Making this topic to track our team's progress on THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH US. Enjoy our silly little process here. Our game's design doc can be viewed here, for those curious: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M5Ab-c_-Xx7F5l7XkJroQLFsxGDyEV3E/view?usp=shari...

Best of luck with your games, as well!

Today: Early Script Testing

We've got a basic framework for our story set up! As it turns out, a copypasta you may have heard before provided the perfect test block...

As we work on the script itself, this will be a handy guide for the maximum amount of text on one screen. Very handy for flow and pacing. Highly recommend it. Be it that we went with the creepypasta prompt, it's even a little festive!

We have some audio done, but our composer wants to refine the tracks a bit more. Previews soon!

Today: Characters and Story Outline

We've finalized some names and personalities for the two main characters in our game, and made some headway on the intro phase of the script. The protagonist's name is Camlin, after the river in Ireland; the name happens to mean "crooked line". Our lead writer has many thoughts about crooked lines, rivers, tributaries... lots of intertwining and shifting. History is never a straight line up from "terrible" to "better".

I leave you all with a rough draft of the very first scene:

Today (& Yesterday): New Photos and Audio

Our lead writer and sound designer went for a long hike last night through the Historic Dam Trail in Williamsburg — we didn't add a post for yesterday because we were wayyy too exhausted at 10:30 PM (when we got back). Going out at 7 PM may not have been our best idea!

Despite getting lost and underestimating how fast it would get dark, we took some incredible pictures! Easily over 100. Here's a little preview of them, before any editing...

We might consider making a big pack of our photos as CC0 assets here on Itch for like $5, likely the ones that don't make it into the game itself... we'll see!

Quinn has also finished two full tracks for the game, with two versions each. You can listen to one of them here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ubA7-zrrvo_xVx-T8noKQwnuZZonDvj_/view?usp=shari... We love the melancholy guitar and sustains!

See you tomorrow!

Today: Single Dads

We are making big progress on the script. Luca is trying very hard not to fall in love with the main character's dad, but it's proving to be a very difficult task. 

Photo editing begins, as well! We'll have background images that look much swankier than the raw photographs soon. See you tomorrow!

Five Days Later: Full Draft of Script and Playable Build Soon!

Guess who forgot to update the thread? Oops... thirty lashes with a wet noodle for Luca. We've taken him out behind the shed for his punishment.

Anyway, good news! The first rough draft of our game's script is complete! The real work, of course, is in the revisions. When he's done being thwacked with that noodle, Luca will be combing through the documents to tidy things up.

We also got in touch with an artist named Robert Scuzs of Grasshopper Geography. Robert has created beautiful maps of all the rivers and basins in New England, and graciously allowed us to use his work as part of our game. Here's a small section of his work that will appear in the game...

"Veins" are a recurring image in the narrative as symbols of both life and rivers. Robert's work aligns perfectly with our vision, in that sense.

You may also behold the actual script files, as proof that they exist. Ta-da!

Aaaand as a bonus treat, check out our second unique audio track from Quinn here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a7-fzZsbqCgPop4YJjtn-oK4r6Zfm8L4/view?usp=shari... VERY excited to employ this one in the game itself!

We look forward to sharing snippets of our build soon! Good luck to everyone so far!