Hello there!
I've wanted to keep these Friday Diaries as regular as possible, but sometimes other responsibilities get in the way. I have many fond memories of keeping a devdiary during the development of Kalaban, so I'm trying to continue and evolve that legacy.
Actually, I don't know if I have told the story to the general public where this tradition began. I am sure that I have told the story to my real life friends several times, and they're probably sick of hearing about it. When I was a teenager, 13 years old to be exact, we had this project called 'Final Dimension'. It was going to be a super ambitious open world role-playing game, kinda like the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 with elements from Star Citizen with all the space opera feel.
Comparing to those contemporary projects really gives you an idea how far ahead of our time we were with the concept. And also how infinitely inadequate our skills were to pull it off. We were just kids back then, and didn't know any better. We just figured you could start an ambitious game and you know, just create what ever comes to your mind, and finish it. In a way, looking at things through those childish goggles was a good thing. Unless you've done something, you can't know how hard it is. And most importantly, you are not afraid to try!
During this project I held this devdiary which was called, quite unsurprisingly, 'Friday Diaries'. And it often fell to the same state as my log writing has fallen during the last few months. But that's enough of history recap for you, now on to actual progress we've made with our games.
Poisonous, the game in the gif above, has taken huge leaps forward. The overall story structure is now mostly in place, and the level progression has become more coherent. The game was put on Patreon for all the supporters to play, so anyone can access the current version by becoming our patron. There are still some gaps in the story, and more importantly, the whole experience needs to be fleshed out more before the final release. Maybe we will be adding puzzles in between, or scripted story events, or even NPCs? Who knows at this point, and it's really up for the Patreon supporters to decide.
The Kalaban sequel is moving forward, with new assets and levels being made. It's a long way until the finished game, and we have only gotten to work on the first part of it. In the original plan for Kalaban 1, the story was supposed to take place in the backwater small town, then post-apocalyptic cityscape and then industrial setting after that. Only the first act was created, and we decided to beef up that part with more narrative and interactions with the locals.
All of the different parts, or chapters in Kalaban II, will have to look different and have a different feel. That's something that we are actively working on. The game needs to both fix the areas that the original was lacking in and stand on its own two feet. We feel that the story will at least be different enough from the first one, once we get to implement it.
There will be some repetition in the first chapter in terms of themes and locales, but everything will be seen through fresh eyes. In the end, the sequel will have very few elements from the original story, but it will be recognizable in its gameplay content and similar perspective.
You might be wondering what happened to that project, Final Dimension, that we worked on as teenagers. It actually was turned into a concept called Neurotron, which we have tried to bring into life numerous times. I think there is a lot in that concept in terms of world-building and story, but we have not had a big enough team to bring those visions to life.
Anyways, our horror shooter Poisonous is now available for testers at Patreon, and for only $1 dollar you will get FULL ACCESS to both that game and all the other early builds of our games. For me, that sounds like a reasonable bargain!
> GameRealmMadness at Patreon
- Harri J.
