Weekly Journal - Stupid, Sexy Encounters

Hi everyone,

The quest system refactoring is in full swing this week, as we migrate everything over to the new systems. This means it’s a bit quiet on the western front, but we have also had time to finish up the Xbox One version of the “Hey there good lookin’ update”, which is making its way out to Xbox One players as we speak. You can read the patch notes here!

Narrative Team

Alex

It’s not something we’ve talked about much, but up till now I’ve been on something like a three-quarters time schedule, which has let me write another game last year (Stories: The Path of Destinies) and a few TV scripts. I’ve been bugging Guillaume to bring me on full time, because this is the best work I’ve ever done, and because I can’t stop thinking about it. I am thrilled to report that not only will I be devoting all my time to the game, we are bringing on a new part time writer, Lisa Hunter. She has started working on the barks for She Who Must Not Be Named, as well as her story missions and cinematics.

Last week finished with three, count them three, recording sessions. We brought back the ineffable Julian Casey to play a slew of bobbies. We recorded about a hundred more things for Arthur to say in various situations. And we recorded more of a Character Who Is Very Important To Arthur.

Every hour of recording represents, I’d guess, a dozen hours writing, prepping, editing and integrating for the team and me.

Soon I will edit Arthur’s final scene, and you can see it ... next year.

Meanwhile, I’m working on Arthur’s story missions with David and our increasingly large squad of level designers. We are finally showing the Village islands the love…

Oh, and I’ve written quite a few compliments for the Compliment Machines. I wonder what happens if you reverse their polarity?

Art Team

Sarah

I had a blast making some new PSA posters and Village advertisements this week! Aside from those, it was all UI, baby. I had a nice long discussion about my menu screen mockups with Guillaume and Matt, where we covered a range of aesthetic/functionality Dos and Don'ts. Dos included "do continue to use contrasting shapes and minimalist mid-century graphic design." Don'ts included, but were not limited to, "please don't use that font, my eyes are bleeding," or "I see what you're trying to do here, but please just don't -- my eyes, Sarah. Bleeding." I may be paraphrasing a little, but you get the picture. Having open communication is key to delivering the best possible design, and every "please do" and "good God don't" brings us one step closer to a finalized design that we can all be proud of. Lucky for us, we also have the wonderful Morgan in the office this week to help steer the next phase of the UI functionality, and contribute even more deeply valued feedback.

All that being said, I'm still going to withhold those UI mockups until they are safe* to share with you, and share some of those safety PSAs instead. With so many dangers (allegedly) linked with handling and distributing Motilene, we here at Compulsion Games have made it a priority that the Wellies remember to equip themselves with the necessary safety equipment, should the wonder fuel of the future happen to leak onto their faces or whatever. Safety first, kids.

*Please refer to Guillaume's bleeding eyes

Design Team

Adam

Hello all! I’m the newest member of the level design team this week. Over the past 5 days, I have been re-working one of the quests into the “new quest system” which makes things a LOT easier on us… But I also felt like updating the layout of the land as well, so here is an image of the new & improved “If you give a pig a pancake”.

It’s been fun banging my head against the desk figuring out the ins and outs of Unreal 4.

Mike

Hey guys! This week I worked with the animators on polishing existing character driven encounters (like A Terrible Life, Walkabout, Mushroom Logs...) New underground level:

This is going to exist somewhere under the Village. You can find some good loot in there if you keep your eyes open ;) … Just make sure you’re not in the water when the electricity turns on! Take care everybody!

Vince

This week was mostly re-scripting encounters over to the new quest system, and while I was on that, I also added some functionality and/or events to a few encounters that we felt could be improved, so there will be a few surprises here and there when you play those encounters again :)

Besides that, I also tweaked a few things in the Village Houses while Marc-André is updating the art for them, making sure they are still functional and ready for our next update!

Animation Team

Vincent

This week has been mostly about encounters! Yes, the encounter boat finally landed on the animation shores, so expect to (hopefully) enjoy some enhanced realization soon! Marc & Matt have been working hard lately to provide tools to help us make those tasks less complicated for our tiny animator brains. Hopefully we’ll manage!

Part of the work is reviewing all the quests and finding what to improve, and how… and if we can find clever ways to make some of the animations reusable, well… Optimisation, j’écris ton nom, as Paul said. I think.

Thanks for tuning in!

Compulsion Games

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