Life at an underground game company.
Posts tagged Story
Happenings, stuffs and things…
06 months ago
Another late night for me at the office. Problem is, Gremmie's are not conducive to work. Also, keeping them away from markers = crucial.
It’s been awhile since you’ve heard from good old Azrael. Needless to say, I have just been a busy Gremmie stomping fool. A lot of great things have been happening here at Double Cluepon, and a great many hours have been put in as of late.
At the end of the day though, things are moving right along. Meetings and schedules are being tightened on a weekly basis now. It’s going to get a lot crazier still too. The good news is, the ball keeps moving forward.
One of the things I am seriously contemplating is doing “In Bed with the Producer” every couple weeks. I would be doing this via a live stream from this very blog. I would probably do this Saturdays, in the Afternoon. If you’re keen to see such a thing, where you can hang out, ask me questions about Emerald Kingdom, make suggestions…be sure to leave a comment on this post.-
But, let me tell you about a few of the cool, and not so cool things happening as of late:
Our blog was down part of Sunday due to a conflagration of update stupidity. We use the Mystique theme for WordPress. Mystique is a pretty rad theme, very configurable and very robust. Over the weekend Digital Nature released an update. For various reasons, some WordPress.org related, some Digital Nature related….upgrading broke the hell out of the blog. We wound up having to downgrade back to 2.4.7 from 3.0. It’s pretty unfortunate. We’re still deciding what we should do about this situation, as theme’s can get to be notoriously unstable as WordPress’ version increments. Right now, I am weighing forking the theme and rolling it into something custom for our use only. Alternatively, I could also set up a one off WordPress install with the new theme, and use it as a starting point to migrate changes to the production blog. One of the things I like about our blog is, how nice it looks, and how easy it has been (for the most part) to maintain. I really cast a dim view on disruption of any kind.
Castiel: Why no Mister Bond, I expect you to file these TPS reports!
Castiel, our new writer is trucking right along. She has been applying pen to paper furiously. Between her and I, the back story rewrite for Emerald Kingdom is flat out moving at a very acceptable speed. While some changes have been made, they have been for the better. I certainly didn’t think it was possible to add more intrigue to things, she has upped the ante on a few fronts. One of the things she specializes in is keeping a great balance between showing and telling. She is also pretty awesome when it comes to pacing. While the back story for Emerald Kingdom may get published at some point, in the context of our development the back story is more of our “Reference Tome” so to speak: in order to be able to write the In Game story, and keep the story moving at the frequency we want, we have to know how things got there. On this note, Castiel is astounding us with her ideas, and her plans. Her work in this regard is so incredibly crucial. Unlike a great many others, we do plan on episodic content. To do that, and do it well…you really need to keep a close eye on where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are going. We have a ways to go yet, but we have a better picture in our mind now.
Caelum: Yo dawg, we heard you like beards...
Another prime mover in the last month is Caelum. He’s currently on a triple workload. He has laid out a solid foundation for our sound effects library. By itself, that is quite a feat. But he has not stopped there. He and Uriel have also streamlined our process for prop creation, (buildings, accoutrements, etc) as well as trucking right along with getting the starter clothing pathed out for Sandalphon to add to game sprite animation. Sound wise, he’s been crisscrossing states in some cases to do field recording of sounds, cleaning them up, and then working with them to create a variety of sound effects for use in Emerald Kingdom. Prop wise? He gets a flat drawing from the Art Department which he then runs through Maya in order to give us plan renders…the advantage being we get every isometric view we need, without needing the art department to draw every view by hand. All in all, Caelum is really showing how much he cares, his attention to the little details results in more quality for the players. Quality for the players is paramount for us.
Because we’re also players.
Other things in the mix: the other things happening as of late is that we are making a number of changes currently, as well as planning for more changes in the next month or two. It’s all in preparation for Emerald Kingdom going to live testing. Here are some of the other things bring churned:
Elphie awaits!
