Apr 30, 2021

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Matt_Anshar

After a very exhausting March, we knew April wouldn’t be easy. There is no time to waste as we’re entering the last phase before finalizing the locations and cases before the polishing kicks in. What was going on with Gamedec in April? Check it out below!

First and foremost – we are grateful for all of the feedback we have collected from the backer’s build #2 survey — lots of great ideas and reasonable points on making Gamedec even better. We hear you – the UI needs tweaking, and we’re on it!

We have spent a considerable part of April finishing some of the locations, whether about filling them with sounds, animations, or just optimizing the graphics. As you can see below, Twisted & Perverted Virtualium gained a lot of depth when our sound design team added some cool sounds to the build.

While working on the SFX, we wanted to pump up the VFX as well, but it’s not on a location we’re ready to show you because it might contain massive plot spoilers for those who don’t want to know a lot more than they should before starting the proper game in September.

Let’s take a look at how our Gamedec will look in one of its Virtualium costumes.

In terms of new things, we’re working hard on customizing the UI for each of the Virtualias so that you won’t feel dragged out of the immersion. Every virtual world will have its character matched with UI elements, which will supplement the theme & genre as a whole.

Feeling tired? Had a bad day? Hop on one of the couches just like our Gamedec does. But there’s more! New animation will make it smoother and more realistic than you saw in the demo. Want to take a look?

One more thing. We decided to withdraw the free demo. We've heard your feedback and indeed, the threshold to enter the second demo was too high, and the players were thrown into the further part of the story where, without knowledge of the lore and mechanics, the game could be hard to pick up. We have taken your comments to heart and will try to straighten things out.

But don't lose hope because, for the time of certain events, we're going to release an extended version (which was previously released to the Kickstarter backers), with a completely new location to explore and adding additional gameplay time with unique conversations and deductions.

And this concludes our changelog. April was very exciting, and we cannot wait to show you guys what we have planned for May! See you in the next changelog!

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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.

Stay safe!

Apr 20, 2021

About Gamedecverse #5: Everyday life in the 22nd century [Part II]

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Matt_Anshar

Last time we presented an article about everyday life that covered Social Media, Privacy, and what a typical day of 22nd century Warsaw City looks like, and now, it's time for some fun stuff - weddings!

We know that the cities are closed, and nature is dangerous, but modern problems come with current solutions. People play in sensory worlds, so a big no-brainer is that some would like to get married the same way. We've prepared a piece on that topic, so you can better understand the trends and customs of Gamedecverse. Enjoy!

Weddings

After the Pharma Nanolabs company introduced ways to overcome the limitations of brain and body to the market and humanity embarked on the fragrant road to immortality, questions began to be asked about the wisdom of "lifelong" weddings. Starting with celebrities, people began to return to the pagan custom of temporary marriages (e.g., for one year). But one step at a time: how do you get married in the GamedecVerse, and where do you spend your honeymoon?

Wedding ceremony

In the GamedecVerse, an entire relationship can be entered into only virtually, for example, in Paradise Beach, with an NPC, and entirely virtual children can be born from this union.
A virtual union can also be entered into by an organic man with an organic woman (gay and lesbian couples can also enter into such relationships) and decide to have only virtual children.
A virtual relationship can be combined with a real relationship. Virtual children are "fathered" independently of real children (if the couple chooses to have real children).
Generally, there are three options regarding the wedding and the marriage.

Virtual Wedding

The cheapest and by far the most attractive in terms of spectacle. Guests don't have to leave or come anywhere because they sit in their apartments. They lie down on their beds. After a while, they are in a fairy-tale setting of a fairy-tale wedding. Only imagination sets the limits (although so does your wallet. Organizers of virtual weddings make you pay for every extra set of fireworks, decorations, rays, etc.). Wedding venues are usually located in extremely spectacular places: on hanging rocks, mountain tops, cosmic asteroids, and often these are dynamic (more expensive) locations: space stations speeding through flaming meteorites, basalt pillars rising to infinity, etc.

