KickStarter STASIS 2: BONE TOTEM - new isometric adventure in Stasis universe set in deep sea installation

[Infinitron]

https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/2021/06/17/conversation-editor

CONVERSATION EDITOR

When we created STASIS, CAYNE and BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION we relied on third party tools to create the conversation trees in these games. Unity does have several solutions for a node based editor but these all require the Unity editor to actually work on the files. This poses a problem for Chris as he doesn’t use Unity, it also excludes translators from viewing the conversations in a conversation graph format.

JSON OUTPUT

I initially used JSON which is a commonly exported format from most graphing tools. I personally find JSON to be very messy and painfully difficult to use when any complexity is applied. My chosen format is always CSV. Comma Separated Value files can be opened by many tools, including Excel and Google docs. CSV files are easy to understand and read and we have found that most translators also prefer it.

I also wanted a tool that could merge all the csv files that represent each conversation into a single file that would be easier for a translator to work with.

CSV OUTPUT

Keeping this all in mind I could not find a third party solution for this and I was tasked with making this tool on our own.

 

[Pyke]

The tool is VERY cool. Nic is even downplaying all of the things he is adding to it. It even outputs a readable script for the voice artists. I've been wanting a tool like this for AGES. It's awesome to finally have one!

EDIT - I forgot - today he showed me a system he is adding in to actually alter the games variables with the tool - so I could 'technically' do some very light programming in it. And because it reads from external files, it's all editable IN the game itself. So I can literally play the game, edit the conversations, and test them out in the live game.

 

[lightbane]

Finally you have a proper dialogue tree. Where's my new demo though?

 

[Pyke]

Finally you have a proper dialogue tree. Where's my new demo though?

We were gonna update the demo - but because we have added so much to the game, updating things like VO and cinematics right now would put a big spanner in the works.

Small things like updating the character models have a knock-on effect to the cinematics. We've also played with how some systems work, which means we need all new dialogue written and recorded to work with the new systems and updated puzzles. Because it's cheaper and better to do all dialogue towards the end of production, we decided to pause the demo and instead focus on getting the game done.

I've almost finished all of the scene graphics for the game (Moses is 100% complete - Charlie and Mac each have around 12 screens to do) - and then I'm moving onto writing for a bit while Nic carries on with making the actual game. :D

 

[Grotesque]

so how is game development done in South Africa nowadays?

anymore gas at the pump for those generators?

 

[Neuromancer]

Kind of thinking the same.

Are you OK, guys?

 

[Pyke]

We're alive and kicking. Cape Town was relatively isolated from a lot of the violence (for historical reasons, and a host of other social ones!). We are also in the middle of some quite extreme cold weather - which has kept a lot of people indoors. Even in our poorer areas, they actually had protests AGAINST the looters, with community representatives going to shopping centers and ensuring them that there wouldn't be violence. South Africa is a weird place man.

I have friends with businesses in Joburg central that got hit pretty bad tho.

The strangest thing out of all of this was that the taxi association - which is as close to an organized crime syndicate as SA has, came out in force against the looting. They were using their own taxi's to form blockades of certain malls, even going door to door of known looters and making them return the stolen goods.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The strangest thing out of all of this was that the taxi association - which is as close to an organized crime syndicate as SA has,

Wait what

 

[Pyke]

Oh man - strap in!

SO South Africa has terrible public transport. Cape Town recently got a pretty good bus service in, but in general, our government-run transport is shocking. But because transport is such a big thing in South Africa (with most of our population not able to live close to work - cos where the work is, the rents are too high), they rely on minibus taxis for transport. I think it's something like 60% of road commuting in SA is done via Taxi. Historically this is because, while it was 'illegal' to operate a taxi under the apartheid government, they didn't provide the black population any alternative means of transport - so the people relied on local illegal taxi's.

The industry has existed in SA since the 1970's. There is a lot of history about them trying to become a legally recognized industry - but the pre 94 and post 94 governments honestly both screwed the pooch terribly with them.

Because it's an unregulated industry, lots of smaller drivers got together to form quite loose organizations to decide who got what taxi route. These organizations grew, and other competing drivers started their own organizations. Eventually, they actually had a war going on about which organization got access to which route. The routes are EXTREMELY lucrative.
These organizations were basically gangs. After a while, they started to resort to mafia-style tactics. Hitmen, bombings of headquarters, financing of smaller local gangs to act as enforcers. And because a multi-billion dollar industry, these wars had HUGE financial backings.

They have tried repeatedly to regulate the taxi industry, but because it doesn't actually have a governing 'body', and nobody speaks for the industry, it's nigh impossible to do. Essentially if the taxi industry decided to go on strike, the entire countires economy would shut down. Imagine if tomorrow, 60% of your countries people couldn't get to work overnight. Honestly, I would be scared if they organized too much. Its fragmented nature is the only thing stopping them from having too much power.

