Here are two delightful new screenshots of Richard & Alice, which you should click to embiggify.
What you might be wondering is why there’s an increasing number of pictures of Alice & Some Kid, rather than of Richard & Alice. It’s quite simple, really. The game’s split into different sections, some of which follow Alice separately from Richard. The bits with Richard in are set in the most elaborate and intricate areas of the game, which, frankly, we haven’t finished making yet.
The kid, incidentally, is Alice’s son. Hello, Alice’s son!
Progress is surprisingly smooth. Stay tuned.
PS. Oh, crikey, we never embedded the trailer here? My goodness.
You might have seen me tweeting about ‘Secret Game’ every so often over the past couple of months. Keeping it a secret game has been difficult, because we’re dead excited about this. So it’s good that I can finally reveal what we’ve been working on: an indie adventure game called Richard & Alice.
We’ve been working on it full-on for a couple of months, but it’s the result of lots of planning, thinking, brainstorming, idea-starting, idea-scrapping and general nonsense from me over the past ages. Then, in February, with a first draft of the design document finished, I roped in Ashton Raze to help with the intricacies of design and narrative, Kyra Hills to do some lovely art, and Yonatan Luria to compose an original soundtrack.
There’s now a micro-site over at richardandalice.com, and Indie Game Magazine has a big first-look interview in which Raze and I ramble on for entirely too long about everything. All the details are included there, but I’m also eager to see what everyone has to say, and to answer any questions in the comments thread below. So get askin’!
Secret Game is going well. It’s also, quite predictably, grown in scope. My original plan was to make it on my own over the next few months. In my spare time. Heh.
Suffice it to say, I’m no longer making it alone. I’ve hired three other people to help me. Eep. But the result should be a much better game. Especially since the people I’m working with are awesome. I don’t want to say too much yet, but if you think ‘professional games journalist’, ‘professional game artist’ and ‘professional musician’ sound like good people to collaborate with, then watch this space.
We’re currently on the cusp of entering full production. The art and music are at their first stages of being produced. Meanwhile, myself and Mr. Co-Designer are putting the finishing touches to the design document. My current task? Turn the puzzles from “Yeah, the player should probably have to do something like that at this point” into – y’know – actually fully workable puzzles.
Oh yeah: it’s an adventure game. But not entirely a traditional one.
It also has a name. And you can find out what it is when we announce next month oh god we’re announcing next month and haven’t even started making it yet.
So, here’s a thing. I’m very happy to announce that I’ll be heading back into the world of PR for a while, as I take such reigns for Thomas Was Alone.
Thomas Was Alone is… A ridiculously lovely puzzle-platformer that follows the journey of a group of 2D shapes as they learn to combine their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. In other words, a minimalist game about friendship and jumping. It’s utterly gorgeous and stupidly charming. Mike Bithell’s managed to make a gem here, and I can’t wait to start work properly on the project. Watch this space.
Fingers crossed I’ll have another thing to announce in the near future, too. I’ve also been working more on Secret Game, for which I now have two (count ‘em!) collaborators. More will be announced when everything’s a bit more set in stone – we’re still very much in the pre-production stage at the moment, although yesterday I commissioned the music and made a start on setting up the engine.
Of course, none of this means I won’t be writing about games still. That will continue to happen. And, in fact, continues to make up the majority of what I do. Journalism won’t be easily rid of me.
If all goes to plan, I’ll be announcing a game in the coming months. Because I’m like totally indie, I’m being very open about the development… sorta. In other words, here’s a very early look at the game that is yet to be named.
Basically, this is where I’m now going to live. For work-related or creative projects and blogging, at least. My own personal blog will stay up for the time being, but it might be that I bring that over here eventually too. Who knows? For now: Hello, I’m Lewis Denby. Welcome to my new site-blog-thing, Gamethunks. I hope you like the reddy-orange.
