Lucy Dreaming
It’s been just over three weeks since we released Lucy Dreaming on 18th October 2022, and we’ve had some fantastic reviews, not only on the various platforms (as I type, we still have a 100% positive rating on Steam…not sure how long that will continue for), but there’s also been a lot of love for […]
Launching a game feels a bit like teaching a child to ride a bike. We’re about to let go and hope it rides off happily into the sunset rather than immediately falling flat on its face. But what will it take for us to call it a success? Launching the gameThe fact that we’ve got […]
As you will have gathered from the title of this update, we are releasing Lucy Dreaming on 18th October 2022. It annoys me that this is later than I originally planned (I hate being late!) but we wanted to give adventure game fans a whole month to play Return to Monkey Island and also allow […]
Honestly, we’ve been sitting on this news for almost 18 months now! Before we even launched our Kickstarter campaign last year, we approached Dominic Armato (a.k.a. Guybrush Threepwood) and asked him if he’d be interested in lending his vocal talents to our new point & click adventure game Lucy Dreaming. Dom is a brilliant chap. […]
After my recent devlog about puzzle design I have been chatting to other people, players and devs about some of the themes in the post. One thing that came up was the fact that I talk to my characters. I’m aware that this makes me sound like I’m a sultana short of a fruitcake but […]
I’ve written a couple of times in the past about individual elements of puzzle design, but I wanted to have a bit of a ramble about it in a blog post as it helps me to be transparent about my development process, and also to reflect on it as I “think aloud” while I write. […]
To date I have created two point and click games using Visionaire Studio. The first of them to launch was Hair of the Dog, and shortly after that the demo for Lucy Dreaming. The process for developing each one was quite different. Lucy Dreaming has been a longer, more organic process which has changed and […]
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we are one of only eleven indie game studios to have been accepted for Round 7 of UK Games Fund funding. What does this mean for Lucy Dreaming? The grant can cover work and expenses from UK-based suppliers, so we can’t put it towards the localisation of the […]
I promised I wouldn’t put myself into this position. Don’t worry I thought, you can always find a bit of time to scribble a few thoughts down in a blog post and keep the shop-front open. Well that all went to pot once the Kickstarter campaign launched. This is the first blog post in four […]
Like everyone there are a lot of things I wasn’t expecting about the last 14 months of my life. But sitting in bed under a clothes horse, shrouded in a duvet with a camping light and a microphone. Now that is weird. How on earth did I get here? When the idea of voicing Lucy […]
As many of you will be aware, I have a tendency to waffle a bit in my blog/devlog posts, but really this is juat an announcement and a “thank you”. We’ve actually gone and done it! After months (which quite honestly felt like years) of preparations, we have finally pushed the big, green button and […]
I’m taking a break from harping on about my Kickstarter campaign to write about something that I’ve known for a while, but had confirmed in no uncertain terms during the recent Easter egg hunt competition. Recently, a journalist asked me a question regarding “obscure” puzzles. My response was that I believe that any puzzle has […]
Wait! Stop right there! The Lucy Dreaming Kickstarter will now be launching on 27th April. Follow it here to be notified when it launches so you don’t miss out on an early-bird discount! OK, now on with the blog… In my preparation for Kickstarter last year I read A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide by Jamey Stegmaier. Jamey’s […]
I’ve not written a blog post for a few weeks, the main reason being that I’ve been getting a row of ducks organised for launching the demo, promoting it, and subsequently making sure all of my figures add up for the forthcoming Kickstarter campaign. During this process, I also decided to launch Hair of the […]
At the tail end of last year Tall Story Games was lucky enough to receive a modest grant to afford us some industry-focused business consultancy. We have been working closely with a seasoned industry pro to help us form a solid strategy for launching our fledgling studio. The existing art just wasn’t good enough. Last […]
A lot of my devlog posts have been about my own personal journey creating my first fully-fledged adventure game. For this post, instead of pouring out my latest insecurities or opinions, I wanted to showcase some of the cool things that you’ll be able to experience in the new (shorter) demo. Although you can justifiably […]
I’ve been working on the demo for Lucy Dreaming since May 2020 and have a bit of a confession to make. I actually finished it last year. I managed to get it all designed, voiced, developed and tested all ready to adorn my Kickstarter campaign. The feedback from everyone was very positive, the humour, styling […]
