STASIS UPDATE JANUARY 2015
Greetings, Adventure Lovers!
I’ve been hard at work aboard the Groomlake this past December and January, and I have an exciting STASIS progress update.
PROGRESS
So, what’s been going on for the last few weeks? Well, quite a lot! Since our last update we’ve completed ALL of the main puzzle chains for the Beta. I’m working on a few last minute details, and we’ll soon be full swing into our internal testing. This means that STASIS is playable from the very first screen to the very last area that our Beta players will encounter! It’s now a process of hunting down bugs, tweaking the interface, adjusting effects, and making certain that the game play is as smooth as possible.
We’ve been sure to add complexity to some of the puzzles. I must say that puzzle design is one of the highlights of the process for me. Nic and I would have a cup of coffee and talk through the chain of events needed to complete a game task, often coming up with ideas and areas on the spot. It is a free form way of design – something that I believe is only possible with a very small (in this case 1) team to implement the decisions.
CLOSED ALPHA
The Beta, which covers 3 of the 4 chapters of STASIS, will be in Alpha testing from the end of this month. What this will entail is testing STASIS internally, to iron out as many bugs or glitches as we can. I really want the Beta testers to experience the game as completely as possible. We’re hoping to wrap this process up during February. At the same time, I’ll be polishing up the final chapter.
ESRB RATING
If you had any doubt about STASIS being a mature adventure game, fear not! We received our ESRB Rating, and I’m proud to say that STASIS will be rated MATURE 17+ for VIOLENCE, BLOOD AND GORE, SUGGESTIVE THEMES, and STRONG LANGUAGE.
HE SOUNDS OF STASIS
Our voice actors really have gone above and beyond, and have produced acting that I believe is AAA quality!
The voice acting is the meat and potatoes of the story. It’s how we move along John’s emotional journey – and without that core the rest of the game would feel empty … hollow.
To make sure each line delivered the right punch, the voice actors read their lines in a variety of styles and with different emotional inflections. I then take those recordings and tweak the dialog to make sure that it’s EXACTLY what I need for the scene.
We decided early in development that STASIS wouldn’t have dialog trees, allowing us to create a cinematic flow to the conversations.
OCK, PAPER, SHOTGUN’S TOP 2015 GAMES
STASIS made it onto ROCK, PAPER, SHOTGUN’s Top 2015 Games list:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/01/best-pc-games-of-2015/3/
GDC
Nic and I are excited to be attending GDC (http://www.gdconf.com/) this year. If you’re a fellow developer and want to chat, Tweet me @Stasisgame
UNTIL NEXT TIME…
It’s unbelievable to look at how far STASIS has come in the last year. I started working on it full time on January 5, 2014 (with thanks to you guys). While the amount of work is immense, I know that it will be worth it when you can experience the game and the world that we’ve created.
I can’t thank you, the Backers, enough for having the faith in us to make this game a reality. I just know that you’re going to be proud to say that you backed STASIS!
-Chris
Twitter – https://twitter.com/StasisGame
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/stasisgame
