so, with his generous approval it got the nod. Once Shaun tweaked the sprite and came up with the angles we had our protagonist! It is an honour to work with one of Chandler’s creations, as we have been fans of his art and Wadjet Eye games in general, since we first started dreaming about making games in 2013. Now I can finally get my hands on her! Woohoo, so much more fun than doing backgrounds - did I say, I’m not a fan of doing background art. I hope I can continue what these artists started and create a memorable protagonist with plenty of personality expressed through animations.

Stay safe!
​John

​The setting for this game is a quaint Victorian countryside. Key to this projects art style is the colour palette. Our game takes place across rainy days and nights. We are working hard to try to create an eerie atmospheric setting in this resolution, befitting of the folk horror genre.
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This project seemed to get a lot of positive feedback from some early screenshots, which has been very encouraging and given us belief that we can do something a bit special this time around, at least, by our standards.

We’ve always strived to create a sense of atmosphere in our games, but we hope to crank that up a notch in this title - with subtle background movements ranging from flocks of birds flying in the distance to plants, trees and blades of grass gently bobbing where the wind peaks on higher terrain. Due to its well contained scope this is without doubt the most attention we have given a game in terms of presentation and we hope that we can continue to maintain this throughout.

Our own fatigue and boredom is something we are hoping to limit this time around. If experience has taught us anything about working in this manner, it’s to pace one’s self and keep health at the forefront. I hope that the drain we usually start to feel after the adrenaline of a new project fades will be negated by the more visually exciting art we have lined up for later on in the projects cycle - but I’m afraid we won’t be spoiling what exactly that entails at this stage.

You can find the trailer, more screenshots, and full info on the INCANTAMENTUM Steam page here. Please do add it to your wishlist!

​- John

The tunnel vision I developed working on Legend of Hand for three years, lead to a great deal of neglect in other areas of life. It was an all or nothing project, a project I had to create for myself. I was proud at how in the zone I got. Even when out socializing it would play on my mind, I needed to get back to it. Every hour not dedicated to climbing this mountain felt like an agonising waste. However, working on it with such devotion blinded me other areas of my life that needed attention. I let friendships slip. I became boring to be around, always fixated on the project. Most importantly, I didn’t give my relationships with those closest to me the attention they needed. I let my personal life crumble away slowly. Suddenly, I turned around and there was no one to share any sense of accomplishment with. I was burnt out and exhausted. And for what, the project had not changed my life. And because of that I dove straight into the next one, to justify the ongoing vision.
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As our game Sumatra: Fate of Yandi (the 4th game in a row that we have worked on) nears its final stages I have really started to unravel. At this stage the project causes me mental pain to work on. Don’t get me wrong, this project has been one of the most fun to do- it has been an exercise in tranquillity compared to Legend of Hand. However, a breaking point was reached, a moment where I had to step back and take stock of my life. I’m going through this process now. Luckily, I just about pushed through the bulk of Sumatra: Fate of Yandi before this hit me. It’s not that I have stopped working completely, I still spend several hours a week on it. But that infectious intensity that I had for so long has currently deserted me. I look forward to the passion returning in the near future.

​I’ve read dev blogs that talk about this before - the importance of maintaining friendships and relationships is as important as rest days. In fact, I would say enforced rest days can add value to the project and allow you to digest the joy of the process. This is particularly important during the crunch period because that’s where your health and mental state can really come unstuck. We have heard all about the damage done in the triple A and film industry by such intense working patterns and it’s no different for your own work. It’s not easy to take a step back; you will feel that you are just slowing down your train. But you are in this for the long haul - you must work on preserving your love, health and state of mind for this campaign!

​John

​​We are very keen to keep the puzzles in this game fresh, unusual and entertaining- as its setting leaves it open to the pitfalls of classic adventure fetch quests. This will be a big challenge and I am looking forward to seeing it come together. In the mean time I have been tasked with creating what seems to be a never ending stream of backdrops!

​Now that idea is being expanded into a much bigger fleshed out world. The animations, backgrounds and designs will be re-worked but hopefully maintain the charm of the original. At first our intention was to work within the original games very limited retro colour palette which had an almost C64 type quality. However as time went by and the project has grown, we have slowly moved further away from that – with backgrounds now displaying  far more detail and colour variety. I think we started to feel that the nostalgia aesthetic was going to eventually wear thin. A huge amount of the game is set in a jungle and we didn’t want the player to get bored of walking around an expansive environment with very little variety. 

​By contrast the character designs have been kept largely untouched- with just a few set colours. The benefit of keeping them simple is that I have no excuse not to provide plenty of variety and fluidity in idle animations. I’ve tried to be as expressive as possible with the animations of these tiny sprites and I should be able to keep adding bits here and there right up until the games release.

​Generally, Shaun provides me with an animal base sprite and a general idea of how the character will interact with the world. I’ll then watch a couple of YouTube vids to check if the animations I’ve imagined are possible in the real world. I.e. does a startled Tapir trot or gallop away? It’s actually quite a fascinating experience in research but I won’t do that for more than half an hour- time is precious!

So how are we feeling about it all so far?

Well, I think Shaun and myself are both using this project as a real form of escapism from the current trials of modern living (which seem to be increasing every day). Sometimes we both envy Yandi, lost in the jungle, free from the urban chaos and repetition of it all. This project is a more therapeutic experience so far when compared with some of other works. But who knows how we will feel about in a few months time.
 
