Life at an underground game company.
Double Cluepon
This would be our general category for posting.
Announcements. They are MANY.
03 weeks ago
It’s been a long while coming…no, we are not opening Alpha, yet. But we are getting very close. To this end, we have put together a new community system. We call it /VShift/. At /VShift/ you can discuss Emerald Kingdom, Talk to other players, and importantly, speak to developers directly. We will also be releasing more and more information about Emerald Kingdom there as well. It’s a community, not just a forum.Go. Sign up now! We look forward to seeing you there!
Click here to register for /VShift/
Next up? Your next story tease. Yep, it’s been a bit of a wait! But without further ado….
Our next bit of story teaser. I will have something special for the first three people who come to me and fill in the blanks:
“___________ or __________”….It should be noted there are THREE hidden targets, with UNRELEASED and FUN stuffs. Can you find them all?
UPDATE: 4:30 PM CST.
We have people at ACen starting today! You can get some awesome buttons, not to mention ZIPPER SWAG! We also have shirts and flyers and buttons oh my! Be sure to look for the folks in Emerald Kingdom or Bitsy’s Bullets shirts!
Activity Recap – UPDATED
01 month ago
Hey there folks! First off: a few people have solved the carefully laid puzzle we laid in yesterday’s Story Release “Avatea’s Fall”
Congrats so far to: @SunGryphon and @AmazinAdrielle. They found, and sent me a quote about: a key, a door, and a mother. They each get some Double Cluepon swag, (shirt/mug). I am still giving away 3 more. If you can solve the puzzle, that is.
Of course, there are clues spread around. If you’re clever, you’ll find em.
Second: While we won’t be doing a table or booth at C2E2, there will be Double Cluepon folks there. Look for the Emerald Kingdom shirt. Find it, you might just get some awesome swag. A shirt, maybe even a mug.
Second update!
We have two additional winners: The Artist Formerly known as Mia and blackjackconcpiracy have both solved the puzzle in addition to the other two winners.
This means, there is only one set left to win! Time is running out!
Avatea Sneak Peek
71 month ago
Hey there folks! Today is a somewhat special day. In the past here, we have spoken about everything from game mechanics, released artwork, even how we go about managing the company itself. Up to now, we have been really tight lipped about one of the central aspects and features of Emerald Kingdom: it’s story. Story play’s a very central part to the world of Emerald Kingdom. To that end, a lot of work has been put into the development of it. Today, we’re going to talk to the two people most central to it’s development: Azrael and Castiel.
Castiel:
No emoticon could properly describe my excitement about this sneak peek for the story. Oh. My. AZRAEL.
I don’t want to sound like I know everything there is to know about stories – because trust me, I’m not the Kurt Vonnegut of video games. But when I approached writing for Double Cluepon, I tackled it head on with excitement and vigor. Hey! I thought. This is totally what I want to do for the rest of my life! So the thought of showing you all my first draft is kind of nerve-wracking and exhilarating.
This is the first ever section of the revised story that I did and the product of one image that sprouted in my mind which just wouldn’t go away. That was my first idea for Avatea. It was just so powerful to me and really visual that I scrambled to write it down in my school note book and made sure to flesh it out when I got home. I’m more used to the screenwriting format in that I keep everything as minimal as possible and show character emotion through physical action, but it was nice to stretch my legs and get back into writing a more prose-centric specificity and inner dialogue. What novelty! I could go on and on about the differences between screenwriting and fiction writing, but I don’t want to bore you.
Beatrice is the “Luke Skywalker” of this story in that she is the most normal character for people to latch onto and understand what is going on in this world because we are seeing these changes through her eyes. She’s the one asking the questions, she is the one we should be able to relate to the most.
So, the first question I had to ask myself was: how was I going to set up this world? It’s not easy writing a story that has a completely immersive world without some character to pose as the audience in order to answer all of their questions as the character learns about it himself (i.e. Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson). Some fantasy and sci-fi worlds can be successfully understood through masters like Tolkien or Martin. Yet, it is a useful writing device to help the audience seamlessly transition into this strange world. However, we don’t have something like that. All of our characters are fully involved in this world, so I had to provide a window of opportunity for you as the reader to dive head first into the narrative.
Azrael:
I too am pretty happy with this opener. It’s a story tease, and introduces a major character in the Emerald Kingdom universe. Avatea is one of the first Sprites designed. Both in design documents, and visually. Avatea in her earliest form was just noted as “Moon”, and gave the mark of Moon. My original notes date back as far as 2005/2006. Well before Double Cluepon existed. I’m pretty sure Avatea was the first, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago, even before it had the name “Emerald Kingdom”.
