Tale of Tales “8” VAF Mile Stone Plan REPORT Step 1: Documentation (Nov 15-Dec 31) New design document: http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8/private/design/ We have rewritten the complete game document and switched from using Storyspace to using a modified Wiki. This new Wiki format allows us to make links between different elements much more easily. We do, however, lose the option of displaying structures in a visual way, which was possible in Storyspace. Then again, the structure of the document had become too complex for simple visualisation, anyway, so the more text-centric approach makes sense. The most important improvement is the fact that the Wiki is web-based and as such always available to anyone anywhere. The modifications that we have made to the Wiki format include DHTML enhancements that allow for expanding and collapsing parts of the data on the same page, rather than opening a link in a new window. We have also added a way to "freeze" the currently displayed information and save that as a static document, to send to parties who only need part of the information. Only Auriea & Michaël can write to this document at the moment, but anyone with a proper login can read it. These privileges can be changed at any time. This document contains A complete description of the complete game (with openings for adding extra puzzles and scenes when inspiration hits us), expressed in a "walkthrough" format A database of all characters and other 3D models, sounds and animations required for the game All known narrative content concerning the game world and its inhabitants Descriptions of gameplay and engine design Concepts and design ideas Ideas and texts relevant to the marketing of the game and the business-aspect of the project Information and documentation important to development (notes, addresses, team, et cetera) This document will be constantly modified and added to and will never be finished. It's invaluable for production but also required for evaluation by technical staff at a publisher's. New documentation & websites: http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8/private/dossier3/ Based on this new design document, we have updated the information available on the website. We have also seperated the information available to reporters, and first contacts with collaborators, et cetera, from information only available to people actually/potentially involved with the development. The first is at a publicle available, yet unlinked, address ( http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8/public/ ) and should provide enough information for people with a more than average interest in our game. The second ( http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8/private/dossier3/ ) is password-protected and is intended in the first place for people who might be interested in investing in the project. For most people, the ones interested in playing the game, the normal website ( http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8 ) should be sufficient. We have reorganised this website as well and published the first screenshots and one very short movieclip of gameplay in the first demo. We have also included some of the game's stories and links to the traditional fairy tales upon which the game is based. New budget: http://Tale-of-Tales.com/8/private/dossier3/budget.html After consulting with several game industry professionals and doing some serious estimation based on our experience so far, we have drawn up a completely new budget for this project. The most striking difference with the old one is that the total amount is five times as big: 2.5 Million Euros! The most important reason for this difference is the fact that we calcualted with more realistic wages of 50K Euros per person per year and that we included several aspects of productions that we had not included in the previous budget (management, software licenses and overhead, e.g.). Basically, the difference is the one between an amateur art production and a professional commercial production. Set up business With the aid of Veerle Verschooris, "bedrijfsrevisor", we have set up our B.V.B.A. company structure, with both Auriea and Michaël as equal partners and managers. This will enable us to deal with other companies on a professional level and to hire collaborators more easily. Found team members We have seriously underestimated the time it takes to find people we want to work with. So we will have to schedule more time for this in the future. We need to figure out how and where to find people, get the news out there, evaluate the response, discuss who would be suitable for what, verify that we can afford it, et cetera. It's a lot of work. After a post on CGTalk, we have received over thirty applications for the freelance position of animator. From that group, there were five that were interesting. Which was quite good, in our eyes. One candidate was very clearly the best of all of them, and we were lucky to have her agree with our conditions. We also found one interesting candidate through the French http://afjv.com website. In general, it is near to impossible to find qualified people in Belgium(unless they're immigrants). We found out that the money that we are offering is less than half of what is average in the business. But we are sort of using this limitation to make sure that people really like our project before they agree to work with us. We need this appreciation if we are going to trust their input. Our current team of freelancers consists of: Veerle Verschooris (BE) for accounting and business advice Gorik Lindemans (BE) for concept art Lina Kusaite (BE) for concept art Nathalie Jean-Bart (UK) for animation Roger Mitchell (UK) for modelling Nathalie Routin (FR) for modelling Meerkat Studios (EE) for modelling We have also found one expert Quest3D programmer, Ronald Jones (SE), who will be able to help us one day per week as of February. Steven Pickles (DE) has allround programming experience and is currently studying Quest3D in order to compliment our team in February or March. There are some 5 other people whom we can hire for modelling, animation or texturing and we even have 3 people who volunteered to work for free in the form of an apprenticeship. We have also been in touch with potential writers of the backstory but haven't found anyone whom we deem suitable yet. Contacted coproducers We have contacted a few potential coproducers but without much success. Dirk Dewit helped us find people and Karen Depoorter sent out a message to all European Media