THE FORTRESS

Greetings, Andreia here!

The Game Design challenge has begun and my first contact with all the team members was (so far) by facebook chat. We changed ideas and they told me all about the game. It was really easy to catch up with it. Even knowing that we don’t have all the things defined yet, if you’re into solving puzzles, a good and mystery story, social simulation or exploring everything around, this is surely a must read… Stick with us!

The team behind the game development

Before going into detail of what’s going on, I’ll let you with a short presentation of the team:

“Hey! I'm hopefully in the last year of my masters and currently implementing my thesis about integrating a social AI architecture on a AAA video game, Conan Exiles. I'm very passionate about my hobbies which include gaming (this one was probably obvious), reading manga and watching anime, playing classical guitar (I've been doing it for 12 years) and practicing Aikido (I'm on my 4th year). I'm more of a singleplayer gamer and love games that "do their thing", like the Metal Gear Solid series. I do enjoy playing multiplayer games like Counter Strike or Overwatch if I'm doing it with friends.” – Luís

“Hello there! I am a student that is now beginning the master thesis project about personalized game reviews evaluation for video games through the player's personality. My passion are the boardgames such as Catan, Stone Age or even Dungeons & Dragons. But I also like video games such as Skyrim, Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3 or even Far Cry Primal. Nowadays I am working on a medieval fantasy boardgame that I created and is already registered. Once a week I do volunteering in a dog shelter in União Zoófila and I also play volleyball. During the past two years I developed a mobile game powered by HP, named Steel & Magic.” – Miguel

“Hi there, everyone! I came up with the original idea for the game in late 2016, when I was taking my Game Design course in Instituto Superior Técnico. Right now I'm finishing my Masters Degree courses, with my thesis following soon after. My main hobby is video games. I mostly enjoy Japanese RPGs, rhythm games, adventure games, as well as any game with a focus on story and character development. Some examples of my favourite games include the Persona series, the Pokémon series, and the Metal Gear Solid series.” – André

“Yosh, Andreia here! I’m in the first year of my master’s degree, trying to survive without losing hope! I’m passionate about game design, illustration and storytelling, and that’s the focus of my main projects and hopefully my thesis at some point. In my free time (please come back) I like reading, watching anime and playing video games (as you imagined). My favourites are Child of Light, Transistor, Danganronpa and The Walking Dead (Telltale Games). I’m mostly at home but if it is Sunday, I’ll probably be out finding some free museum or exhibition to go to.” - Andreia

The Fortress

A man wakes up at the entrance of a forest fortress, with no recollection

of how he got there. A mysterious woman is also there.

She offers only her name: “42”.

The game plays like a 16-bit JRPG (¾ perspective view, sprite-based graphics, similar to the Pokémon video games) but without any fighting involved. So, what are you going to do? You’re going to explore every nook and cranny, and solve puzzles using both characters to progress further.

Beat the puzzle in each floor to unlock the next one; some of them require two people, so you’ll need to (interchangeably) control both the man and 42 in order to progress. Interact with 42 when game events are triggered, and increase or decrease your bond with her. If 42 likes you she may be willing to share more about her and cooperate to solve the puzzles. If she doesn’t like you, she might even sabotage your progress.

Aesthetics

All the JRPGs usually have a similar look, with sprites that resemble anime characters. We want to deviate from this tendency.

Influences

The main influences of The Fortress are:

Persona series - (social system and interactions);

The Last of Us - (rewarded exploration and relationship building with a partner);

Pokémon series - (exploration that leads to unexpected discoveries);

Lufia II - (separation of puzzles and story moments);

INSIDE - (puzzles, adventure and storytelling).

See you in April 15th!

March 30th 2018

Hello again!

Since the first post not that much has changed. At the moment the game has some puzzles made and next monday (16th April) the IST students are preparing a workshop to present them to the public. I’ll be there not only testing it but also to understand what they have in mind about the story of the game, characters and (hopefully) after that I can start to draw something with a solid base.

For now I’m mainly concerned in exploring some art styles that fit the dark thematic of the game, while trying to understand what I can or cannot do.

The logo for the game is in progress and the ideas are coming up! Next time I’ll have a lot more to show, that’s for sure!

April 15th 2018

Hello there!

Since the last post, as I said it would happen, at the workshop all the team members have met (in person) for the first time... and we have proof of it!

