Broken Roads - turn-based Australian post-apocalyptic RPG with "unique morality system"

[Brainlet2]

The post is basically just him virtue signalling and self censoring. He has no spine along with his dev team and is probably a pussy. Seems too afraid to offend someone. And everything has to be run by his "advisors" whether it can be in the game or not. Because God forbid the people that will never buy or play the game might get upset.

So no petrol sniffing, drum banging abbo companion then?
Such a missed oportunity, wont buy

 

[Junmarko]

The thing to do is to just ignore, not to make somersaults to appease them.

But there is more to it here, since it involves money too:

acquired for some government funding we applied for

Elders gave them some good indigenous wisdom there mate...

What the hell, this is one of the most spineless things I've ever heard anyone say.

It's a sensitive subject, settlers introduced pants before the wheel.

 

[RNGsus]

Just adopt a bunch of stupid kids for the child support money.

 

[Razzoriel]

acquired for some government funding we applied for

It is incredibly sad that indie devs are resorting to government funding to bank their projects, and it is not to the surprise of anyone that once you do, the government becomes your partner. And you know what they say about having partners on your projects, more often than not they'll want their share to represent something on the final product. See: all canadian indie devs inserting their current year + 3 topics subtly, or even eliptically.

I suggest the Codex provide an icon to all game discussions where this is involved, just to prove a point to those who do not believe this happens.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

It is incredibly sad that indie devs are resorting to government funding to bank their projects, and it is not to the surprise of anyone that once you do, the government becomes your partner. And you know what they say about having partners on your projects, more often than not they'll want their share to represent something on the final product. See: all canadian indie devs inserting their current year + 3 topics subtly, or even eliptically.

I suggest the Codex provide an icon to all game discussions where this is involved, just to prove a point to those who do not believe this happens.

France tried this a couple years ago. Every game had to be about > muh feminism in order to get government grants or some shit like that.

 

[Junmarko]

I suggest the Codex provide an icon to all game discussions where this is involved, just to prove a point to those who do not believe this happens.

Discussion icon: State Funded+

 

[Modron]

I suggest the Codex provide an icon to all game discussions where this is involved, just to prove a point to those who do not believe this happens.

Blasphemy, you dare speak such heresy against ELEX!?!?

Jokes aside basically every major studio game exists due to some kind of government grant/subsidy/tax break. I much prefer indie studios taking government funds and using them to produce labors of love that have the potential to be gems rather than major studios/publishers taking them and making watered down formulaic tripe designed by a committee.

 

[Junmarko]

Blasphemy, you dare speak such heresy against ELEX!?!?

Jokes aside basically every major studio game exists due to some kind of government grant/subsidy/tax break. I much prefer indie studios taking government funds and using them to produce labors of love that have the potential to be gems rather than major studios/publishers taking them and making watered down formulaic tripe designed by a committee.

Piranha Bytes have been around a long time, thus probably able to avoid a lot more of the government committee BS due to their experience. Newer studios have more risk and thus will be subject to more encroachment. Also Germany is not like Australia. Australian government grants have a lot more strings attached due to a wildly different demographic.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Really don’t think most of you would mind if Australia’s conservative government tried to insert its politics into this game.

 

[Junmarko]

Really don’t think most of you would mind if Australia’s conservative government tried to insert its politics into this game.

You don't understand Australian politics lol.

 

[d1nolore]

I think it's genius applying for funding to implement Abbos.

 

[Saduj]

There are plenty of US government expenditures that would be more productive if given to people to make games.

 

[Craig Ritchie]

We applied for funding - that's not to say we actually got it, mind.

 

[Craig Ritchie]

The post is basically just him virtue signalling and self censoring. He has no spine along with his dev team and is probably a pussy. Seems too afraid to offend someone. And everything has to be run by his "advisors" whether it can be in the game or not. Because God forbid the people that will never buy or play the game might get upset.

Alternatively, it's me trying to stem the resetera thread's path of "these are city kids who have never even spoken to an aboriginal person, everyone is white, etc" because the reality is we have to be aware of these things in Australia, very careful how we tread with indigenous content etc.

On the "advisors" thing, well, 100% yes - the shitstorm we'd be under if we just charged ahead with Aboriginal content without an Aboriginal advisor(s) would be unreal. I genuinely don't see the issue. If you understood the Australian political landscape you'd understand that anything else would just lead to a lot of problems for the studio.