I always envisioned her as a gentle, attractive woman but not a vain one. I wanted her appearance to give one impression, but her actions and demeanor to convey another. This was quite deliberate on my part for a lot of reasons. I think when Emerald Kingdom is played, and you meet and interact with Avatea some of those reasons will come out. That said, Castiel captures this very thing quite well, especially here in this opening bit of the back story. I think more than anything…one of the things the back story does is convey urgency, and what people do in tumultuous times. Sometimes those tumultuous times can be years, months or even minutes or seconds.
Keep in mind, the world of Emerald Kingdom…the one people will be playing in, takes place a long time after the events of the back story. But, because of how we’re doing story in Emerald Kingdom…we had to write a complete and well edited back story. We’ve done this so that the game events, and story do not in any way become contrived. But, with that said, it’s important to know that what happens these dark days in the past, will have direct impacts on the world of the player. Seeing how that impacts players, and finding out why it does is going to play a significant, (yet optional) part of the game.
If you’re quick on the draw, you may even find a secret bits of story. Something another of our writers wrote from the first draft, that’s still very relevant. Amesha is a solid writer, and his first draft established a great deal for Emerald Kingdom.
Castiel has taken that draft, and has been plugging away at it. It’s come a long long way, and it’s still evolving. The world, and the story of these wonderful characters is incredibly vibrant and full of life, and more importantly, will comprise an interactive mythos.
Castiel:
Avatea is a gentle, attractive yet not a vain woman, as Azrael mentioned; however, I wanted to make sure that she was someone the audience could easily like. And yes, sometimes loving the villains is way more fun than loving the good guys, I aimed to give every character some kind of personality flaw that completed the trifecta of three-dimensional characters (i.e. expertise, history, and flaw). You will get to see Avatea grow and change over the course of the game and come to see that she’ll make mistakes and do things that are very – in a sense – human.
Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of readers (particularly of the women sort) peg many female characters for being “Mary Sues” or overly-perfect and annoying heroines. However, whenever someone calls a character a Mary Sue, it’s most likely because the reader doesn’t like the character and just wants to hate her for no other reason that I can decipher. But since I’m aware of the problem, I made an extra effort to go out of my way to do what I must. I didn’t focus on making these female characters perfect – I made them characters. If I put any of the character traits on a man that I had previously put on a female – he would be a fan favorite. But if I give those traits to a girl, immediately she’s too unbelievable. It shouldn’t be about gender that makes a character likable or not. It should be about what they do that defines who they are.
There are some plot points for Avatea that were already established before I came on board but ohh~ boy am I super excited to actually write it. Let me just say this right now: Even though Avatea can be considered a more “princess-like” character, she can let her badass streak show. And if there’s one thing you need to know about me and this company, we’re all about strong female characters.
That about says it all we think.
Without further delay, go check out your first small taste of Emerald Kingdom…
After you do, we’re sure you’ll have Questions. Ask away in the comments.
You never know what kind of an answer you’ll get.
A frank talk from the bar.
71 month ago
We have more updates a comin’ about Emerald Kingdom. I believe you’ll either see something later this week, or perhaps early next week. It depends on how things come together. I did however, want to take a walk in another direction just as important: what it’s like running a fringe/underground game studio with a lot of people.
It’s not easy. It gets maddening sometimes. Not the people. Just the pace. It can get to you, cause everything from cold sweats to crises of confidence. I’ve encountered every kind of emotion you can think of over the course of Double Cluepon history.
I guess, in the past 24 hours with all the progress we’ve been showing lately, (and there is lots more coming, promise!) I feel as though in some ways I become a focal point for the company. I guess that is valid on some level. But, that’s entirely not how I see myself. I’ve been told by various people I am “The best boss ever”, but again: that’s not how I see myself.
How I see myself is this: I myself am not Double Cluepon. We are Double Cluepon. I steadfastly refuse to take credit for what is, and always will be a group effort. I trust the people in this company more than implicitly, I trust them in ways that really cannot be put into words. The hardest part of any creative effort is putting forth an idea. Surrendering it to the group.
That word: Surrender. Sounds cliche or maybe a bit dramatic doesn’t it? But there is no other word that fits. Emerald Kingdom may have originally been my idea…at one time. But, in order to make it a reality I had to accept the fact that I could not do it alone. In order to realize your vision, sometimes, you have to let someone else hold the baby. This is hard enough with an actual child. Two parents coming to terms with the fact that they may not see eye to eye on what ideas for parenting are valid, and which are not. In a group, working on a creative effort…it gets even more complex. Why?