Guests hand "envelopes" to the bride and groom, which are automatic wire transfers to the newlyweds' account. After passing through a line of dragons / saluting giants / stargate-type rings, everyone sits down behind tables (sometimes these tables float in the air) and consumes unrealistic but delicious dishes. Then they get drunk and dance until they drop. Such a wedding can last for two and three days. It is recommended not to exceed this time because drinking and eating, although virtual dishes, over-stimulates the autonomic nervous system, promoting more intense work of the intestines and secretion of urine into the bladder.

The memories and pholos of such events are unforgettable, and those who attend cannot wonder why others choose weddings hooked on the real thing.

The moment of getting up from the bed can indeed be disappointing, but the custom is that the newlyweds lie on the bed next to each other (hence the tradition that if there is only one bed in the groom's or bride's place, another one should be bought before the wedding).

Augmented Reality Wedding

The most expensive and the most exclusive kind of wedding. If you want to show the world that you're rich and fabulous, throw your kid an "augmented" wedding. Your kid will love you, your friends will hate you (out of envy), and the world will comment. The rule for such a wedding is one: no guests are allowed without glasses/lenses, and everyone must have a program uploaded, [for example "Wendy & Jack Happy Wedding Day (It's today! Hooooray!)"] before leaving home and traveling to the wedding venue.

Weddings are generally held outdoors (in a regulated poly climate, there is no risk of rain, unless we're talking about a thunderstorm holiday), on wedding walking platforms (these are special platforms. Some of them - the cheapest - also run on regular days, but their layout is adapted to weddings and receptions). Dedicated Wedding Walking Platforms look like something taken out of a fairy tale: castles, palaces, as if flying fragments of amusement parks, but decorated relatively tastefully. For the time of the wedding, such a platform usually leaves the center of the polis and flies to the perimeter, outside the ring of ropes, to provide guests with more freedom and (relative) silence. Sometimes it flies far from the city, but this is rather when the newlyweds' parents have a lot of money.

During the ceremony, guests see the real thing, complete with virtual decorations (moving sculptures), colors (rays from the sky), sounds (heavenly choirs), and people/creatures (flying angels, birds, dragons, etc.). The guests themselves are also "decorated" virtually, according to the rules of the wedding so that they can be dressed in gold (although in reality, they are wearing other colors), they can have feathers stuck in their heads, colorful sheets, veils, etc. can follow them. Of course, the food at such receptions is real, which doesn't mean that its color or smell isn't augmented. The custom is that anyone of the uninvited guests who comes within 500 yards of the celebration is offered to upload a program so they can see the true splendor of the festival. In many cases, onlookers are blocked from shooting pholos of such an event, which is somewhat understandable.

No augmentations Wedding

For snobs and connoisseurs of reality and for those who generally don't give a damn about anything.

How does it look? A celebration like today: a hotel for lovers somewhere within the anti-bios barriers, many of which are located on the perimeter of a glade just above the treetops, vodka, cucumber, borscht, and tartar. The place is decorated richly and tastefully with garlands. If you can afford it - a player playing on the omnichord (a virtual device that listens to the musician's intentions). Omnichord operator can create live music consisting of multiple soundtracks, where melody and harmony are arranged according to his intentions. If someone can't afford it, we recommend a digital muse. Okay, that was the inferior version of a no augmentation option.

For the snobs: the ceremonies are so sublime and sophisticated that regular mortals can only admire them on pholos in gossip magazines. Where are the palaces where the guests are entertained? Do they fly over Florida? Are they pummeling the waves of the Pacific? They probably do. Don't strain yourself looking for answers. This is the world of the biggest celebrities, and until you make your first ten million, you have no chance of joining their ranks.