We have recently put WireWorks up on its own page here at Double Cluepon. You can now play WireWorks anytime you want, at wireworks.doublecluepon.com. While we are not tracking the high scores, and we know there are some bugs that escaped notice…it should be noted that this version of WireWorks is the classic version. There’s a new version in pre-production. It will have many new features such as new parts to assemble boards with (capacitors, transistors, etc). It will also be the main labor puzzle for the Junkworks in Emerald Kingdom. While there will be new tiles/pieces bits and bobs to use one thing that will not be changing: the basics. You should practice now while you can!
Also, Elphie does not mind. She could use some company!
The Emerald Kingdom page has been updated! We have converted it to something more akin to a “Landing Page”. You can now sign up for early access to Emerald Kingdom, including Alpha/Beta testing. Please note that if you signed up for our mailing list updates you are already on the list for early access! You don’t need to sign up again. But, we definitely encourage you to tell your friends and spread the word! The more sign ups the better.
The Emerald Kingdom forums have actually had a minor address change. The forums are now available at their own (and now non re-directed) URL: http://forums.emeraldkingdom.com/ . You should make a note of this. Also, don’t be shy. If you have questions, we have answers! Be sure to bop on by and keep us on our toes!
Been to the conventions, such as Otakon? Do you have one of the new “Bitsy’s Bullets” shirts? How about a “Twin Perennial” shirt? Show us your pride! Send me (Azrael) a good picture(s) of you wearing the shirt. If you catch me on a good day, maybe I’ll send you something! I think we even have a coffee mug or two around. Sending me a picture is easy: kick me a link on Twitter (@ArchAzrael) or email me at: azrael AT doublecluepon DOT com.
That about wraps things up for now. As usual, from all of us here…we hope your summer thus far has been safe and fun.
Welcome to the new staff.
07 months ago
Double Cluepon has added again to its numbers. We have added three new folks to the fold. Each of them brings their own unique stamp to what we are doing, and where we are going. So, let’s get down to it!
* Caelum: Caelum is our new Swiss army knife. Since coming aboard, he and Uriel have streamlined our prop production. But he also has proficiency when it comes to sound production. His primary project is well on its way: building the sound effects library for Emerald Kingdom. Between doing iso renders in Maya, and creating our catalog of sound he’s a busy little bee. You can find him on twitter too! (@CaelumDC)
* Zeruel: Our new creature designer. Zeruel has been creating a complete bestiary for Emerald Kingdom, from the ground up. When it comes to creating monsters and creatures, she has shown a zeal and aptitude not often seen. She has also been working to simplify some of the existing creatures, so as to make Sandalphon’s job easier.
* Castiel: Castiel is our new writing director. She has taken over all of the writing duties for Emerald Kingdom, and is plowing through current stuff while preparing to carry the ball over the goal line. Castiel comes to us highly recommended, and we look forward to not only the the final rewrite of the main piece of story…where it goes from there.
So, you know. Let’s give them all a big welcome.They have all received their orientation, and their complimentary straightjacket. =)
The High End Game. Broken by Design?
011 months ago
Let me ask you folks a question: is high end cooperative goal seeking in MMORPG’s broken by design because you can never completely design it with all variables accounted for?
Puzzle Pirates: Islands as Flag Trinkets. Upon solidifying your Island(s), complacency sets in. Stagnation takes hold, and change in the game world stops.
Ragnarok: Once you take a castle, or castles in War of Emperium, and you have your defenses set, complacency sets in, stagnation takes hold and change in the game stops.
These are but two examples. Anyone have more? I have a deep and burning desire to fix some of these. To some degree these are player problems, which should be solved by players. But I also think the designers have a responsibility to poke the bee hive. There are a few related and lively discussions on the Emerald Kingdom forums regarding this. I am really keen for any and all input on this. It will help us design a better high end goal seeking system that is not static upon attainment.
Win some swag. Have some info!
01 year ago
Okay boys and girls!
We want to start talking more about Emerald Kingdom. One of the best ways to do that will be with forums. To that end, we are announcing the opening of the Emerald Kingdom Forums.
And, because we like making things here, we want to hear from you. We also want to hear from your friends. Emerald Kingdom is starting to hurtle towards alpha, and we want to see what some of you folks think and want. So, to start the dialog and get you guys into the forums…we are offering you the chance to win some swag from us.
