Hauntibles

Presenting the characters at the heart of the HAUNTIBLES storyline: the Sauvage Family. For generations, these gardeners have expertly tended a prestigious Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Now evil is about to descend on their quiet botanical paradise, and they must draw upon an ancient family secret to survive. First up is Kathryn Sauvage, a skilled gardener who lovingly raises both plants and a daughter. She has endless reserves of patience, kindness, and a quick wit that guides the family through numerous storms. Kathryn also tends to worry, and lately, her daughter's strange behavior has given her reason. Felix Sauvage believes in hard work, careful planning, and keeping a tight schedule. He has little time for flights of fantasy and wishes his daughter would get her head out of the clouds. This stern countenance disguises a tender heart, however, and despite his seemingly gruff exterior, he's been known to crack a smile from time to time. ...

Trailers are probably the most important way indie developers can introduce their games. They're extremely vital, which is why I came out with one so early. But looking back, I think the messaging in this first video wasn't as clear as it could have been. Good trailers highlight, they don't summarize. They show you why the game is fun and worthy of your time. My first trailer focused too much on the game's origins, and not enough on what makes the game interesting. I also think it relied too heavily on motion graphics, which went against the real-world vintage textures found in the game. So, I'm filming another trailer. This one requires a lot more production, and I've spent the last few days assembling a collection of spooky props. These objects were sourced them from my neighbor's basement, Target, Ikea, and a few I've picked up at rummage sales. Props in the trailer relate to various elements of the game, highlighting all the coolest featur...

Antiquing with a spooky twist. Beware the haunted lobstah! So many of my favorite ghost stories, such as "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacob, start with someone obtaining a haunted antique. There's just something about these old relics that sparks the imagination.  HAUNTIBLES is chock full of these haunted collectibles or "hauntibles" as I'm calling them. They're mostly sourced from archival research I've done, and the game is designed in such a way that I can easily update it with new hauntibles as I discover them. Hauntibles have already been covered briefly under the Cabinet of Curiosities post, but I wanted to delve into a bit more detail 'cause I love them so much.  A batch of procedurally generated beetles! Here's where it gets a little technical. In order to use these objects in the game, I cycle them through a bit of code (which I'm calling the "pattern buffer" because I'm a Star Trek ner...

When I was growing up, my parents had a mysterious antique on the wall - a narrow drawer hung vertically, subdivided into dozens of little boxes. Each of these compartments held a different knickknack like a rock, shell, or tiny doll. This strange art piece sparked my imagination, and I wondered about the stories behind each object.      Typeset drawers were originally used to store printing blocks of various sizes. With the decline of block printing, many people recycled these drawers into curio cabinets to store family keepsakes. How does all this fit into my game HAUNTIBLES? Well, there's a typeset drawer at the heart of the game, and it's filled with haunted knickknacks! I found images for these objects during the course of my research through various archives, rare books, newspapers, and other ancient collections. Here's how it'll work in the game: each object in the drawer represents a haunted collection or "hauntible" of five or more re...