Tech weddings

During these weddings, only the bride and groom and the priest are equipped with G-Pods. The other participants do not have these devices on their heads because an overly intense experience of the presence of Allah would draw their attention away from the bride and groom. On the other hand, the bride and groom feel very clearly that Allah / Yahweh / Christ / Buddha / Shiva / Brahma / Vishnu / Thor / Odin, etc., are participating in the marrying with the other person.

First Night

The most popular wedding night option is the "Low G night" offered by many specially designed hotels and suites that are always present near the wedding, whether the couple is getting married in real or virtual reality. The bride and groom indulge in the pleasures of the alcove in conditions of gravity lowered by half (sometimes more, sometimes less), often in augmented reality, assisted by specially created floating couches, supporting legs, loins, arms, whatever the lovers can think of. "SexCoach" couches have their own AI system, thanks to which they adjust themselves to the bodies of lovers, making the wedding night an unforgettable experience. So unforgettable that many couples decide to buy SexCoach permanently, and they are expensive.

If the bride and groom who have had a virtual wedding decide to have virtual sex, they can choose their custom skins. What is worth remembering is that basic devitalization does not disable sexual function, so any emotions you might typically feel in the game will be transferred to realium. The rule is that after having virtual sex, the couple does not have actual sex because the cognitive shock could be too great (this is related to organophobia – one of the "gaming diseases"). Some couples make love for years only in the virtual environment.

Honeymoon

The most exclusive option is going to the Moon. The most expensive is Mars. The most popular are other fields, and the tradition of newlyweds is to "fall" with the use of transgrav (heavy, gravity trains). As for the Free Europe area, the station in Paris is trendy. The couple visits the polis and then transgrav "falls" to the chosen exotic location, where they enjoy the time spent together.

How did you like the article? Which wedding would you like to attend?

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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.

Stay safe!

Mar 31, 2021

Monthly Changelog - March 2021

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Matt_Anshar

What a great time to be a Gamedec fan! March was one heck of a ride with a CGI trailer made almost entirely in-house [kudos to Tomasz Bentkowski!] and the second demo's release. But that's not all – let's recap what we've done in the past month.

New Public Demo

This task was the top priority for our Gamedec Team. We promised a new bit of story to our fans and backers, and we delivered it without any delays. The free demo available on Steam will take you to the streets of Low City, where a mysterious murder has to be examined. The demo is not time-limited, but it will end when you reach a certain point of the case. If you're a Kickstarter Backer, you will get access to an extended version of the demo, where another location will be available – a bar ran by no other than Old Yet, a military veteran.

Even if you already saw these two locations before, they were slightly redesigned and went a complete lighting and VFX retouch. I mean, have you seen the rain in Low City? The neons on buildings? Try talking to Sgt. Brut if you're not afraid! The demo is available on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/917720/Gamedec/

If you already played the demo, be sure to share your thoughts on either Discord or Steam discussion boards, where we lurk in the shadows and note everything for the glory of our bright-minded designers and always hungry QA team members.

CGI Trailer

We wanted a CGI trailer. We felt that Gamedec deserves it to tell a story and intrigue those who didn't know about the game yet. Fortunately, our very own Tomasz Bentkowski mesmerized us with his usage of the Unreal Engine. With a bit of help from Quixel tools, he created astonishing and climatic environments we couldn't wait to share with you guys. If you haven't seen it yet, here's a direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IRdu_nmFak

From the gamedec's apartment through various virtual worlds, we tried to explain what a gamedec profession is.

Editing & Animation: Tomasz Bentkowski & Mateusz Cios
Music: Marcin Przybyłowicz
SFX and Mastering: Przemyslaw Laszczyk
End-Screen Animation: Radikal Studio
VO: John Q Kubin

Did you like it? What do you guys think? 😊

Release Date

The abovementioned trailer debuted on the Future Games Show 2021 and contained one huge reveal – a release date. That's right, Gamedec will hit the virtual shelves on the

> 16th of September, 2021<

That's less than six months from today. No pressure, guys, no pressure at all 😉

New Avatars and adjusting animations

We've spent some time with our concept artists and made avatars for major and minor NPCs. Their hard work can be seen during dialogues and in the Codex. It's always better to see the character, to visualize it. That fulfills the need to match the name and image together, creating a better context. At the same time, we had to adjust some animations for the in-game 3D models because, you know, there is always room for animation improvements, especially when you change the main character model for a female this time. You have to make sure that the animations match the body type and won't look clunky.