Because when you surrender your idea to the group, you are allowing critique. You are opening yourself up to a process where parts of your idea may be shown to be not relevant, or changed. If you have the capacity to push past this, to accept group wisdom when it comes to this kind of design you’ll find something amazing: your idea becomes better, despite it not fitting for conforming to what you originally envisioned it as in your minds eye.
This magic can and does happen every day with creative groups. The magic flows best when the trust, respect and love for what’s being created is shared among that group. I can assure anyone who reads this: nobody wants to play Emerald Kingdom more than the people here. But, that trust between us here at Double Cluepon has done more to get Emerald Kingdom developed than any pen, or line of code. I can assure you of something else: What I envisioned Emerald Kingdom to be is a far cry from what it has become. It has not become something I did not want, it has become more of what I want. This is the power of listening, and trust in the creative group around you.
It’s also an idea many people in this industry have a problem understanding, let alone putting into practice.
Emerald Kingdom, as an idea, a concept…is no longer mine and mine alone. It belongs to everyone here at this strange little company. We’re loud, and obnoxious. We make inappropriate jokes sometimes on Twitter. But despite all of that, I would challenge anyone who told us we were not fully invested in our project. We love what we do. Having said that, if you love what you do you’ll never “work” a day in your life.
None of us work here at Double Cluepon. We enjoy the act of creation. We enjoy the fact we’re creating something new and innovative. We get immense satisfaction from our efforts.
The other big thing we have done is, in a lot of ways surrendered our group idea to a larger group: the players, the people, the ones who have continually been left out. This is often done under the guise of percentages, focus groups and mechanical dry thinking. As a company, one of our strongest feelings is very simple: as we started Double Cluepon because we were tired of being ignored by “the powers that be”, it makes no sense to shut out others. That’s why we have adopted the very open development model that we use. Again, I refuse to take credit for what has been a group effort: the players and people who speak to us have caused real and significant changes to some of the things we are designing. Don’t believe me? Ask Arislyn, or anyone else who has spoken to us.
But that’s the real point I want to drive home here: it’s not just me anymore. I may hold the reins, but I trust every single one of these people to tell me if I am steering us toward a cliff, or a waterfall. They trust me to do the same. It’s a special kind of working relationship. It’s hard to forge, and harder to maintain. But the best places on earth to work have it. When you trust like that, you have the freedom to imagine, without restraint. It frees you from inhibition. It’s a safe place to say, “We can do this” instead of saying “We can’t do this”.
The most important thing anyone in a leadership role can do, is realizing that you are not the body of the company, but the soul of it. Leader, CEO, Director, Vice President…these are just titles we put on things for Visio charts. The reality is, none of these people work for me, if anything…I work for them. But I think the truth is actually much simpler: we’re for working for the common goal. Creatively, business wise, and for each of our own personal reasons.
TL;DR: I love all the people I work with. They are awesome. Being a boss is not about issuing commands and being a hard assed douchebag. It’s about working with people, hand in glove to realize a goal. Also, listen to the people you expect to use what you create. If you don’t, that’s on you.
Ja Mata!
Design Evolution, or how we spent our Saturday.
01 month ago
by Azrael
in Double Cluepon
Here we are again, with a promised update! We’ve been working hard on getting the UI for Emerald Kingdom nailed down. We need to get some stuff finalized, so we can start kicking more assets into the art queue for lines and paint. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been so heavily into the UI thing lately. The bonus about this is, you get to see and comment on what we’re doing in terms of the client. So, without further ado, lets get to it.
Re-thinking what we had re-thought:
One of the first things that happened was, having asked some players for feedback, we got some interesting details. Some of them we knew, some of them we did not. Nonetheless, player feedback should never be discounted. Sometimes they give you the same information you had, but with different perspective. The great part about that is, if you’re open to it you think about it differently than you may have in the past.
We elected to put a tabbed top into place. It's familiar, and it allows for instant intuitive use. Click to enlarge.
As you know from the last post on UI/UX, we had tabs coming from the top down, which would allow you to have “drawers”, giving you information. Those are gone in the new interface. Instead, we have opted for a tabbed browser like interface.
The advantage here? For one thing, its more intuitive in today’s tabbed interface environment. Moreover, it makes more sense in this type of game: you have a windowed viewer to the world, but you also have immediate access to the other necessary functions for the game itself. We will get to more of that later, where we will answer such burning questions like: how do I see if I am in another tab?
The upper left corner curly icon will eventually be replaced with standard iconography. But that icon will always return you to the game view. The Gear Icon is also a placeholder of sorts: it will hold the configuration tab. You will see there are three basic tabs: Profile, Inventory, and Attributes. We have redesigned last weeks profile into a more tab friendly format, which we will get to shortly here. The other two tabs details have not yet been designed. You will notice in the upper right of the viewer, there is the good old standard mini-map.