Also, we have a lot on the go with a range of possible publishers and funding options. There are many things to consider and paths we have to tread carefully.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

This setting is potentially great, however, I have my doubts of the outcome. Also if you have morality compass but don't have dreamtime in post-apoc, its a waste of setting, imho.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Is it dead yet?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev...ds-narrative-team-with-film-victorias-support

GROWING THE BROKEN ROADS NARRATIVE TEAM WITH FILM VICTORIA’S SUPPORT

Last week, Film Victoria announced their decisions regarding funding outcomes of their Assigned Production Investment program, and we are incredibly proud that Broken Roads was one of the selected projects.

This is an extremely competitive program with the best of the Victorian games scene vying for valuable funding, and to be selected creates a fantastic opportunity for Drop Bear Bytes to grow our team during alpha development, and to secure our existing talent for longer.

From the outset, we always intended Broken Roads to be a traditional RPG with a very strong narrative, and have now signed Alexander Swords to join the team as Lead Writer. Alexander, who has worked on the likes of Dead Static Drive and Totem Teller, created the Forest Paths method which he will be presenting at GDC 2020 next month.

"It's rare for a game like this to come along anywhere outside the US or Europe,” says Alexander, “so it's a wonderful opportunity for me to apply my craft at this level on something so ambitious. It’s great to know we have such a supportive ally in Film Victoria that understands what power a writing team can bring to a game like Broken Roads."

The funding has also allowed us to extend our engagement with Jade Stewart, a Melbourne-based narrative designer of Palawa aboriginal descent. Her writing is vital in helping us bring an authentic voice to the indigenous content in the game.

"Film Victoria's funding support gives new and emerging voices, like me and many of my teammates at Drop Bear Bytes, a chance to shine in a field dominated by veterans,” says Jade. “I wouldn't have dreamed to touch the content that I can now, working with decades-experienced veterans and newcomers to the industry. I encourage any team to apply for project funding; you'll change a life!"

We also have more behind-the-scenes things going on with the project and the team which we plan to reveal in the next couple of weeks.

Finally, a huge congrats to our fellow funding recipients:

• Beating Heart, Ultimerse
• Chaos Tavern, DragonBear Studios
• Frog Detective 3, Worm Club
• I Want to go to Mars, 15 Minutes of Fame
• Nine: The Splintered Mind – Part 1, OD1N Studios
• Pico Tanks, Panda Arcade
• Shop Drifter, Studio Zero
• Unannounced project, Massive Monster
• Wood & Weather, Paper House

Thanks again to everyone at Film Victoria who has made this possible. We are truly appreciative that the Victorian government offers this kind of support to local game developers.

- The Drop Bear Bytes team

 

[Craig Ritchie]

Is it dead yet?

Nope.

Been working on a lot of things the last couple months, and managed to secure a significant new hire:

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev...-bear-bytes-as-creative-lead-for-broken-roads

We are excited to announce that Colin McComb has joined the team as Creative Lead on Broken Roads.

A veteran designer of both tabletop and computer RPGs, McComb’s work spans over 25 years with credits ranging from classics such as Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment through to more recent work on Torment: Tides of Numenera and Wasteland 2 & 3.

“It's not all that often that you get a chance to work on a game that combines two major foci of your resume,” says Colin. “When Craig told me what he wanted to do with the setting and the philosophy of Broken Roads, I had to fight him because I was jealous of his idea. But then he let me join the team, so that was cool.”

"I’ve played most of the games Colin has worked on over the years,” says Craig Ritchie, Founder & Game Director of Drop Bear Bytes, “and the high concept work in Numenera and the depths to which certain themes were explored really stood out to me. It’s awesome we’ve now got his talent and experience on the team.”

Broken Roads is set in a ravaged future Australia and presents players with an original alignment system: the Moral Compass. This unique take on morality presents a 360-degree view of all ethical and philosophical decisions a character can make, as well as their available moral traits. A character’s philosophical leaning will affect all areas of the game, from dialogue and companion reactions through to quest resolution and combat..

“Craig was looking for someone with wisdom and experience to come in and provide some good ideas and interesting directions for world and philosophy design,” says Colin. “Unfortunately, they were all taken, so he settled for me. The overlap in the Venn diagram of post-apocalyptic game designers and philosophical game designers is pretty small."

Welcome on board, Colin!

- The Drop Bear Bytes team

 

[MRY]

Oof. That item's gonna have to come out!

Awesome re: Colin. Glad you guys were able to get funding to hire him and round out the team!

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Ruskies are complaining about "lazy and not-detailed" visuals:

https://dtf.ru/games/102141-dizayne...abotke-postapokalipticheskoy-rpg-broken-roads

And even "fixing" them for you!

