It’s been a full couple of weeks for me near the beginning of this year – and still, when I got some free time I’ve worked continuously on my video-game.
A Tale Of Madness is now complete. And you can download it FOR FREE.
It’s been a wonderful experience working on something like this. It is not that everyday you wake up and say to yourself – what should I do next? Working on a video-game takes time – lots of time. You don’t just follow a tutorial and voila – the project is done. You will encounter things that will not work – you will create bugs – you will have to build and rebuild the project many times. You will have to set up the story, the characters, the atmosphere, the levels, create the music and find the suitable noises to make a complete multimedia experience out of it.
A Tale Of Madness has reached its final form – version 1.0.16.
Having a number of 5171 direct views, 4780 updates engagements and 11.9k impressions all over the sites I’ve been sharing my project – provided my with a vital information – that I can do better and I should continuously work on this game.
From the game-play videos that people posted on the game’s web pages – I discovered what others are expecting from the game – also what things should be implemented and which functionalities should be polished.
The thing with A.T.O.M. is that I am building it while learning how to work with Unreal Engine. I am using whatever tutorials I can get my hands on – also I’ve bought 7 courses from Udemy to help me learning this tool.
It’s been three weeks since I’ve released the demo for A.T.O.M. – and now the game has reached v 0.0.15.
This means new functionalities, new level areas, previous functionalities which in the demo didn’t seem quite working well, were worked on too.
As previously stated – this game is meant to be an exploration of a confusing world – the player gets in a situation which doesn’t seem right from the very beginning. There is no combat, no complex game functionalities – only an atmospheric experience – created with 3D objects, configuration of light systems, colors and shadows, written notes on panels and audio recordings – which should give the player the proper means to feel anxious – the main scope of the game is to induce a sense of insecurity – to create the fear of not knowing what is actually happening inside the game.
The full game is scheduled to be released somewhere in the first quarter of 2020. An exact date has not been yet decided. More updates to follow.
What I desired through working on a video-game was to create a virtual world – to be able to give an opportunity to engage with an environment that is outside of normality. To create a fictional universe – a story – an idea which the player can access – and live.
And hopefully fear.
I’ve been investing some time after work – and in the weekends – to create this. And now – a demo is coming up tomorrow (25/11/2019).
Honestly I don’t have all the time needed to create it – but I am working in the hours I am able to integrate in my daily schedule. But the project will continue – and another one after it – and so on.
I’ve been focusing on developing stories lately – and I think I can shape these stories into video-games – to have a portfolio of a few titles. That is one of my main goals for the upcoming months.
Below are a list of updated links related to my project.
On a Saturday morning (August 25) I decided to follow some tutorials on Unreal Engine.
Little did I know that the entire day I would be building something that later will become my first indie game – A.T.O.M. – A Tale Of Madness – a horror atmospheric video-game – with a cinematic feeling.
One entire day – like 14 hours or so.
Later in the evening I would have a basic maze, some light configuration, I would know how to set up and create textures and so on.
Little by little – I would add pieces to it – and by now – I am almost ready to release a demo of it.
I have written another article about the game – I Am Making A Game: ATOM – stating how my workflow regarding the project was established.
My game was inspired by titles like Layers Of Fear, SOMA and Noise, for example – games which allow you to travel inside a fictional world and discover the story.
Initially I wanted to write a story in the form of a visual-novel – which is still planned (and it will be a space-horror themed project) but having it in the form of a first-person exploration game – made me think it would be more engaging with the player.
There were days all I wanted was to just sit and play around with the engine – and building this game offered me an insight and some ideas for a future project – I already know it’s name and what it will offer – sometime after I release the demo I will start constructing a basic level for it – to see where this will take me.
What I observed that I like most – it is the level design – offering shape to a virtual world – from your own perspective and how you thought it to be – it feels amazing.
I recently created a website for the game – A.T.O.M. – Official Website. Here you can engage with a summary of the game’s story and listen to one of the soundtrack themes. Also I’ve added it to sites like Itch.io, GameJolt, IndieDB and ModDB – to built up a community interested in my work.