After AdvXJam in November, I have 3 completed (albeit relatively short) adventure games under my belt. As a result of this, I have started to take things a bit more seriously and have now officially launched Tall Story Games in partnership with my long-suffering wife Emma. This will be the overarching brand that all future […]
The AdventureX Jam I took part in in November 2020 has had some utterly stellar entries. But here are just a few of my top picks for various reasons. Unrelenting ear worm award Swarm of the Plague Babies by @charlottegore Despite being a beautifully-written and acted piece of hilarious adventure game drama. This entry will […]
Over a two-week period in November, I decided to down tools on Lucy Dreaming for a while and have a go at my first “game jam”. A game jam is a type of challenge where game developers and designers are tasked with building a new game from scratch within a set time period, and within […]
Over the past few months of posting updates and questions on social media, one thing has come up more and more often. You really have to do something about that space in your verb menu! Despite being a designer, the gap in the verb interface didn’t bother me, and it really surprised me that the […]
A lot of my previous posts have been opinion-pieces about my approach to game dev and storytelling, which is all well and good but I wanted to post an update about where the demo is currently up to. I’m not a patient man and I always want things finished immediately, but a few weeks ago […]
This project initially started out as a passionate, self-indulgent fantasy where I grandly stood on the backs of giants to create a game which included all of the things I love about point & click adventure games, with none of the bits I didn’t. Through engaging with other gamers and game developers online it has […]
After a bit of a crisis of confidence last week where the narrative of the game seemed to have evaporated into an over-complicated and vague nonsense, I brought it back with the help of my wife who managed to talk me down. A sobering reminder to continually involve other people in the creative process to […]
After a recent short exchange on Twitter with @DavidBFox about enjoying playing your own games, I felt like it was a good subject to waffle about myself. David sent me a link to a short post of his own on Quora where he spoke about the how the initial elation and joy of seeing your […]
Firstly, apologies for not writing much for a few weeks, I’ve been getting my head down doing some serious nothing after working solidly without a significant break since Christmas. I wanted to write a little bit about my approach to developing gameplay, characters and enviroments. I’m sure that this will receive a certain amount of […]
I greatly enjoyed playing PnC games in my younger days, but in all honesty I’ve not played video games of any sort for a number of years (with the exception of Thimbleweed Park which I never actually completed!) I did get through most of the TellTale PnC games before they put all of their efforts […]
A few people have asked about the verbs I’ve decide to use (or more specifically not use) in my game. To those who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the text commands in the bottom-left hand side of the screen (“Look at”, “Pick up” etc.). As you can see above, there are only five […]
As you’re probably aware, I’m feeling my way with a lot of this stuff, so I’d really appreciate your opinions on a couple of things! Click here if you’d like to subscribe to emails about the project.
This week I have finally started making actual “things” for the demo. Booting up Photoshop to get started on the pixel art for the first couple of scenes, getting them loaded into Visionaire and starting to get some of the rudimentary actions and dialogue linked up. I love an organic process for creating a game. […]
There is always going to be self doubt in any creative process. But since becoming more heavily involved in point n’ click game dev it’s become increasingly obvious just how many extremely talented and creative game designers there are out there, even in the world of pixel art alone! I mean I’m a designer, I […]
Introducing the game concept and having a discussion about ethics at the same time. There’s an update at the bottom. Ooh err missus. Here’s the game concept for Lucy Dreaming. I don’t want to give away spoilers for how some of the puzzles will work as I’m not 100% sure how much I will make […]
At some point I’m hoping to fund my new game partially via crowdfunding. But convincing the general public that I’m competent enough to deliver something interesting, creative, fun and actually playable will take some doing. I may create an hilarious deadpan video of myself looking like I’m not just desperate to justify my own whimsy. […]
Well it looks like this game is actually going to happen now. I’m still new to game development but with the help of the ever-so-lovely point and click and indie game dev communities I’m going to have a stab at making a proper game. Proper game? What are you on about? Oh man, where are […]