Lucy Dreaming
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]