The Restless of long ago

[Dan Peach]

Before we settled on our final artwork style of realistic hand drawn backgrounds and 3D characters, Restless was actually going to be an all 2D affair, with much more cartoony graphics all round.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the Restless of yesteryear, so I went back into the Viperante archives, and unearthed these two images, just for fun.

http://www.restlessgame.com/adoc06/r...1_nypd_001.jpg

.....an NYPD precinct - much more cartoony.

http://www.restlessgame.com/adoc06/r...ection_001.jpg

.....the original 2D Kate Jones in all her glory. 8)

Dan.

[Isak]

Cool! How come you changed to 3D?

[Dan Peach]

Two reasons mainly - one was that we felt the cartoony look didn't fit so well with the darkness and grittiness of the story, and the second was because publishers didn't seem to like the cartoony look that much, and said cartoony adventures were harder to sell.

We like the final style better anyway, as it does capture the atmosphere better, so it's all good. 8)

[axelkothe]

speaking of publishers, do you have one?

[Dan Peach]

Publishing details will be announced shortly. Can't say any more than that right now.

[Tomsess]

About how long will be the playtime of The Restless game?

[Dan Peach]

We are aiming for about 20 hours of gameplay, maybe a little bit more. It's quite a large story, with lots of things going on, so we need plenty of gameplay to fit it all in.

[Tomsess]

And the gameplay will be linear or maybe we can wait for some multiple endings?

[axelkothe]

We are aiming for about 20 hours of gameplay, maybe a little bit more. It's quite a large story, with lots of things going on, so we need plenty of gameplay to fit it all in.

wow, thats nice to hear since most modern adventures seem to be a bit on the short side. As long as the gamepla ytime is not filled by walking from one place to another and back, this is great news!

[Dan Peach]

And the gameplay will be linear or maybe we can wait for some multiple endings?

Yes, the story will be linear. I don't like multiple endings or big branching story lines. The character is on a journey, not the player, so to me, multiple endings or a story that is affected a lot by the player, is not natural, not in a 3rd person game anyway - maybe in a 1st person game you could do that, but Restless is a 3rd person game about Kate Jones and her life, so linear is the way to go for me.

wow, thats nice to hear since most modern adventures seem to be a bit on the short side. As long as the gamepla ytime is not filled by walking from one place to another and back, this is great news!

I know - there's nothing worse than playing a game you're really enjoying and then it comes to an end too soon. The time will definitely not be filled with just walking from one screen to another - there will be lots to do in each location, and lots of people to talk to. A high "Interaction Density" as Steve Ince says, is the best thing, and I agree. 8)

[aegnor]

Are there any gore scenes in "Restless" or do you prefere more subtle ways to scare players?
How important will be dialogs and (perhaps) some kind of journals to make progress in your game?

Are you planning some new project in the meantime, before "Restless" is finished?

[Dan Peach]

I like subtle ways of scaring people AND gore - gore is not really scare though in terms of like the "BOO!" kind of scary, but it can be used to get across the overall scariness, danger, and brutality of a certain situation.

Dialogues will be very important as Kate will meet a whole host of different people, and she will need information from them, as well as needing to decide whether or not they can be trusted to help her. Journals also, are a good way to convey story as you can get across a lot of important information in a very simple way.

We currently have a new project on the go right now, which will be released before Restless. More details on that shortly. 8)