Hello everyone!

I’m very glad to announce that Tsar Project is now officially  in production!

The next Tsar Update Bruno will lay more details in every department’s work, but for now I’ll give you a shot from the studio and some information on my work:

In the background our beautiful 64sq ft pinning board, full of references and WIPs, including beta versions of the game’s map, sound design equalization and chord maps, plot drafts and else. It is a greatly useful feature for a creative studio, indeed.

Those in the foreground are little models I’ve done recently of two types of guards we’ll have in the Kremlin, they’re made of platicine, and still WIP, but are already useful in finding the right angle for their sprites.

Behind them you can (NOT) see three models of our protagonist, in whom my work is focused now, primarily in doing his basic movements animations and sprites.

Last but not least there is the Tsar Project logo!!! We have decided to use the same principle of the studio’s visual ID in our in development projects, so the typography is the same Cedilha Script and the logo in a brush stroke monogram of Tsar (actually, Царь).

Type to you later, and have a nice week!

Whew. It’s been months since the last update. Last time I made our regular round of updates, we were returning from our holiday breaks and in the middle of our pre-production pretty much.

Well, here we are, at May’s doorsteps, and now we are finally entering the full production stage. So, where are we? We are finishing a gameplay mock-up on Game Maker to test some last ideas and the general feel of the game and finishing up the final touches of preparation for production. The mock-up has pretty much all game mechanics in a simplified, leaner way. It’s working for us to test some gameplay dynamics and adjust certain aspects of level design and the level of difficulty. It will be more vital in the future when we will be working on the full functionalities of the final software, the mock-up will be a testing fallback for game design to address gameplay problems and to find solutions in a simpler environment.

While the mock-up code is being done by myself, the graphics were quickly drafted by Ingrid and Pirin and sound effects quickly assembled by Marcel and Beto. They are now working the kinks with how visual and aural assets will be produced, both technically and creatively. Vermonde is currently in Berlin studying Marketing and drinking quality beer. However, he is also in charge of testing our new engine and tackling some of the more difficult technical stuff that will be used in the game. Namely, dynamic 2D lighting and shadows (using normal mapping and simple geometrical math to do the trick), dynamic sounds (without the use of expensive middlewares, it is a little tricky) and solving algorithms to satisfy our robust AI requirements (the troublemaker of the lot).

Well. There will be more updates and posts following up soon! See ya.

Presenting: the protagonist!

We are proud to finally present to all our readers the protagonist of Tsar Project.

These last months we were hard at work on his personality, backstory and design to create an unforgettable and unique character that represents the deep experience we wish to create with this game. And what character would be better on a stealth game than a powerful ninja?

Shadow Crow, the deadly shadow. From the secret valleys in the heart of China, his motives to be in Moscow are completely mysterious.  Is he under the command of a powerful noble? Is he on a personal vendetta, nurtured by sleepless nights? His figure is pale and stealthy, his movements are deadly. Shadow is armed with nigh-infinite shurikens, a kusari-gama cursed by 9001 demons from the 6 Shintoist hells and sharp iron claws forged by the steel wielded by his dead enemies.

As the game progresses we will discover together what obscure secrets motivates Shadow to plunge into the cold night of Moscow, and the scars left by his painful and irredeemable past. No one can stop him, his power is maximum. The Tsar Project is the greatest opportunity to become the greatest of ninjas!

After 11 months working on Tsar Project we are finally “ending” the pre-production stage. The pre-production was all about a discovery process, mostly the first opening of a double diamond process,  that in a way validates the early concept stages.

What must mark the beginning of production is a stage where we do not have any kind of uncertainties or doubts and can work on a “final” version of the software, without getting around different ways of doing things and without any big scope or feature changes.

The Production Planning we discussed the answers to questions that our testing and experimenting didn’t solve 100% and even the ones that testing and experimenting themselves had raised. The end result of our planning was excellent. More details… on the next chapters!

By the way, the one posting is Marcel Pace, executive producer of Tsar Project. (I rarely post here… You know, sound, music, project managing and process managing… kinda busy here, hehe! )

We’re now entering Tsar’s Project Production Planning. More information soon.

Hello again! We are back from our break for awhile now and our first fortnight of the year has already ended. But before the usual round of updates on the Tsar Project I’d like to speak about a interesting article I read at Gamasutra last week. It’s about the Brazilian game industry environment and perspectives written by James Portnow. I will just say that the article was very well informed and precise, covering much of the problems that plagues our infant industry, and it’s a well worth read for everyone interested.

Now back to our update. These two weeks were used to regain our rhythm and to review certain aspects of our project. The most important update this time is that we are re-designing the game pacing, episodic/plot structure and level design to better accommodate our initial design goals. This is being accomplished through a change of approach to our development process by first structuring episodic and thematic arches to the game and building everything from there. A classic “do the Mario” approach I might add, but when something works, it works.

We pretty much finished the main revamp and the new structure is much more solid and coherent than the older one. The map was seriously redesigned. Before we used only the palace and it’s immediate surroundings. Now the area covered is much bigger but with the same scope, exploring new regions of the Moscow Kremlin that were neglected by the old level design without actually enlarging the game or making it more complex than it was.

As for the other departments, Visual Arts made a new background concept art, a wine cellar, Programming is finishing the core AI for the NPCs and Sound Design advanced with the conceptual soundscape, creating the abstract layer of the soundsteps (don’t ask).

So, yeah, we are back and warming up for the Global Game Jam 2010, which has a confirmed Jam Site in Curitiba. See you all soon.