Before we talk about the story behind The Fortress I had a whole different idea than when I left the IST. I can actually say that the meeting totally changed the way I saw the game. The story promises to evolve through time in a such way that it will make The Fortress an immersive game with a great plot-twist. Along with the alternative endings, it will make it a must “play again”!

If you were waiting me to tell you the details... I’m sorry but you’ll have to play it at MOJO!

After the end of the workshop both characters, the man and 42, had a detailed personality and traits to work on. With this said, all the work of this 2 weeks went through understanding the process behind the creation of the characters, and the actual creation (sketching, drawing and painting) of 42. I would say that I never enjoyed spending so much time in Photoshop.

The final work (as you can see below) was a static and kinda rigid pose and along with it I made some facial expressions. All this elements will be used to indicate (visually) not only who is talking, but also to help the player understand the impact some social choices have in 42. The full character won’t appear, only the head and torso.

The other character, the man, is in development at the moment and thanks to the great feedback about 42 I have green light to start making her sprites!

Wish me luck!

See you next time!

April 30th 2018

Hey, I’ve brought you the new update!

Since the last time (I only had 42 conceptual art done) I made some progress and now I have more work to show you. At this moment I have the conceptual art of the male character of The Fortress created and also some of the facial expressions needed for the game.

1/5

The already known 42 (created in time for the last post) can now present herself in a more expressive way. Yay!

1/6

The sprites also gained life and are now in the game! I have to admit it, at the first try I forgot how small they were and ended up adding them more details than they could handle at that size. When I zoomed out it was easy to understand it wasn’t a good idea. Ah, always learning!

With all of this done, I met with the group and thanks to them, the interface gained a new look and I could see my art in action.

Menu Screen

May 15th 2018

GO BACK

And the doctor that only appears at the end of the game was created!

In Game

Ilustrações dos finais

Créditos

And with the faith of understanding how tiles work I ended up doing a few of them. Doing them all would be impossible for me because of the time I ended up taking just doing this ones. Still a funny try.

Even not understanding the most part of it, having the opportunity to see (a little) how they work with the RPG Maker MV was really interesting. They are doing an amazing job and the game is getting more interesting day after day!

MOJO is coming. I wish I could have more time to do the work in the best way possible, they really deserve that! Let’s do our best and see how it ends!

Today i’m writing the most difficult post of them all. I have no idea how to describe this incredible day. There are no words to match the feelings!

The night before was full of work and the hours of sleep were none. Even so, the enthusiasm was at maximum, but like anytime something important is about to happen, the apprehension followed by side. It was the first time I saw Tagus Park. So far from central Lisbon, and so big. A really amazing place.

The day before MOJO Miguel printed out the poster, the deliverables and the portraits of the characters. I saw the photos, but it was nothing like seeing it in front of me, like for real! We finished our set up and I felt like it was going to be a huge step to the game that, until now kept in a small environment, was finally going to present itself in public!

The day started slowly but soon people started to come and play the game. The game took an average of thirty minutes for everyone to finish the five levels until they saw one of the three endings awaiting for them. As the game started it was amazing to see how they were immersed in the game, like some magic had happened, one after another, entering into the world of The Fortress! Since that moment all the reactions were so sincere and for us so priceless to see. Each smile, each moment of frustration while dying in the last puzzle of the game, each expression of realisation after reaching the ending.

After the end of the game came the compliments. One after another filling our hearts at the fullest. For me, a person always passionate about games, their story and their art, I can say it was one of the best experiences in my life. Never thought I would be able to be part of one and now that I’ve done it, I’m still not believing it yet. When you don’t have an education directed for drawing it is really hard to look at your work and see what it really is worth. Now I have a lot of more motivation, and more than that, the confidence to keep improving myself in something I love to do.

I had the luck of meeting the most amazing people that could be by my side in this adventure, without a doubt! In my opinion our personalities match really well and it was a pleasure to be with them every single moment. They have not only a creative mind full of amazing ideas, but also the focus and commitment necessary to make them the hard-working persons they are, something difficult to find nowadays. Miguel, Luís and André you guys are awesome, never forget it! We still have to celebrate.

With all this said, the only thing missing is thanking my teacher Patrícia Gouveia who gave us the opportunity to participate in this initiative, without forgetting all those involved in the organization of MOJO and the other teachers who helped with the game.

From now on, the right place to follow the news will be the game website.

https://mdj2.webnode.pt/

Feel free to contact us.

See you next time!