Some other notes about this functionality: we’re thinking that this is how the client will look “in town”; when you’re inside a town or non hostile/combat area, the tabs will be always available. When you are outside of a town, in a place where you can attack/be attacked, we will roll the tab bar up, giving you precious extra to see at the top of the screen. A simple key press of the tilde (~) will bring the tab bar down for use in those situations.
You will also notice, there is a “+” button at the end of the tabs which are always present. This will allow you to bring up tabs of your choice. Things such as player/profile search. Shop tabs, etc. That said also: tabs will be context driven as well. If you enter a shop as an owner, a shop tab will appear, etc.
“But, Azrael!” You’re saying yourself. “If you’ve gone to a tabbed window interface, and I am in a tab, how will I see what’s going on in dangerous situations?”
We have you covered.
The profile window, redesigned. This allows for better 4:3 or 16:9 WS scaling. Not the change in the Mini-Map area. (Click to Enlarge)
To account for the fact that you need to keep an eye on yourself. We have elected to use a two part system. So let’s get to that part first. When you’re in a tabbed screen, we’re going to do two things. One: we’re going to flip the mini-map into a live view of your character in the world. The second thing we’re going to do is set two boundaries.
If a hostile/monster crosses the first boundary, we will yellow ring the entire client window, and flash the Mini-Map screen yellow as a warning that there are monsters/hostiles nearby.
If a hostile/monster crosses the second, closer boundary, we will red ring the client window, flash the mini-viewer red, maybe even with an “!”, to let you know something might be upon you.
We’re currently debating whether or not we could come up with a preference to set these boundaries on a client level. That said, you will be able to keep an eye on your character, and not get jumped. We will provide visual cues to let you know if you’re in danger. We know from experience, that, people in hostile areas tend to put themselves out of sight of most monsters or hide behind something to avoid attention to begin with when they need to interact with mechanics anyway. So, from our perspective, combining normal player behavior, with a good alarm system, and a view of the world as a “picture in picture” allows us to do something else we feel is important: clean straightfoward UI in the tabs, so you don’t have to hunt things down. We also will never fall into the trap of having to “tack things on” as we add features and functionality to Emerald Kingdom: everything can go into a tab, and we could even do sub-tabs if need-be.
The profile sheet has also been redesigned a bit. We moved to a more center oriented design, which allows us to scale better for wide screens, as opposed to standard ones. Our metrics so far indicate to us that widescreen is fast becoming the norm, but we don’t want to shut out those last folks running 1024×768.
Under the player viewer, (which will actually be a slightly bigger box than the mini-map viewer) we plan for a vertical Knockout/Gel and battery counter to fill that space underneath.
Clicking on a building, produces a simple menu like the one seen here for the Tavern. (Click to Enlarge)
The next big thing on our list, was to start roughing out our radial menus. These are a given for player interactions, but we also want to apply them to buildings as well. We elected to go with click, and pseudo gesture type of control. Double Clicking always performs the default function.
While all the menu’s will have icons…
The default icon is always center, thus, double clicking would enter the building. (Click to Enlarge)
Hovering over these will actually produce the desired information. But for the center icon, which is the default…in a building context, double clicking enters the building. For a player menu, double clicking will give you a profile tab, allowing you to view their profile.
Popout showing the "Info" button. (Click to Enlarge)
The top icon for buildings will always be “Info”, so clicking once, hovering up will produce the following effect. Info for a building will produce an info tab for the building, telling you who owns it, current news, etc.
Obviously, there will be more options when you click a player: Friend, Ignore, Trade, etc.
All in all, it was an incredibly productive meeting. The art and development departments have what they need to get started on the pieces which will be put into place now.
You may have also noticed: we have a lovely little clothed player in there. With a different hairstyle. Yes, that hair will be available. Along with some others.
I can’t promise you what the next update will be about. What I can promise you is that there is a Story based update coming very soon. One of the things about Emerald Kingdom is the story, how it works, and how it can have effects on the world itself. We realize some folks don’t care a whole bunch about story in their MMORPG. That said, we know that for every one person who does not, there is also one who does. But, as story is one of our important features we have been working on it just as hard as any mechanic. We’ve been tight lipped about the story, but that is going to start changing.
In closing, we want to hear from you on these things. If you like the interface, hate it, or think you have a suggestion which could improve it even more: tell us. We are listening, and it’s not too late to make changes!
Till the next time!
Ja Mata!