Preparing models for a new minigame

This one will have to remain a mystery. No one likes spoilers, especially in a story-driven game. Patience, young padawan, the time will come. 😉

Improving NPC evasion system

While working, we've noticed that some NPCs liked to bump into each other and cause some disturbance intentionally. We've spent some time polishing the paths and teaching them how to walk without making too much trouble, so they won't be these weird peeps who never know how to behave on a crowded street. It may sound easy, but it's something immersive-breaking, and we had to take care of it for the sake of everyone who was triggered by it—your welcome, people of 22nd century Warsaw City.

There's more, but we tried to focus on the most critical aspects of our work and leave something behind the curtain. It was a challenging month for everyone in our studio, but once again, we proved ourselves to be working well, even with an inevitable deadline.

Go #TeamGamedec!

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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.

Stay safe!

Mar 12, 2021

Dev Diary: developing a minor NPC

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Matt_Anshar

In Gamedec, you are a game detective solving crimes in the virtual worlds. You collect the clues for your investigation using your software deck, professions, and most importantly – your social skills.

With hundreds of NPCs in Gamedec, wouldn't that be great if a player could have a deep, immersive conversation with every character in the game? Even with that somewhat random NPCs just loitering and minding their own business? Then again, some players would feel compelled to talk to everyone in fear of missing out on a hidden quest, a clue, or collectible codex information. That would result in a terrible experience.

This is why we have a mixed bag of NPCs in the game - amongst some complex, heavily branched interactions, there are smaller roles, such as Cowgirl_1, a minor resident of "Harvest Time" - a Wild West-themed, FTP farming multiplayer game you can visit as one of the sensory worlds in Gamedec.

Developing a minor NPC

In the design document for "Case: Harvest Time", Cowgirl_1 was described as a minor NPC, a source of 1-3 clues for the investigation. This limited description gives the designers plenty of creative opportunities. One way to design this interaction would be a simple hub with four dialogue options:

1. Gamedec receives a piece of information along with Clue 1 - no special conditions required.
2. Profession condition - this option is available only to gamedecs with a specific profession, which grants them Clue 2.
3. Branched dialogue: a short exchange with a player decision: one leads to Clue 3, the other results with alternative reward (in this case, Aspect used for character development).
4. Goodbye - conversation end.

Here is a flow of this conversation with some color coding: clues (green), profession condition (orange), choice (yellow), Aspect reward (blue). Such a simple, bare bone design is called "skeletal" and needs to be developed further, even for such a minor NPC as Cowgirl_1.

First, let's call the NPC "Millie" and set up a scene: The player encounters Millie and her horse in a local town center. Since she's not difficult to notice, I decided to drop a few obstacles at the players to prevent them from grabbing precious investigation clues too fast.

At first, Millie will not speak with a gamedec - she is busy with her horse. Instead, she'd only reply, "Don't bother me, can't you see I'm grooming The Princess?". No other conversation will be possible until she is approached again later in the game. This looks good on paper, but our internal tests showed no one would revisit Millie after getting repelled at the first encounter. Apparently, she was too harsh, so her response was modified to "Hi, please, come back later, I'm grooming The Princess now." That small change not only made her appear friendlier, but players would return to her, as intended.

