Welcome to another edition of Walkie-Talk! In a previous post we showed you an image of the inside of Scott’s hut in Antarctica which we used for inspiration. What about the outside of the base camp though?

Here’s an example of what we were thinking of as a base for the exterior look. A pretty classic log cabin, with some useful odds and ends scattered around outside. However, a building like this alone would be a little dull, and we wanted to spice things up a little with some light steampunk elements.


An early version of the base camp viewed in Unity.

And what says steampunk more than pipes? Along with nice chunky windows, the satellite dish antennas, and fuel tanks, our base camp is recognizable while still having a personality of its own. Remember, this isn’t all just eye-candy - you and your partner have puzzles to solve at the base camp.


The base camp area as it looks today!

Here’s the final product! Adding colour makes a big difference, and you can see we removed some of the pipes and tanks from the base camp itself and moved them to a new section, seen in the foreground here. That’s all for now!

There's only one week to go before we release We Were Here Together to the world!

The game will be sold for $12.99. Players of earlier We Were Here games will get a 10% discount. This means if you buy We Were Here Too (which just happens to be 50% off right now) you'll get 10% off We Were Here Together!

We would like to once again express our gratitude to everyone who has joined our alpha and beta tests. Your feedback has been truly invaluable. We split up puzzles into a series of different playtest sessions so as not to give away the plot of the game, and we appreciate the patience from everyone playing in this unusual way! Tester comments have helped us improve the puzzles themselves, how people navigate through the new environments, and to generally polish everything up even more.

By way of saying thanks, we will be granting special custom walkie-talkie skins to all testers! Alpha testers will get a bronze walkie talkie skin and beta testers a silver one. Check them out!


Aren't they beautiful?

Both We Were Here and We Were Here Too are out on Xbox One, where they've had a great reception. Today we can announce that We Were Here Together will also get an Xbox One release! When? We'll let you know as soon as we can!

And you can expect more exciting reveals and activities before release day! Keep up to date on our social media channels as well as here on Steam. There's still time to add We Were Here Together to your wishlist - get a notification when the game launches and make sure not to miss the loyalty discount!

https://youtu.be/ReMEdKmfO3I
The latest entry in the We Were Here series will feature new puzzles, more hours of gameplay, and much more. Here are three notable new features, in picture form!







We’ll be releasing more teasers as we get closer to release, so watch this space!

For those of you with consoles, or console owning friends, we’re happy to announce that the We Were Here series is coming to Xbox One! More specifically:

• We Were Here will be released on September 16th, and will be free to Xbox Live Gold members until October 15th.
  
• We Were Here Too will be released not much later…
  
• And We Were Here Together? Let’s first get it on PC! 😉

For all the latest info on the We Were Here series, you should join our Discord channel (also great for matchmaking!), follow the news on our Twitter or learn more about our team on Instagram!

Last but not least, you can get a taste of the atmosphere with this sweet 360 screenshot!

If you haven't played our second game We Were Here Too, or you have friends who haven't played, or your family hasn't played, or your pets haven't played, or strangers on the street haven't played, everyone can get it now for an 80% discount on Steam!

That's €2, $2, or £1.50!
Way to break the combo, £££.

The game is packed with coop puzzling where creative communication is a requirement! Split up in the ancient Castle Rock, can you and your partner solve the many conundrums in your path and make it out in one piece? Warm up those walkie-talkies and let's find out!


Make new friends! Probably not with this guy.

We have completed another beta testing session, including some in person tests and tests with people who aren't so familiar with the series. Thanks to everyone who took part, we got some great feedback :)

The release is on track for later this year, and we can't wait to share a date with you once everything is finalized - these beta tests mark a major step towards that goal! Now, let's reveal a few more details for you all.

Behold a brand new area of Castle Rock, revealed for the first time! It's also the first time you've got a glimpse of the castle from the outside, at least in-game. As the snowfall becomes heavier, even this dark and imposing place can begin to look like a sanctuary. You might know better, but your hapless characters unfortunately do not...


Are you ready to return to Castle Rock? You have never seen this part of the castle before...

Today's new teaser screenshots also show off the new walkie-talkie model for We Were Here Together - we love it already! See how the walkie-talkies have evolved through the three games so far:


From left to right: We Were Here, We Were Here Too, WWHT supporter gold walkie, and We Were Here Together. Which is your favourite?

Stay tuned to our frequency, as we will have news about the We Were Here series every month from here on out until the release, so keep up to date by keeping an eye on our posts here or on Twitter or Facebook!

We’re looking for a new group of We Were Here Together testers who have NOT participated in any of our previous tests. You’ll be asked to play through a work-in-progress section of the game with a partner, and then fill out an online survey afterwards. You will also need the game to be on your wishlist.

There will be two testing periods, each with a different area of the game to test. We would ask that you and your partner will be able to try both areas.

• First area available between: Thursday 4 July – Sunday 7 July
  
• Second area available between: Thursday 11 July – Sunday 14 July

If you’re interested, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/TVLQofPoDSMvndgT8

You and your partner don’t both need to submit a form, one between you is enough!
If accepted, we will contact you with details of how you can access the beta test via Steam. You will need a GTX 780 / GTX 960m or equivalent graphics card in order to run the beta.

We're looking forward to hearing from you!

It was puzzle and computer game designer Scott Kim who said: ‘My goal as a puzzle designer is to create a meaningful experience for the player, not just 'I solved it.'
It’s a good philosophy, especially when you’re trying to create a game like We Were Here Together, which is about atmosphere and exploration as well as solving puzzles.