So you can imagine how big it is in SA to have the various taxi associations actually come together and band AGAINST looters and rioters - and work WITH the cops. It they arrive at your house, it's the same as the mafia knocking on your door. Basically, you do what they tell you, or they will probably kill you.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

That was more interesting to read than 98% of RPGs. Please continue.

 

[lightbane]

I was going to say to write a story about daily South Africa as a game, but you somewhat did that already in B. Desolation.

 

[Pyke]

I have a mate who was making a game about starting up a taxi company in SA. It was very cool - you had to dictate taxi routes and eventually go to war with other taxi companies. He never finished it - but the idea was solid. Sort of like a mix between a soccer management game but with a crime syndicate.

 

[Pyke]

Took these for our new composer for a brief - thought you way wanna check em out!

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/2021/07/23/stasis-screenshots-july-2021/

STASIS ][ SCREENSHOTS – JULY 2021

 

[DeepOcean]

Oh man - strap in!

SO South Africa has terrible public transport. Cape Town recently got a pretty good bus service in, but in general, our government-run transport is shocking. But because transport is such a big thing in South Africa (with most of our population not able to live close to work - cos where the work is, the rents are too high), they rely on minibus taxis for transport. I think it's something like 60% of road commuting in SA is done via Taxi. Historically this is because, while it was 'illegal' to operate a taxi under the apartheid government, they didn't provide the black population any alternative means of transport - so the people relied on local illegal taxi's.

The industry has existed in SA since the 1970's. There is a lot of history about them trying to become a legally recognized industry - but the pre 94 and post 94 governments honestly both screwed the pooch terribly with them.

Because it's an unregulated industry, lots of smaller drivers got together to form quite loose organizations to decide who got what taxi route. These organizations grew, and other competing drivers started their own organizations. Eventually, they actually had a war going on about which organization got access to which route. The routes are EXTREMELY lucrative.
These organizations were basically gangs. After a while, they started to resort to mafia-style tactics. Hitmen, bombings of headquarters, financing of smaller local gangs to act as enforcers. And because a multi-billion dollar industry, these wars had HUGE financial backings.

They have tried repeatedly to regulate the taxi industry, but because it doesn't actually have a governing 'body', and nobody speaks for the industry, it's nigh impossible to do. Essentially if the taxi industry decided to go on strike, the entire countires economy would shut down. Imagine if tomorrow, 60% of your countries people couldn't get to work overnight. Honestly, I would be scared if they organized too much. Its fragmented nature is the only thing stopping them from having too much power.

So you can imagine how big it is in SA to have the various taxi associations actually come together and band AGAINST looters and rioters - and work WITH the cops. It they arrive at your house, it's the same as the mafia knocking on your door. Basically, you do what they tell you, or they will probably kill you.

Hummm...

Taking ideas for my cyberpunk RPG... yes... gangs of taximen with chainsaws firebombing bus stops to take out the competition... corporations paying taximen gangers to protect their stuff against other gangsters... really fit... they work transporting people to corporate malls and on their free time they they take baseball bats to beat the shit of other taximen...

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/2021/08/26/what-we-have-been-up-to/

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO
I sincerely hope you and your loved ones are safe in these turbulent times.

I’m excited to update you on the progress of STASIS 2 – BONE TOTEM!

GRAPHICS

Once we’ve decided on how the puzzle works, it can take several days to design and illustrate the associated scenes. A puzzle may span several large screens, so all of the rooms have to be planned and detailed concurrently to ensure that the puzzles and interactions will work. We also have to take into account that our puzzle solutions will often involve multiple characters in different areas. STASIS 2 features character switching like the classic adventure game, Day of the Tentacle.

Working with our 3D technician, Mark, who is a 40-year veteran architectural expert, made all the difference in BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION. Structures actually worked as they would in real life (that is until Chris made them look post-apocalyptic). His work on the new STASIS game is fantastic and brings a real-world ‘this could exist?’ edge to the imagery.

Here are some elements for a yet-to-be-revealed part of the story.

Spoiler

Chris is working on the final chapter of Mac and Charlie and so the gameplay is heating up! We have connected most of the game environments together which means you can traverse from one side of the world to the other. Specific puzzle implementation (ie. puzzle code!) will only happen once all screens are completed.

We are trying to find a balance between the familiar world of STASIS and something new and interesting as you can see in these screenshots.