desks. We contacted Submarine, Rotterdam Schouwburg, Mediamatic, V2 and ZKM. These people are either too busy, some didn't even answer their email, or their budgets have other destinations. We will follow up on this but we're not very hopeful. The V.A.F. Animation Fund remains the most interesting option. So we will concentrate on that for now. We are still contacting commercial game publishers when the opportunity arises. One French publisher ( http://www.focus-home.com/ ) even contacted us, after the press avalanche (see below). But they are probably too small to be able to publish "8". Given the new budget of 2.5 Million, game publishers will be the most likely funders of this project, even if it may not be the trendy type of game that most of them tend to favour. We think "8" can become a very good game with a broad appeal. We are now concentrating on making demos and documents that can convince publishers of this. We think that if we can explain our project well, we have a good chance of convincing them, simply because it is so good. We had one contact with a Belgian group of venture capital investors in the game industry, but they were not interested in a game that did not come with a distribution agreement and some kind of insurance that I didn't even know existed. We are keeping them in mind as a way to produce the game if we find a publisher who can only commit to distribution. Generated first press: http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=370 After reading an article by Marek Bronstring on the Adventure Gamers website ( http://adventuregamers.com/display.php?id=318 ), we discovered that "8" could be considered an "adventure game". This was kind of a revelation for us because until then we had only been able to define the type of game "8" was by saying what it is not. So we wrote Mr. Bronstring to thank him. He was quite interested in our project and posted a short news message on his website. Apparently all websites interested in adventure games are extremely hungry for news. And adventuregamers is a popular site. So before we even realized it, news about our game was spread over the internet in languages that even Altavista's Babelfish doesn't know how to handle (though the translation from Korean was very cute). This trippled the visits to our website practically over night and got people to discuss the discriptions and screenshots of our game on several public fora. Overall people seemed to be confused but intrigued and they found the release date of January 2007 hilarious. Anyway, this was a very useful experience. And next time, we may use this medium a little more consciously. Evaluated demo feedback In October, we finished a first small demo of the game: one room (called the Formal Dining Room) with the girl in it and some sleeping people and one "vision" animation. This demo has been presented at the Level Up Conference in Utrecht and was also seen by some 60 people who downloaded it from our website (after receiving a password from us). Some 20 of them reported on their impressions. These were so unanimous that we did not bother with solliciting responses from the other demo test participants. Everybody's first reaction was delight and amazement. Every one likes the style and the atmosphere. Most people expressed confusion concerning the navigation, so we are re-working that. At the Level Up conference, we also had the opportunity to dicuss this demo with game design guru and industry veteran Ernest Adams. This was very helpful as well. He made us realize that if we make the style of our graphics unique and striking, we can get away with quite extreme things. He also pointed out that it would be important to "flesh out" the character of the player as a guardian or parent, and not just an empty camera. Redesigned parts of the engine Partially as a result of the feedback we received on our first demo, we have started to redesign the game engine somewhat. We are replacing problematic parts by simpler versions and making the whole design more modular, in preparation for collaborating with other programmers in the months to come. We would also like to release an updated demo that contains better navigation and animation blending. Cancelled symposium We had planned to do a symposium on game design on April 20, 2004, as a round-up of our Jan Van Eyck research project. But when we realized that this was taking up too much time and causing too much stress with respect to our main project of "8", we decided to cancel it. The Jan Van Eyck has expressed interest in supporting a smaller event focussed on the post-academy existence of "8" instead. We are thinking about what this could be. (A press conference, a belly dance evening?...) Defined content of next step We have decided what we are going to make in the months that follow. First on the agenda is a trailer: a short film with the purpose of making the viewer excited about the game. For this film, we will need to create extra assets that will require activity of all team members. As a result, the quality of the part of the game world that is currently available will be increased and one extra room will be added. We have met with Act-3D, the makers of Quest3D, the software we use for the programming of the game. They are willing and available for making modifications and extra elements to improve our game. They gave us good tips on improving performance and we are still emailing about this with them. Conclusion With respect to the Three Goals of this Mile Stone Plan, we can conclude the following. 1. Finish part of the Game We have re-written and finished the game design document but have added very little to the game itself. 2. Find a means to produce and publish the complete Game We have learned that finding culturally-motivated coproducers other than the V.A.F. will not be easy. We have generated some press. Which lead to being contacted by one French publisher. This person has downloaded the demo but we haven't received any response yet. The documents to present the game to potential investors have been rewritten and are much more clear now. 3. Establish a team for production of the Game We have found quite a few very talented people that we want to work with. We are learning that managing this team will become an important part of our daily schedule. And we are certain that the quality of our project will improve tremendously thanks to the input of these people. Working with them will be the best way of evaluating their suitability for full production team membership.

Document written on 12 January 2004