Getting the balance right can be a challenge - from one point of view, the We Were Here games are all about puzzles. From another point of view they’re all about leaving your best friend to die, but let’s not get into that right now…

Where do we get our puzzles from? To find out, we talked to one of our designers, Niels de Jong.

Walkie-Talk:
Greeting Niels, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions today! Let’s start with the big one: where do the puzzle ideas for the We Were Here series come from?

Niels de Jong:
We steal them from others of course. ;p
Seriously though, ideas can come from a lot of different places.

An approach we take a lot lately is to do a quick summary of everything we already know about the point in the game we want to create a puzzle for, and then we start throwing ideas at each other. In these brainstorming sessions, we can quickly discuss different options. The advantage of working with three game designers is that you rarely run out of ideas!



We’re able to take this approach because we know what most environments are going to be at this point in development. An example of an environment is the crypt at the start of We Were Here Together. So we start off with knowing it is a crypt-like space, and the general atmosphere we want players to feel. The position of the puzzle in the complete game flow is also important. You don’t want to have several high-pressure puzzles in a row, for example. These limitations are often a source of inspiration.

Can anyone suggest puzzle ideas, or is it just the designers that come up with concepts?

Everyone can suggest ideas! The thing is, it takes more than an idea to get to a functioning puzzle. So while other team members can provide the initial point of inspiration, there is still a lot of work that is mostly done by the design team.

Another thing to note is that while we call most of the things we make puzzles, they do not necessarily have to be puzzles. The game is about playing together first and foremost. So if you are doing something besides solving puzzles together and you’re having a great time, then that’s a win for us!

In my experience, the fun is in trying to figure out how not to fail completely at any given task or puzzle… on a side note, I need to find new, better coordinated friends.
Once you have an idea though, how do you work out the details of a puzzle?

Currently we have a way of pushing puzzles through several stages that are more or less the same for each puzzle. We start off with an initial brainstorm as already described. The next stage is to create a paper prototype of the puzzle. Some puzzles are difficult to paper prototype, so we sometimes skip this step and go straight to the next step: whiteboxing.



After testing the paper prototype and making changes based on feedback from testers, we start bringing the puzzle to the digital medium. This usually involves placing the puzzle elements in a 3D space, thinking about viewing angles and level layout and placing lighting.

After this whiteboxing step, we start preparing the puzzle for alpha testing. By this point, we know the puzzle is playable IF you understand it. Of course, understanding how a puzzle works is part of the challenge. In this step, we mostly focus on adding feedback elements that tell the player how a puzzle works. An example: where before you were “pressing” a cube, there is now has an actual button model and a click-sound plays when you press it.

After adding extra feedback elements, a puzzle goes into an alpha build, where all our lovely alpha testers can give feedback and we can spot any glaring issues.

Do you ever encounter problems turning a puzzle from a paper prototype into a digital form - going from the paper prototype to whiteboxing?

Yes, definitely. It makes a big difference whether you are controlling an avatar in a 3D world or looking at some pieces of paper. When fleshing out initial ideas (the brainstorming part), we try to think about how the puzzle will fit in the digital game, even when we do not immediately test the puzzle digitally.



An example: we were working on a puzzle in a cave. The paper prototype was very doable. But of course, when you’re actually standing in a cramped cave with a wall in front of your nose, you have no overview of the entire level. Having no overview means you cannot plan your moves, which in turn means solving the puzzle becomes much, much harder. We had people who ran around in circles both figuratively and literally, because there was no way to distinguish between separate paths in this cave.

I swear I wasn’t one of those people! On the subject of testing, what is the process for testing out puzzles?

We try to annoy our colleagues as much as possible by regularly asking them to test new puzzles! Because we can sit right next to them, we can improvise and get an idea of what a puzzle would be like, without having to actually make each and every element or have the game enforce every limitation. I think it’s time for me to mention the alpha tests again! Those give invaluable feedback.



Thank you for your time!

So there you have it - puzzles definitely don’t spring into existence fully formed, and it can be a tough process sometimes to make them work at all, no matter how cool the initial idea is. Join us in the next edition of Walkie-Talk to hear more from your favorite studio!

Progress is going great on We Were Here Together! Check out this screenshot from the demo we showed off at EGX... it's probably much cosier than you're used to in the first two games ;)



We also have some great news for your puzzle loving, console owning friends - both We Were Here Too and the original We Were Here are coming to Xbox One! We will share more details about pricing and release dates in the near future - stay tuned.

We just got back from a fantastic time at EGX in London - maybe you came by to play the new We Were Here Together demo, or spotted our t-shirts or beanies around the show!

If you did and you liked what you saw, or if you didn't and are curious, we are delighted to announce that our official merchandise store is live and open for orders! Get walkie-talkie phone cases, warm hats, and t-shirts with Jester artwork right now.


Get hats, t-shirts, and more!

To celebrate, you can now get 15% discount until Aprill 22 with the following code: LAUNCH19


Our stand at the show!

We had such a good time at EGX last year that we are returning to Rezzed London this week! You can find us at our stand SV6B (1-4) in the South Vaults from April 4-6. We have new and unseen puzzles in a new area of the game to show off, so come check it out even if you came by at EGX. Hope to see you there!



Walkie-talkie iPhone cases and We Were Here beanies made their debut at EGX last year, and now you can get one of your own - not to mention new Jester t-shirts!



Development on We Were Here Together is going well, and the feedback from our current testers has been very helpful. So much so that we’re looking to invite a few more people to test our work-in-progress builds of the game! Read all about it in our earlier post!