| Tale of Tales “8” VAF Mile Stone Plan |
REPORT
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Step 8: " |
| Introduction |
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As per the revision proposed in step 6 and accepted in step 7, this step is about quite the opposite of desperation.
Having found a publisher, and the interest of several others, we are quite confident that there will be no need for desperation or any backup plans.
We just made a mistake in our estimates of how much time it would take to come to a final publishing agreement.
As a result, and as the VAF has accepted when accepting the plan revision, there is no finished product that we can present at this final step, other than our second proof-of-concept demo, "The Theater Gallery Tragedy", already on disk in your possession. What we have made during this period is a solid first step towards making a complete game on a professional level. Which is quite a unique thing since
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| Design & Documentation |
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We have finished the design and the documentation of the complete game. We have succeeded in crystalizing the core gameplay experience into
one page.
The narrative elements are of course a little more complex to describe.
And many environments and characters will need some more details before the concept artists can do their work properly.
But we now know exactly which and how many rooms, characters, animations, objects and software systems we are going to make.
We have also been preparing materials for our presentations in Lyon (see "Game Connection"), including demo's of the newly designed toolkit interface and illustrations for our new ideas about spellcasting.   
Lina Kusaite's vision of how the new dramatic spellcasting will look. |
| Publishers |
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In our continuing saga of communicating with publishers, we have received a negative answer from Eidos, who misinterpreted the game as being for children. Other reasons were that "8" is a PC-only game, while Eidos want to publish for consoles as well and the known experience and technology risk factor.
The Polish publisher Techland has shown interest and Ubisoft Germany is probably going to transfer evaluation of "8" to Ubisoft France, with whom we hope to be meeting during the Game Connection event in Lyon in the second week of December. Last but not least, we have heard from The Man at Dreamcatcher, Mr. Robert Stevenson. He confirmed the interest that his company has in our project, requested schedule and budget information and offered to write a Letter of Intent to include in our next funding request for the V.A.F. |
| Game Connection |
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We are participating in an event called "Game Connecton" that takes place in Lyon, France, on 6, 7 and 8 December.
This event is organized with the express purpose of having game developers and publishers meet with each other and discuss possible collaborations.
Dreamcatcher may be participating in the event as well, in which case we'll have the opportunity to talk to Mr. Stevenson in person.
To our great relief, Atari has refused to meet us during this event. We are avoiding the big publishers like Atari, Electronic Arts, Sony, Microsoft, Capcom and Namco because of their extreme focus on commerce and lack of attention for the creative aspects of game development. But since we've had some communication with Atari before, we felt we should give them a final chance to redeem themselves. The great exception to this rule would be Ubisoft, a big publisher who is the only one of its size with the courage to publish a large array of very different and original games. Nintendo being the other exception, who -perhaps because of its current underdog position with relation to Microsoft and Sony- have been very outspoken about innovation (and we consider their Gamecube to be the most suitable console for "8", if "8" were ever to be published on a console). Another big one who still gets a chance with us is Sega, because of their sporadic interest in artistically interesting games like Rez and Children of the Nile. But in general we are looking to talk with small and medium-sized publishers at the Game Connection. Mainly to establish more contacts within the industry which may be of help if we fail to get a deal with Dreamcatcher or to distribute in geographic regions not covered by Dreamcatcher. So far, we have confirmed meetings with
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| New team members |
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We have discovered that producers/project managers can be very expensive in the game industry. Especially if they come from the U.K., where the most experienced ones in Europe tend to reside. We have had to turn down two worthwhile candidates because their salary would weigh too heavily on the production. We finally ended up with Lorraine Starr, a producer who used to work with Acclaim in the U.K. But because she was unavailable when we needed someone to make our schedule, we started working with Paul Chamberlain, who runs a small
games management company in the same country.
Peter Kempton will be our senior modeler, also known as The Girl Doctor. He will re-design, re-model and re-rig our main character of the deaf mute little girl, once again. Hopefully this time, to our satisfaction. Another British talent, he has worked the past five years on "Republic: The Revolution" with the famous Elixir Studios. We have given the jobs of extra concept artist and atmosphere painter to a couple from France who combine extreme talents with impressive experience. Claire & Guillaume Bonamy are very happy to be given the opportunity to work together and the first results are smashing. Guillaume has worked for Dreamworks Studios, Hahn Films and Quantic Dream. Claire's portfolio might not be equally impressive but, judging from the test drawings that she has made for us, all she was waiting for was a good opportunity to display her remarkable talents. Their style is also very compatible with that of our main character designer, Lina Kusaite.  
Concept for the Lustgarten and its population. Results of a test commission for Guillaume and Claire Bonamy. And finally we found another suitable Belgian! A Fleming no less. Koen Van Mierlo, a young Sint Lukas Brussel graduate with already two years of solid game industry experience with Playlogic, will be writing scenarios and storyboards for animations in the game. Next he will direct the work of the animators on these films. And he will help set up the rigs and skinning of the characters. |
| Schedule |
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We have collected the necessary data that will allow us to make a perfect schedule and budget:
Paul Chamberlain is using this data to make a schedule and a budget that we will present to Dreamcatcher before the end of the month.
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| Press |
Our first interview in a games magazine has been published!
It's only a
small online magazine
dealing exclusively with adventure games, but still.
We know it is read by developers and publishers interested in the genre. So it will surely help the project become better known.
It's called
The Inventory.
A six page article about "8" in a magazine devoted to adventure games. We will also be hosting two hours of The Inventory's online birthday party on Friday 29 November between 19 and 21 GMT+1. This means that we will be available for answering questions during those 2 hours on The Inventory's web forum. We will be sharing the spotlights with illustrious adventure game developers like Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry), Autumn Moon Entertainment (Curse of Monkey Island, A Vampyre Story), House of Tales (The Moment of Silence), Pendulo Studios (Runaway), White Birds Productions (Benoît Sokal's new company) and many others. |
| Conclusion |
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This was the final step of the mile stone plan and we are happy to say that we have achieved all of the Three Goals we had set for ourselves.
1. Finish part of the Game We have solidified and finished the complete game design to a point where we can make an exact schedule for production. And with Demo 2: The Theater Gallery Tragedy, we have finished a small part of the game in a style that is representative of the potential and direction of the final product. This demo is still lacking in terms of interaction, drama and performance. But we know where the problems are and have ideas on how to solve them. 2. Find a means to produce and publish the complete Game We have found an ideal publisher in Dreamcatcher, a medium-sized Canadian publisher with a European branch. They have a label that specializes in adventure games (The Adventure Company), the genre in which "8" seems to fit best. The producer with whom we will be working directly, Thomas Neveu, deeply understands our project and we look forward to a very pleasant collaboration. If for some reason, we would ultimately fail to come to an agreement with Dreamcatcher, there are several other publishers and distributors that have shown interest as well. And no doubt we will find more after the Lyon event in early December. 3. Establish a team for production of the Game We have found the key members of our team. And several others. Here's a list of people who will be working on the production:
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| Thank you |
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We are deeply grateful to the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds for giving us the opportunity to achieve what was deemed virtually impossible by all known standards. It has been a very pleasant and rewarding experience for us. And we hope you are satisfied with the results.
This project has allowed us, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, to grow from solitary artists working on relatively obscure projects with limited technical means to an experienced team capable of developing an ambitious project with much higher artistic and technological standards and wider appeal. If all goes well this may lead to an important contribution to the maturing of game development as an art form (ironically coming from a country where game development as an industry has been virtually non-existent). We are grateful for the trust and faith that the V.A.F. team has given us and look forward to continued succesful collaboration. |