Hauntibles

The Bronx Sisters, a popular singing trio of the decade. The storyline for HAUNTIBLES goes back a long way, but the bulk of it takes place in the 1920's. The reason for this is a mixture of practicality and aesthetics. First, the practical side of things. I wanted there to be photographs in HAUNTIBLES , and not just any photos, but the candid ones that we're used to seeing today. These didn't appear until the arrival of Kodak's Brownie Camera in 1900. So the storyline had to happen after that.   Until the advent of Kodak's tiny box camera, photography was strictly in the hands of professionals. Next, I wanted to use real scraps from the era: cut-out ads, bus tickets, gum wrappers, ephemera. In order to avoid hunting down the copyright for every single image, I decided to stick with images in the public domain. Anything published prior to 1924 falls into this category, so that became a good cutoff date for me. I love hats and everyone in the...

I always knew that audio was going to be an important aspect of HAUNTIBLES. Sound design is really one half of film-making, and in many ways, my favorite half. I have fond memories from film school, crunching celery stalks and stomping around in boots for some home-made foley (which is when you make SFX on the fly while watching the movie play.) That's one of the reasons I wanted to record as many original sound effects as I could for the game, using my trusty Zoom H4N mic. This personal library is being augmented with public domain sounds from freesound.org and a few SFX to which I've purchased the rights. Collecting sounds is only one part, however. Placing them is where the magic happens. Every dial, switch, and action in the game needs a corresponding sound to give it weight and reality. If it's a frequently used switch, however, the sound can't be annoying - a lesson I've learned by testing the game a gazillion times. (Bad sounds gets annoying fast!) ...

 A screenshot from the Xcode scene editor, showing the game's map. I've been trying to think of a metaphor for the development process, and a good one just occurred to me the other day; building a game is like building a house. It starts with an architect ( game designer ) who sketches out a plan. These blueprints ( design documents ) get sent along to the various contractors like plumbers, electricians, roofers, etc. ( coders, graphic designers, sound designers, etc. ) who all work under supervision of the project manager ( lead developer ). I'm not an expert on either of these things, so I'm probably getting some roles wrong, but I think the basic premise is sound. I hope the final game is a lot sturdier "house" than the creaky ones that appear inside of it. As a one-man development team, I'm wearing all the hats, and it can be a bit daunting at times (to say the least.) Best thing I've learned to do is break the game down into managea...

A vintage oscilloscope discovered at a huge white elephant sale. The controls remind me of a 1950's scifi spaceship. A few years ago, there was a shift in digital design away from 3D real-world textures to a more flat look. I think this simple aesthetic works for most user interfaces, as it doesn't distract from the content. But for HAUNTIBLES, I wanted to embrace what's known as Skeuomorphism.  Skeuomorphism skjuːə(ʊ)ˈmɔːfɪz(ə)m  A design concept that attempts to imitate the look of real-world objects (like this instagram logo.) Instead of a clean flat design, I aimed for a more gritty, cracked, faded and worn-out look. This aesthetic meshed a lot better with the old photographs that are at the heart of HAUNTIBLES. So, much like a sound designer who ventures into the field to collect sound effects, I needed to hunt for textures.  You never know what you'll see at an antique fair. This box of prosthetic peepers "caught my eye". ...