I keep track of all the comments on the site, but I watch the comments for the Grief demo particularly closely, because it’s the project that stands as the most important to me. Company did extremely well and got me a fair bit of recognition, and a lot of that is due to extensive testing and feedback from Average Joe, the very best and most influential member of my audience.
(For those just joining us, Average Joe is anyone and everyone in my audience. That includes you.)
Something that comes up here and there is the green square that you play as in the current demo. A lot of people seem to think that this is actually the art for the character (Henry) in the game. As it stands, I haven’t locked in a character artist for Grief, so I don’t have an nicely animated man running around, and instead, all we get is a lovely little placeholder graphic, which is the green rectangle.
Way back at the beginning of my work on Company, I used similar placeholder art for the character, Jack. Instead of green, he was a red rectangle. The same assumptions were made back then–People thought that the red rectangle was the final character art, and I had to explain myself, much like I’m doing now.
So, then, here’s The Point: As with everything in the Grief demo, the character graphic isn’t final. Even the things that already look “good” (backgrounds, crates, effects, etc) aren’t final. It’s all going to change in some way or another before the game is released. And as it stands, there’s no story or puzzle solving in the demo, but of course, they’ll be in there eventually. And yes, the gun fits into the story. And no, this isn’t a shooter. For a more detailed explanation, check the beginning of this post.
Breach is close to finished, now, as is YFYIAR. They both are mainly just missing sound. YFYIAR also needs a sponsor, but it’s understandably difficult to find one–The game is pretty risky from a business perspective, just because it’s a text game. If you’re a sponsor with some cojones, be sure to give me a ring.