So we released the very first trailer for our game last week. Everyone seems to dig the 2D intro and I think most of us can agree that the 3D stuff still has a ways to go. Originally we were just going to drop the 2D flash trailer. It’s a nice intro to the world. We see the “Startling Developments Detective Agency” and we get a feel for how Gabe and Tycho fit into the story. Tycho the learned world traveler reading at his desk with his Tommy gun resting in his lap. Gabe… punching something. We were worried though that people might think this was going to be a 2D game if that’s all they saw. So we decided at the last minute to attach some of the 3D work we’ve got. It’s extremely early and it’s missing some effects like cell shading and a few others.In retrospect we probably should have held of showing it but we were excited and we jumped the gun a bit. We still have a lot of work to do in order to really define the look of the game. If nothing else, the clockwork fruit fucker at the end seems to have struck the right note with most of you so I’m glad we included him in the trailer. Since he seems to be such a hit I thought I’d share the original concept art I did for him. This is an example of what I send over to Hot Head.
I got a lot of mail asking if I actually drew the 2D part which makes me super happy, since I didn’t. There’s a lot of 2D animation in the game but I’m not actually drawing it. I’m storyboarding the entire thing and I’m providing lots of character drawings but I’m not actually drawing the animated scenes myself. That’s being handled by a flash studio and I really think they did a great job with Gabe and Tycho. They’re not super hard to draw or anything but in order to make them look exactly like I draw them it’s actually a pretty complicated job. Here’s a style guide I created for the animators to help them with their Gabe drawing.
It’s sort of crazy how many little details go into making each character look “right”.
We’ve created a new forum for you all to discuss the game. I’ll also be in there whenever I can, answering questions and providing updates. In fact there is a special Q&A with me today so hit this trhead if you want to join in. I thought I’d run down some of the information we’ve released so far in case you missed it.
-The game will allow you to create your own custom penny arcade character. This character will join a party with Gabe and Tycho. So you play with PA characters instead of as them.
-The game is a RPG/Adventure. We’ve got no random battles but beyond that the cobat takes inspiration from classic RPG's.
-There is no voice acting in the game. I’m not sure we could ever find voices that everyone would like and so we chose to go with text bubbles and character portraits instead.
I can also tell you that the game will sell for under twenty bucks. We’re not making Final Fantasy XIII here. We’re making a funny and fun to play game that fans of the comic should really enjoy. It’s our goal to make something that even people who don’t read PA can pick up and have fun with as well but the fact is, not everyone can appreciate a masturbating robot.
-Gabe out
