As promised before, we are releasing today a new build of Mnemons’ alpha. This is the last build we will release of Mnemons in a long time and, I’m not gonna lie, probably ever. March 14th we will be dropping steadily our work and support on Mnemons and Semblante and we will start from scratch a brand new project.

Download Mnemons Alpha (0.2)

These are the changes from the last version:

*    Music on the hub should be working properly now.
*    Fixed a problem with the music loop on certain stages.
*    Added different graphic settings for the game:
**    F1 for Best settings: this is the regular graphics settings with lowest performance, which needs a good video card to run smoothly. It’s the default mode.
**    F2 for Better settings: this mode removes some graphical effects, improving performance. Mid-range to budget graphics cards can run this mode smoothly.
**    F3 for Good settings: this mode removes all shaders and graphical effects. Use it if you have an IGP or legacy cards that can’t run the game properly even on the previous mode.
**    You can change the graphics settings at any time during the game or at the main menu. The changes only takes effect when you change stages, however.
*    Up to 46% performance improvement on all of the aforementioned modes by using a new rendering method for the Lethe, which means that if the game only slowed down on stages 1-6, 1-7 and 3-2, it will probably run smoothly now even on Best settings.
*    Added a brand new stage: 3-3.
*    Small fixes on stages 1-7 and 2-4. They should be less challenging now.
*    And some other small fixes…

And, oh yes! The image of this post is a wallpaper from our Mnemons Wallpaper Pack! Grab yours now!

Here it is. This is the final version of Semblante, dubbed Semblante 3.0 or Anniversary Edition, since we wanted to release it at the eve of Global Game Jam 2011. Unfortunately we missed the deadline by a matter of hours (really) and decided to release this version of Semblante only after our work with Mnemons was done (and the SXSW contest tight deadline was clear).

What has changed? Well, basically everything. We put a good 3 weeks of work on this particular version of Semblante (before it, both 1.0 and 2.0 were 48h efforts). This means that the game is bigger and more polished all around, with navigable menus, volume control and some other stuff we usually take for granted like checkpoints and a pause screen. Also, we put a distinct personality in each of the game’s shadows (and their own proper puzzle to retrieve them), revamped the game’s graphics (especially Jung’s animations) and redesigned the game’s sound effects and music (courtesy of our friend Hermann Rauth). We’re also able to finally put the game’s original script to good use, putting some contextual, albeit obscure, text integrated within the game’s backgrounds.

You can download Semblante 3.0 for free here or at the game’s page.

EDIT (18:30 BRT): The file available for download was corrupted. It should be fixed now.

In other news, we are wrapping things up here and both Mnemons and Semblante will have their final (for now) builds. We are preparing a series of posts for both games, detailing aspects of their brief development (both were developed in a 3 week time-frame). Expect the final builds to be released by the end of the week and the posts following soon thereafter.

The game is now in Alpha, which means it’s core is running healthily, the mechanics and most of the assets are there, but it has only 13 of the 28 planned levels, and you’ll be able to play with Moe and Jimmie, but not with Debbie and Andy. We’ll feed you with more news about the Festival ASAP, and hope you enjoy playing the Alpha with your friends!

You can download the game here or you can check the brand new game page instead.

EDIT: Ops. Looks like we will miss the deadline because of some health problems (and some pendent graduation project errands). New version should be uploaded tomorrow (December 3rd).

Following our commitment to keep in touch with our readers, here is a batch of fresh news to you!

From the 08th to the 10th of November, Aduge was in Florinópolis to the SBGames 2010. Between the usual networking, inspiring keynotes and long treks under the sun, we had the surprise of Sembante, in it’s Global Game Jam incarnation, being awarded on the SBGames’ Indie Festival. The awards were the 2nd “Best Game Overall” and “Best Game Design”. Thanks to the judges! To everyone that is coming here to the Ghostboard because of Semblante, make sure to try the updated, IGF version.

Also among the best paper awards we had our share of surprises: congratulations to our two dear adugans, Bruno Bulhões and Thiago ‘Beto’ Alves, for the award of best paper on the Art & Design track.

Going forward a little, it is with great relief that we can announce that 5/6 members of our team already presented their graduation projects. Our positive energies stay with the 1/6 that didn’t. =]

And with this we finish this particular brief round of updates. When we recover from the excitement of these past few days we will return full speed ahead!

And here it is: Semblante 2.0, the IGF version. It’s a full revamp of the previous version, as we ported the game to the Construct Game Creator.

As it is a full port and a redesign, pretty much everything is changed between visuals, mechanical tweaks, level design etc. We will improve this version as the time goes by as since we had more than 48 hour to develop Semblante 2.0 the code and all the production pipeline is much simpler, which makes improvements, bugfixing and asset implementation way easier than what we could achieve on the Game Maker version.

And yes, Semblante is one of the 391 games competing at the 13th Independent Games Festival. We submitted it for all the tiny bits of publicity we can get and to receive feedback from the judges and peers.

To download the latest version of Semblante click here. Or you can go grab it on the game’s main page.

See you.

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!

Yesterday was Aduge’s 3rd birthday!!!