For the person who refers the most friends to the Forums, who sign up and post…we will send you a Double Cluepon T-Shirt. We will even sign it if you want. The person who refers the second highest number of people will also get a T Shirt, but…we hate signing clothing…so, no hand signed shirt for the runner up.
Both winners will also receive a color character signed by Uriel. How will you know which character you want? Easy…by the end of January, you will know.
But, you may ask…how will we know who referred who? In the box under TimeZone…have them put your forum name, or your DeviantArt, Twitter, Facebook…etc. We will tally up the referrals on Jan 31st. Winners will be the ones with the most, and second most number of people who used you as the referral. See below:
Double Cluepon staff, and their immediate families are ineligible. Referrals from the blog, and our other channels such as FB, dA are also ineligible. So, get signed up, and get your friends to sign up! The more the merrier. The small print is: we will know if you try to stack the referrals. You will be disqualified if you try. =)
In the coming week, we will be talking about Emerald Kingdom’s story, its features, character bios, and the coming Comic…Twin Perennial.So, if you want to know more…the forums are the place.
Fifty.
01 year ago
I have been quite busy as of late. Between resume vetting, working on some web re-organization and generally taking some time to regroup….I have barely had time to do much anything else. When I get busy, the blog goes silent. That’s going to change a bit as time goes on. More of the crew here at Double Cluepon will begin writing posts here and there. Nova, our CR Vixen will also be getting in here soon to keep things rolling, and keep things tidy.
So, for the fiftieth post, I just wanted to give you some updates as to what is going down here at Double Cluepon.
While we will be mostly interviewing this week, having collected a massive number of resume’s last week…it’s still not too late to submit a resume and portfolio to us. We have gotten so many folks sending us credentials it’s very overwhelming. We wish we could bring all of them in, but we just do not have the resources. However, one of the things we are considering is some kind of intern program. We think it might be helpful to some of these folks to still hang around a game studio. Especially an indie studio.
- WireWorks, our first game, fared much better than we initially hoped.
It sounds weird, but all of us felt WireWorks had a chance to not do as well as it did. We never expected it to hit four stars. (The version of WireWorks that is going into Emerald Kingdom will be far more polished) Despite that, it did a lot better than we hoped. It came out of the gate, and for our first ever product, it beat the Average, hovering around 3 stars, or just under. Not bad for our first try! Especially in a world of hundreds of thousands of flash games. We learned a great deal from its reception. We also learned where we failed, and what needs improvement. We are already putting some of these things into new policies as we move forward with Emerald Kingdom. Even so, everyone we spoke to directly in some way loved WireWorks, and we are quite proud of our debut product.
- We are currently working on revamping our web presence.
Be on the lookout, we are in the process of putting together a new unified web presence, with a uniform interface so things are easier to navigate. We are doing this now, while we have some time during the spin down of WireWorks development, and during our star search for a new artist.
- We have opened our forums, and have also posted some details about some major features you will find in Emerald Kingdom.
You can find our forums here. More to the point…the forums are the place to mingle and hobnob with us folks at Double Cluepon. We read them all the time, and may from time to time answer direct questions. If you want to get more direct with us about Emerald Kingdom…the forums are the place to do so.
- Twin Perennial is now in production.
We do not have a release date for the debut. However what we can tell you is this: the story outline is done, the script production cycle is now been started, and it is in full production. What is Twin Perennial? It’s a web comic which is based on the characters and world of Emerald Kingdom. While many of the main characters will appear, it will “key” in on two very important major characters. The sisters Paranoia and Confusia. Twin Perennial will serve to introduce the world, concepts and characters of Emerald Kingdom. We have not mentioned her in awhile, mainly cause she has been busy with her own gigs in addition to helping to develop the strip…but you should definitely check out Joan Varitek. You should also check out her etsy store. We love Joan. Greatly. In that platonic kind of kindred type of love. Not the prison type of love. Also, banana’s.
So, in closing…things are busy, yes. Not as busy as they are going to get very soon. I really want to see some of the kids walking around the world already.
Ja Mata!