 

[Morkar Left]

Ruskies are complaining about "lazy and not-detailed" visuals:

https://dtf.ru/games/102141-dizayne...abotke-postapokalipticheskoy-rpg-broken-roads

And even "fixing" them for you!

Spoiler

Ruskies aren't what they were used to be.

 

[Craig Ritchie]

Haha wow, gotta love that passion. We're now in alpha and obviously working harder towards our visual target than the reveal trailer, which is all pre-alpha footage, shows.

 

[Infinitron]

Interview with former narrative lead: https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/farewell-and-best-wishes-to-narrative-lead-samantha-webb

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Interview with former narrative lead: https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/farewell-and-best-wishes-to-narrative-lead-samantha-webb

*some politically incorrect joke*

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/creating-the-post-apocalyptic-soundscape-for-broken-roads

CREATING THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SOUNDSCAPE FOR BROKEN ROADS

Queensland-based composer Tim Sunderland, Audio Lead on Broken Roads, has been a muso for 23 years, having started on the drums at 10 and expanding from there. He’s been playing games since the early nineties, with his first gaming memories being on the Commodore 64 with the likes of Frogger, Bards Tale and R-Type. Here Tim talks us through the process of recording sounds through to getting them in-game.

What is a field recorder? Why can't you just use your phone to record some sounds?
Tim: Phones are good in a pinch, but you have to do a lot more post production to get a clean sound. The microphones and pre-amps in field recorders are far superior in sound quality, not to mention mic. sensitivity control.

You might want to record doors opening and closing in your house, but not necessarily the dog barking across the road, having that little extra bit of control goes a long way. They're also designed to capture a stereo field well, which we don't often think about but really becomes apparent once you have headphones on and sensitivity up.

How do you go from hearing something to coming up with an entirely novel use for it?
Tim: A lot of it is trial and error, recording something random, experimenting, getting a completely different result to what you wanted but learning from it so you can remember how to replicate something similar in the future. After doing that for a number of years you start to tune your ear to hear what "could be" in a sound, rather than what actually is. But the key is to take the time to experiment, with enough effort you can get any sound to sound like most anything.

For example in the trailer to achieve the physical impact of striking a character with a cricket bat i used a combination of 3 sounds, biting into an apple, scrunching a Styrofoam noodle cup and slapping a 1kg bag of flour, then pitch shifting and a little processing to make it gel together. Having said that, you're always much better off finding a source that's already close to what you want, no need to over complicate things unless you really just like slapping bags of flour, then slap away.

At first I really struggled to think of what sounds would be in a Post-apoc world, but then I thought why not write the soundtrack and SFX from the perspective of an unhinged musician, living alone in a shack with minimal equipment in the middle of nowhere. Those limitations and a slightly "off" mindset have helped shape the soundscape into something that feels both natural and unnatural at times.

You don't only use the sounds as sounds, but also you've started using them as... well not quite instruments, but using the samples in the soundtrack, to the point they're unrecognisable from their source, and doing something entirely unique as a result. Tell us a bit about that please.
Tim: Sound is just cycles of waves, of different shapes and sizes. Everyone is probably familiar with what a Sine Wave looks like, nice smooth falls/crests and has a very pure, soft tone, similar to that of a flute. That sound is just a cycle of those similarly shaped repeated many times a second. So doing that process in reverse, I record something, anything, it could be a bird chirp or a spoon falling on the floor.

Then I sample as few or as many cycles of a particular section of that wave form I like which then lets me play that totally unique sound back as an instrument. It's by no means a new technique, but a lot of people don't realise the power of sampling, especially when trying to come up with rich evolving textured synths. This sounds so much more organic because the original source could have been a cat meowing or a glass breaking for example. I've even re-sampled my own instruments and small ones I’ve built from scratch, just to give them a completely different feel and sound characteristic.

A classic example in the Broken Roads soundtrack is a track called "Coke Bottle Flute" it's a dark ambient track that is based around an instrument i made by recording myself blowing over the top of an empty Coke bottle, correcting that pitch to the closest note that it naturally produced and then using the method above to create a "Flute" sounding playable instrument which is both very convincing and unique at the same time, all from a couple seconds of breath over a plastic bottle.