Thanks for reading.

John
​Cloak and Dagger Games

But the real fun for me is the mystery of this project.  Shaun has given me very little insight into the story and only hinted at it’s themes. As this is, in a sense, the spiritual successor to A Date in the Park, I’m expecting a few twists and turns as well as some head scratching from players.

The game will also feature a few close up animations where I’m taking inspiration from one of my all-time favourite classic games ‘Another World (AMIGA), which is ironic as its creator Éric Chahi (much like Shaun) was also very secretive over his work and wouldn’t reveal any information - even to those who were helping him out with music! However, I hear that our musicians were also keeping their work secret from Shaun... so this game is certainly going to be interesting. 

Have you seen the cassette tape cover art for the ZX Spectrum game Renegade 3 in an early ‘Barracuda Corner’ entry? Well, I love old video game box art, and I knew that LOH would be the perfect opportunity to create some retro style painted works.

The main image features several of the games characters (including the poor swordfish!) and I think would not have looked out of place on shop floors in the 90’s (oh how I miss those boxes). Once I completed the image I put it through Adobe After Effects to create the illusion of a 3D box rotating in space which I used at the end of LOH’s launch trailer. I suspect that’s as close as it will come to having a physical form... but you never know.

Below is a link to a time lapse video I did while painting the LOH poster:

​So these were the final bits I did for LOH before its release. I’m so happy that we were able to get the game out. I just hope now that we can spread the word and that people will play it!

When on short holidays abroad, I would often find myself drawn into bartering sessions with stall owners, who were keen to to sell me tourist-tailored cack. Exuberant sellers would passionately inform me how their items were rare, precious and unique to the lands culture. I’d find this process both infuriating and intriguing. The passion with which a seller would try to convince me that something I knew I didn’t need would change my life was an experience in itself, regardless of the items real worth. Sometimes I would just cave in, happily paying way over the odds just to end their incessant ramblings. I wanted an element of this to carry through to LOH’s item purchasing system. Unlike a lot of games, item values in LOH are not listed- gaining valuable items amongst junk is based on how you interpret a loose description. Do you trust the shop keeper? Will you find it cheaper elsewhere, or perhaps the item in question is a fake?

​In LOH many of the players moves can be upgraded by fighting and sparring matches. Shop items also offer these benefits, as well as potential HP boosts and even new hidden moves on occasion. However these exact benefits are never specified, you only have the shopkeeper's word to go by and just like real life you run the risk of buying dud items or paying way over the odds for something. This adds a level of intrigue to shopping and the tone and opinions of shopkeepers (they comment on each other) need to be taken into account. On top of this some items have randomised benefits, so shopping really is something of a lottery. However, get it right and you see huge leaps in your skill set.

To shop items you need coinage. Money can be earned in several ways, either as ad hoc reward for favours, gambling or even taking a quick job as a fisherman. We have tried to design the game in such a way, that there is often a way in which to upgrade your skills, although it might mean taking some time out from your quest.

​By my next update, the game should be in its very final stages of development. It’s been three years fitting the project in around our jobs but the finish line is finally coming into sight!

- John. 

We are currently looking at revamping the fight system of the game completely. Although we have always had it that you would need to defeat certain characters in combat as part of the narrative progressing process, we are now looking at bringing in optional and randomly generated fights. This will add far greater depth to the system, with regards to powering up the main players stats and abilities. The idea is that spending time accepting sparring challenges and fights will allow the player to potentially get a better mastery of moves or grow stronger and maybe even learn entirely new moves, But in doing so, you are delaying the main quest and potentially landing yourself in worse puzzle situations should you lose. So battles must be carefully chosen. We are also going to have other ways to improve the player through purchasing items at shop stalls. The key is to keep all this within the framework of the point and click adventure side of the game - giving the player multiple ways to improve while not allowing them to get too strong for a particular part of the game.

Although fights are conducted in a turn-based combat manner that is separate to the exploration gameplay, I always wanted scenes in the game where you learn moves and fight opponents could slip into the framework of the main game and function more like puzzles. Island 3 is where we have put these ideas to the test.

The battling element will be the last thing we implement into the game in terms of coding, as we want all the other framework in place first. We want to make it as fun and engaging as we possibly can with the limitations we have!

Thanks for reading,

John.

At the time of writing we are working on the games 3rd island. This beachy tropical island is where the amount of fights on offer really jumps up and the RPG elements and levelling up start to come into their own. Animating sets of fight moves for characters is one of the most time consuming aspects of the project and I’ve had to try to streamline this process as much as possible. After months of Shaun’s constant nagging, I’ve finally started using Aseprite and I kick myself for waiting so long (yes Shaun, I should have listened…) before using this little gem to generate, test and flesh out animations for characters. It means I can refine animations and send them directly to Shaun for quick implementation whereas before I was giving him large sprite sheets created using paint software, not knowing how the actual animations would even look! All of the graphics of island one were done in this way and the difference in quality between these early animations and newer ones is clear. We will probably have to revisit the games early animations at some point.
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I hope I can keep churning out numerous little animations for this project without running out of steam. Even with this method it’s been a real grind and my mind constantly wonders to new ideas and the desire to work on anything but this. But then I look at some of the great indie games out there and effort that’s gone into them- and realise I need to get my head down and keep going. Luckily Shaun is always on hand to crack the whip!