How it all began...

It all started with a train journey. When I returned home from college by train the travel stretched for ages. During the ride I read, drew, and ... I let my imagination loose. At some point, from this idleness, the idea of the Big Old tree that Dreams came up. Although at that time I gave him the title of Vigne Virge (with an error as I learned later, it should be Vigne Vierge, which in French means the Wild Vines). In the beginning there was the ash, with it roots reaching the Yggdrasill from the Norwegian mythology, who much later became the Great Oak. Around him different lands grew, inhabited by various characters. At first I thought of the world of the Big Old Tree only as the background of my comic book. But for a long time I just took pleasure in the creation of the world, its geography, culture and people. Years passed and the world of the Great Oak survived three unfinished comics, several short stories and, recently, computer games. And although in the meantime in my head and on the pages of my sketchbook many different worlds were born the world of the Big Old Tree that Dreams is the closest to me. Maybe it's because I met that tree during a walk? It was huge, dominating over the others. And it was old. You could sense it, not just by looking at its twisted branches, roots winding deep inside the earth, the cracked bark, but also by the attitude of the surrounding trees, which rose around him as if with respect. There was something mystical about him, metaphysical. I imagined that he was dreaming. What can an old, ailing oak tree dream about?

The progress bar for "A Grain of Truth" reaches 85%.

Launch page

The game "a Grain of Truth" has now its own launch page.
 It is also on facebook and twitter.
Follow us and be in touch!

Music

Since I've started working on the first Trader of Stories game I knew that music is a very important part of the game. It builds the atmosphere of the game, like an additional background but on a whole new level. Therefore I'm very excited that for our newest project "A Grain of Truth" I was able to invite to cooproation a great music composer: Sergiu Muresan. He created four tracks illustrating the changing environment of the game. Thanks to him the game sounds really amazing and the progress bar hits 80%.
Once again - thank You Sergiu!  

Last location

I have just finished the last location for the game thus achiving 68% of the game progress (the game contains 22 full screen locations and 14 closeups). What is left? Puzzles, cutscenes, music and programming, so pretty much, but we are working on full speed and the finish line is getting closer.

Sketches

I have been so busy working on the game that I have forgotten to update the progress. I’m almost finish doing the backgrounds for all location. The inventory is up and running as well as the map that will allow for fast travel during the gameplay. And the progress bar hits 60%.

Below I present some rough sketches for the game.

Why HTML?

Have we said that we do this amazing thing all in HTML? Yes it is true - we are so excited about the possibilities and the whole creation process that we can't wait to show it to you. We used it for prototyping but we quick discovered that it's powerful enough to create the game we love. HTML is open source, completely free and really fun to use, and it's perfect for 'Myst' like type of game. When we see an adventure game we want to touch it and we want to be able to play it on mobile screens (iOS, Android) too. Now we can - direct from browser with no lack of good game experience. And we plan for even more…

Of course HTML5 has it own issues with older browsers like Internet Explorer and to play it we will need modern browser - and only it.

By the way the process bar hits 49%

Back from vacation

I'm back from vacation and working on the game. Myosotis climbs up just as the progress bar that hits 40%.

A Grain of Truth - A Valley of Floating Rocks

In the last post I have written about the main hero of the new story. Now I would like to present the location in which the story will take place. For those who have played the demo it will look familiar as it is the home of the Wiseman, located among the plains of endless grass. The concept of the place has changed however as I have returned to the original idea of floating rocks (if You don’t believe please check the first post on this blog when I have presented the page form my comicbook).

The main task of our heroine will be to solve the riddle of this place, so I will not write anything more to not spoil the puzzle.

I’m going for a vacation so there will be no new information for about a month.

And the progress bar goes to 35%.

A Grain of Truth - characters

The main character of the "A Grain of  Truth" game will be Myosotis, known from the "Trader of Stories". I wanted to start witch this character for two reasons. First of all because this is how the whole story begins, it is an introduction to a much larger story, in which Myosotis plays only a small (but important) part. And secondly I wanted to make a more smoothly connection with the previous games. In the next chapter the main character will change. The plan is that each chapter will have it's own hero/heroine. But it does not mean that we will not meet Myosotis again. She will play her role but as a non playable character.

Below is the portait of the Myosotis and one of the characters she will meet along the way.

The progress bar goes to 30%.

A Grain of Truth - beginning of a new project

At this time I have planned to release the second part of the Trader of Stories Flash game  (Bell's Heart). However, due to some delays on the part of the scenario we had to postpone the work on the game for some time. 

So, together with my brother Martin, we began to work on another project. Many years ago I have written a story that gave the birth to the world The Old Tree that Sleeps (the world of Myosotis). All other stories I have written later, including the story of Myostis I have told in the Trader of Stories are parts of that larger tale. I have tried to tell that story in different ways, like writting in a form of a book or a comicbook. Finally I decided that I will try to do it in the form of a game. The first chapter of this story will be presented in a game entitled:"A Grain of Truth." The nature of the game will be similar to the "Bell's Heart". I will write more about it in the next post.

So far the progress is about 24%. 

Below are two screenshots from the game.