Hi everyone. We haven't posted anything in a while, but this is just because we have been working intensively on the game. These days we are doing a lot of working with the architects, integrating their designs with the gameplay. The result is coming out really well -- the architectural designs add tremendously to the feeling of being in a world, and they also give us opportunities to make the puzzles richer. So as we do this the game just keeps getting bigger and more sophisticated.
I'll post something more concrete before too long, but I wanted to at least say something, since it's been a while.
Team-wise, we have just hired two people (a 3D artist and a programmer), and we plan to hire another programmer as well, once his visa clears and he can get into the country. This is a pretty big staffing-up, percentage-wise, and will allow us to make things quite nice. The new folks will be starting over the next couple of months (they need to wind down the things they are working on currently!)
Finally! Talk about saying hi… This guy also updated:
http://www.diygamer.com/2011/10/trip-miegakures-4th-dimension-marc-ten-bosch-interview/
I thought he was dead or something! don’t be like Marc Ten Bosch or Chris Hecker or Jonathan Mak. Does guys don’t report progress for months! and then that leads to people losing interest and thinking you died or that the team split or the game got cancel.
Is good to just say hi and post at least one image per month. I was asking about the architects a while back when you first mention them. I don’t know if I would like to find out what they are working on or look at “before and afters” of structures, but i would like to know about the architects.
Are they *real* architecs or like students? How many are they? Are they expensive? do they draw on paper or do something on 3D like Sketch-Up? Where do they come from, a Company a school? Why are they needed.
Also, show the architects this:
http://vimeo.com/7809605
tell them that this is how the game will end up looking like, If they know about vidya gaems which I doubt they will even play. Also happy halloween! Boo!
Hi Jonathan,
If you are interested there is a website where you can take a lot of architectural ideas: http://www.architizer.com
Thanks for the update :) I’m totally looking forward to seeing what you guys have been up to!
I see you are doing a lot of work there and you enjoy it as well, that’s how things are supposed to be!
I’m sad that Subversion was cancelled. Guys obviously just kept putting in more and more stuff without a solid idea of base gameplay. They said thay had more fun building the game than anyone would have playing it. However, I believe you, Jonathan, that you have more or less clear vision how to shape things up and the same thing won’t happen to The Witness :)
Good luck to you and your whole team!
glad to hear some news!
Great to hear from you again. Looking forward to seeing what you’ve been up to (:
Just curious, where is the programmer from?
Why is your company called Thekla?
“Those who arrive at Thekla can see little of the city, beyond the plank fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures, the wooden catwalks hanging from ropes or supported by sawhorses, the ladders, the trestles. If you ask ‘Why is Thekla’s construction taking such a long time?’ the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down, as they answer ‘So that it’s destruction cannot begin.’ And if asked whether they fear that, once the scaffoldings are removed, the city may begin to crumble and fall to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, ‘Not only the city.’
If, dissatisfied with the answers, someone puts his eye to a crack in a fence, he sees cranes pulling up other cranes, scaffoldings that embrace other scaffoldings, beams that prop up other beams. ‘What meaning does your construction have?’ he asks. ‘What is the aim of a city under construction unless it is a city? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint?’
‘We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over; we cannot interrupt our work now,’ they answer.
Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. ‘There is the blueprint,’ they say.”
Invisible Cities is an excellent book. “Thekla” seems like an odd choice for nomenclature, however – I took it as much more cautionary than inspirational.
Ah, thanks.
Did you get that? Did you understand it? If you did, please explain! IDK WTF that means… I don’t get it, why?
Well, I don’t really know either, but you could say that there is an overlap with building a city not based on a blueprint or traditional model of a city, but the universe. Or something along those lines.
Great to hear it! Hiring new people sounds exciting. Is giving up complete control hard for you?
Anyone who ever thinks they have complete control over anything is fooling themselves…
Finally! The moral behind Braid is revealed.