The internal tests also showed that it was relatively easy to get most of Millie's clues, which wasn't fun enough. One more small obstacle had to be implemented to address this issue: Millie only gives the clues if the gamedec wins her trust first. I needed to explore the cowgirl's background a little: horses are her passion, so I started there. In the GamedecVerse, the virtual worlds are practically the only way for people to experience livestock. Millie loves horses and considers herself a horse expert, and she is full of horse-related trivia. But what if all her knowledge comes from games? This is not a plausible scenario, even in our reality. She'd claim that "horses are always awake" (because sleeping horses are not implemented in the game), or "Never come behind a horse… cause horsetail might hit you super hard and even kill!" (probably a game bug in "Harvest Time" that an uneducated player takes for real).

In fact, this exact bug happened to us during the game development. We were tempted to leave it because it was hilarious, but eventually, the bug was fixed.

One way to win Millie's trust would be sharing some weird "horse trivia" collected by examining different horses in Harvest Time. Additionally, if Gamedec owns a horse (you can get one on a playable farm), Millie finds her new horse-buddy and happily shares some gossips (clues).

At this time, I needed to briefly explore who Millie was in her "real life"; perhaps a teenage girl playing "Harvest Time" every waking hour alone in a dark habitat compound, cocooned in her virtual couch. Was she addicted to the game, or maybe there was another reason for her confinement, such as a physical disability? I decided that Millie lost her real arm, a fact that could be reflected in the virtual world: she would occasionally unusually wave her hand. A negligible detail, however a gamedec with a medical profession could take notice of that and discuss the subject with the girl. A sincere conversation with a doctor would surely win Millie's trust, along with a few investigation clues.

Then came a moment of reflection: are there even any disabled people in the Gamedec Verse? I reached out to Marcin Przybyłek, the author of the books and curator of the world consistency. He warned me that I should "hold my horses" as there are hardly any disabled people in his universe thanks to the medical advancements. He added, much to my relief, that the girl might be still recovering from surgery - regrowing a lost limb could be a long and expensive process. The girl's father works day and night to support her treatment, hoping she recovers soon – that's the reason Millie is alone at home. She dives into the virtual world of Harvest Time - a happy, colorful place with horses.

The final interaction turned out a bit more complicated than initially planned. Some color coding for the pic above includes Clues (green), Codex entries (red), Aspect rewards (blue), and Profession condition (orange).

This minor NPC gained some backstory, and while it's not essential to the investigation, it is a vital piece of the world-building. Hello, Cowgirl_1 - you are now Millie from the futuristic Warsaw. See you in the game!

written by: Krzysztof Kurek, Narrative Designer at Anshar Studios.

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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.

Stay safe!

#TeamGamedec

Mar 4, 2021

Into the Gamedecverse #5: "SLUMS"

Gamedec - Definitive Edition - Matt_Anshar

Ok, we have to admit something. "Slums" is a buzzword created by our designers. There are no "slums" in Warsaw City. How do we call this location in our game? A mushroom. A mushroom of workers building Warsaw City.

The real "slums" of Warsaw is the Undercity. Ground Cleaners clean the ruins of the old Warsaw. This is where the outcasts live, some of them using technological advances, but most are often cut off from the grid. They have their own language, their tribes, use night vision equipment to see better, and are generally hostile to possible "guests" from above.

Check out this piece of art by Marcin Jakubowski. It is an illustration created for the second book of the Gamedec saga - Locomotive Salesmen.

Let's check our in-game codex for more details about this particular area:

„The authorities realized that new cities, capable of housing tens of millions of people, needed to be built. Vertical cities. Fields. Projects of giant towers already existed at that time (like New Tokyo), so there was something to build on.

The towers' construction problem was that for their foundations, large quarters of Warsaw had to be demolished, which met with apparent protest from the indigenous inhabitants.
Workers originating from the capital refused to work in most cases. However, some immigrant professionals undertook the effort. And they were hated for this. There were acts of hostility. Assaults, casualties. The companies erecting the towers were forced to create workers' habitats on "mushroom" - structures challenging to access by ordinary residents.