GAMEPAD

Nic has been hard at work implementing native gamepad control – a first for our games – which has not been an easy task, as the scope of reference for gamepad controlled point-and-click adventures is little to none. We considered the ‘virtual cursor’ method that would be easiest in so far as you have a cursor that the player can move with the gamepad. However, this seems like we’re losing a great opportunity to explore a different player interface mechanic. Our games have always been a disadvantage as compared to their 3D first-person counterparts, as we need to rely on the players’ other senses to form for immersion. The mouse control forms a disconnect whereas the gamepad is a direct control input of the character which could be interesting to explore. We also don’t want to isolate our mouse-only players so it is a fine line to balance.

Bearing this in mind, we also have our limitations as essentially a two-man studio. We did it! You can now hot-swap the gamepad and mouse, and STASIS will play as per normal. The systems are also similar so it means less duplicated code to do the same tasks. This may make future console releases quicker and more seamless to our own internal development QA.

MUSIC

As you know, we pride ourselves on only working with the best. We have a surprise for you, but it shall only be revealed later. It’s epic!

WRITING

Daniel has been hacking away at the text descriptions in the world. Whereas we dedicated a month to write the descriptions in the previous STASIS game, Daniel has now spent the better part of the year writing and crafting each description. He is an immensely talented professional RPG writer and I am sure you will love his prose!

WISHLIST

Please wishlist the game if you have not already. This is important for the Steam metrics when we launch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426010/STASIS_BONE_TOTEM/

INTERVIEWS

We had the pleasure to chat about video games with Jay Taylor. If you would like to listen to us chat about game development on “The Sausage Factory”, please do so here: https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/2021/08/09/game-design-beautiful-desolation-podcast/

POST MORTEM WITH VICE

Vice.com had a chat with us about BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION and you can read about the challenges of making this unusual game: https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5...-rationing-water-and-amidst-rolling-blackouts

MERCH

At long last we have shirts and hoodies for you to grab, visit: https://merch.thebrotherhoodgames.com/

BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION

If you haven’t checked out DESOLATION lately, we have updated it to 1.0.6.7 B which now includes POLISH as an additional language option!

https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/store/

SOCIALS

Be sure to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StasisGame and we keep our Blog updated with minor news here: https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/

Oh, and join our Discord – we love to chat!

https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.com/studio/discord

Take care,

Chris & Nic

 

[Pyke]

Im almost done with all the ingame graphics - so have been experimenting with how far I can push the cinematic renders. Here is a frame from the redone intro sequence.

 

[fabrulana]

Dang that looks good man!

 

[Pyke]

Thanks mate! I REALLY wanna push myself on all aspects of the game - so going for broke here!

 

[lightbane]

That looks like a proper woman, compared to the hideous monsters you see in "cinematic western games".

 

[agris]

Thanks mate! I REALLY wanna push myself on all aspects of the game - so going for broke here!

Looks really good. Are you getting help on the SFX side? I remember that was a bit of a struggle in BD, the audio for the cinnies was a bit lacking.

 

[Pyke]

Cineamtics are always a hard one - because its very much a cost/benifit thing. Like - I could spend a month on one 10 second shot - and it could be the most AMAZING 10 seconds I've ever produced... but from a production POV it's useless if the game needs 30 cinematic sequences. So I have to take certain shortcuts. The biggest one is turning off GI for the renders. So GI (Global Illumination) is really what makes 3D renders look 'real'. Its the light bouncing around off each surface, or inside human skin - but it takes a stupid amount of time to calculate. My constant battle is always 'Quality VS Render Time'. Honestly, rendering and getting those times down probably takes up 90% of the time in actually MAKING cinematics for our games.

But I've deleved into Unreal 5 recently, and its pretty fucking amazing. Like its rendering engine is alien technology that shouldn't exist. So I'm hoping that with me being able to claim back that 90% of time - I can really polish up the cinematic sequences.

At one point we were considering scrapping them altogether - but honestly, they are the reason I wanted to make games. I wanted to be a cinematics artist - I almost feel that our games wouldnt be 'mine' if they didn't have these prerendered animations.

 

[lightbane]

I wanted to be a cinematics artist - I almost feel that our games wouldnt be 'mine' if they didn't have these prerendered animations.

Be careful to avoid becoming a David Cage clone and do "movie-games" that are completely non-sensical.

 

[Duraframe300]

I wanted to be a cinematics artist - I almost feel that our games wouldnt be 'mine' if they didn't have these prerendered animations.

Be careful to avoid becoming a David Cage clone and do "movie-games" that are completely non-sensical.

Depends on Pyke 's fetishes.

For example how does he feel about showers?

 

[Pyke]

I wanted to be a cinematics artist - I almost feel that our games wouldnt be 'mine' if they didn't have these prerendered animations.

Be careful to avoid becoming a David Cage clone and do "movie-games" that are completely non-sensical.

I don't have the budgets nor the inclination to make 'cinematic games' like that. I quite like the idea of 90's Cinematics - where it was done as a reward for doing something cool. :D