What tools (software and hardware) do you use?
Tim: As my DAW (digital audio workstation) I use Ableton, it's perfect for everything I do, from recording and sound design to performing and DJ sets there's not much it can't do when used right. I also use a whole heap of plugins modelled off vintage analogue hardware and synth's to try add a bit of life and character back into the digital world. In terms of keyboard and midi control I use a Roland A 800 Pro, it's 61 key range is plenty to perform with but not too big to fit on a desk, it also has plenty of knobs and sliders for midi control (controlling parameters within Ableton) which is a must for expressive playing.

I use a Focusrite 2i4 Soundcard which is great space wise, enough inputs to at least record a stereo signal and doesn't break the budget. Latency is an issue with MOBO audio processing, so I’d always recommend using a standalone soundcard which can bring the latency down to virtually zero. Because microphones and instruments are generally low gain you need the help of the onboard preamps to boost the signal to an acceptable level while recording, every type of preamp gives a signal a little bit of "colour" and I really like what the 2i4 does for that.

For listening I use the Yamaha HS8 monitors, personally I don't like using a separate Sub because I feel that it can trick your ears into thinking you have too much or too little Bass in mixdown so the 8inch speakers in the HS8's are a perfect all-rounder. For field recording I use the Zoom H4n Pro, great preamps/microphone, easy to use and at a reasonable price. Speaking of Microphones, we could talk about which one to use for what purpose until the camels come home but i find limiting yourself to one or two can be a great way to A.

Not get lost in a sea of hardware which can be overwhelming and B. Force you to come up with creative ways to get a desired sound out of that particular Mic. so as well as the Zoom i use the EV Re320 Dynamic, it was recommended to me by an audio engineer with 30+ years of experience and I find it to be the perfect all-round Mic. whether it be for vocals or instrument.

My main guitar is my 13 year old Maton Acoustic EM225C (Australian Made) it's tone and colour change as the seasons roll by. I also have a couple of Ibanez electrics (including Fieldy from Korn's signature Bass) A few homemade instruments such as a bamboo flute, some percussive/tonal knick-knacks and I'm currently finishing off a winebox/guitar/electric noise generator thing which will be great for generating atmosphere.

Can you show us some before, middle and end results of, say, bird calls or wind or something that you have used in this way?
Tim: So I recorded this clip early in the morning by the lagoon at my local gardens. With a bit of pitch shifting, EQing, time stretching and effects you end up with something that sounds like the backdrop for a dark, rotting place, designed by death and crawling with all kinds of horrors... all that from a few birds having a chat.

Spoiler

Let's take when you made the ‘Cameltrot’ track as an example. Can you describe the process behind that?
Tim: With Cameltrot, I started on the Piano and borrowed some of the melodies from the Main theme called "Remember Us" (which you can hear in the trailer) to help with continuity. Once I was happy with the overall melodies I recorded them into Ableton as midi clips and began to expand and layer instruments. As you can see below I have three separate strings tracks, all with a specific sound/playing style. The beauty of midi is that it tells the program what notes to play, when and how to play them. That data can then be shared over multiple instruments and adjusted as needed.

I then start arranging the track, where the highs and lows should be. For example down below you can see some empty space both at the start and middle of the track, which shows where I have added or omitted percussion and other busy instruments. If something is feeling too stale or rigid I’ll use automation, to give it a bit more life, this tells any given parameter what to do and when. As you can see I have the Piano track selected and within that track is various effects like Compression, Reverb and an EQ Eight, which are there to add character and sculpt the sound so that they all play nice together.

From there it's just a matter of finalising the arrangement, resampling any audio within the project i want to work on as a WAV file rather than midi and doing a medium mix of all the tracks to get them sitting in their correct frequency ranges/volumes as to not compete with each other. Below you can see some percussion I recorded, chopped and glued back together to get the desired sound. Finally i export everything out as stems, individual or instrument group WAV files for Final mixing and Mastering.

How has it been working on Broken Roads so far, what have you learned along the way - and finally, what are you most looking forward to?
Tim: Working on Broken Roads has been an eye opener into the world of Game Development. I'm not just writing music for the sake of listening but rather to compliment the environment/events happening around the player.

There's been several times that I've had to be reminded of or ask myself "Does this sound or piece of music suit the situation the player is in? Does this distract from the players experience or amplify it? Am I considering the big picture or just getting lost in my own preference of music?"

Writing music has always been such a personal experience, but now I'm thinking about all these other variables, which honestly just makes the task all the more fun. The artwork and stories my teammates are creating have been a big inspiration both professionally and personally.

As a newcomer to the industry it's pretty surreal watching this all come together. I'm looking forward to the finished product, hearing what the fans have to say and hopefully I will have done my part to represent Australia and inspire someone along the way.