Try to imagine structures resembling tall toadstools erected in demolished neighborhoods, surrounded by a surging, angry mob. Now imagine the foundations of massive towers rising beside them.
Now the mushrooms stand abandoned in great towers of gigantic cities. Their finials (hats) are below the lowest walkways of the city. They are often uninhabited because undercity savages don't know how to climb them, and no one else wants to fly there. However, suppose someone flies up to such a mushroom. In that case, he will see a strange, old structure (130 years old), which is decorated with various "additives" - pieces of stained-glass windows of churches and different other architectural elements from the old Warsaw.

The towers' builders took revenge in this way and played off the hatred that the old inhabitants of Warsaw had for them. Inside they are ordinary habitats, something like workers' bedrooms: beds, furniture, kitchens. If someone arranged themselves there, they didn't pay the rent because it was a space, not wanted by anyone. They can put their furniture there, their beds, and so on.

"Slums" are also sometimes called low parts of sidewalks that no one visits. Temporary or more permanent concentrations of vagrants and homeless people can form there. They make shelters to protect themselves from the dirty rains, but they do not stay there, chased away by the police.
The history behind the 22nd century Warsaw City is one of a kind, but what about people who usually live in the "slums"?

We have another codex entry that might interest all of you:

„Report from the psychological study

Study group: children and adolescents aged 7-17, raised without parents, on the sidewalks of the Low City, living without a roof over their heads for at least three years. The number of subjects: 45 children (15 girls, 30 boys).

Control group: 45 children of the same age and sex, raised in Low City in full families. The study aimed to determine the degree of alexithymia (inability to recognize and understand emotions in the interlocutor and oneself), emphasizing the interlocutor's facial expressions. Children in the study group exhibited alexithymia to a moderate to a severe degree.

A correlation was detected between the length of life "on the sidewalks" and the severity of alexithymia. In extreme cases (five boys, aged 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16 years and one girl, aged 16 years), the subjects were only able to recognize the threatening" and "non-threatening" faces on the holograms presented to them. They could not distinguish between faces expressing disgust, fear, anger, curiosity, and shame. They identified them all as "threatening." They identified faces representing joy as "non-threatening."

Declarative tests showed that these children, having detected a "non-threatening" face, needed to exploit its possessor: to transact with him (typical statements: "I would sell him some crap", "I would buy something from him on the cheap"), to extract information from him or any resource that can be monetized.'

There was an observation of marked involution of brain areas responsible for feeling guilt or shame. Respondents asked if they would be able to deceive the holder of a "non-threatening face" declared "yes" without fear. When asked if they would feel bad afterward, they answered in the negative ("He would blame himself", "It's not my fault the bream", "He would do the same", "Everyone does it", "It's the law of the sidewalk").

Twenty children (seventeen boys and three girls) grouped disgust and anger into one facial expression, embarrassment and curiosity. At the same time, they placed joy in a third set, but, like the first group, graded them as "very threatening," "perhaps not threatening," and "not threatening."

The remaining group (nineteen respondents, eleven girls, and eight boys) showed moderate alexithymia when recognizing facial expressions: they mainly mistook disgust for anger, while, like all previous groups, its members found it difficult to identify their feelings.

Living alone in the lower areas of Low City, especially for minors without adult supervision, drives the compulsion to survive in hostile conditions, and the lack of positive social interaction results in the formation of the "psychopath syndrome." It is a set of traits consisting of an inability to identify and understand one's own and others' emotions, a lack of guilt when harming someone, and the subjective treatment of people encountered.

The authorities of Free Europe should begin to contribute to the education and care of young, homeless citizens of polis because they are the ideal fry for criminal organizations and can pose a real threat to the safety of themselves and other residents of Low City.”

As you can see, Warsaw City is full of various social and historical stories just waiting for you to be discovered! How did you find our article? Would you like to read more about the history of what happened to people between the 21st and 22nd centuries?

If you're interested in Gamedec, an upcoming cyberpunk isometric RPG, join our Discord channel and share your thoughts!

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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.

Stay safe!

#TeamGamedec