Laura Bow 3 (was Laura Bow and the Mechanical Codex)

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

I just checked out NineZyne’s website. The character designs and room models all currently appear the same, but any mentions of the name “Laura Bow” have currently been removed. The plot summary also now refers to the “New York Daily Tribune”, omitting “Register News”. Having checked out the site on the Wayback Machine, I see these omissions were already in place in December, so they might’ve been running into snags with Activision prior to the acquisition, or else were just playing it safe until legal issues were sorted. But they could now be in the process of transforming the game into just a spiritual successor rather than true sequel.

I’m anxious for their next newsletter. Im sure there’ll be some interesting (hopefully not all bad) updates.

[Tawmis]

I just checked out NineZyne’s website. The character designs and room models all currently appear the same, but any mentions of the name “Laura Bow” have currently been removed. The plot summary also now refers to the “New York Daily Tribune”, omitting “Register News”. Having checked out the site on the Wayback Machine, I see these omissions were already in place in December, so they might’ve been running into snags with Activision prior to the acquisition, or else were just playing it safe until legal issues were sorted. But they could now be in the process of transforming the game into just a spiritual successor rather than true sequel.

I’m anxious for their next newsletter. Im sure there’ll be some interesting (hopefully not all bad) updates.

Well back in June of 2020, they were saying that's where Laura relocated to "New York Daily Tribune"
Back in 2019 and in June 2020...

A Place To Sit And Sleuth
Every reporter needs a place to research, write, and edit all of those hot press articles. Laura Bow is no exception! At the relocated offices of The New York Daily News Tribune, Laura is set up better than ever. She is also more established in her career than the previous game, and has "settled in" a bit more permanently - with a couple of knickknacks to adorn her workspace. All ready for any new reports that find their way to her desk... and a brand new story of mystery and intrigue!

[Tawmis]

Aaaand, we're back!

Heya there all of you point-n-click fans out there... we hope all of you had a pleasant holiday season. We are back with our regularly scheduled monthly newsletters and have been swiftly building away on the game for the past couple of months - minus a bit of an end-of-year break in the middle of things there.

Let's dig right into what we've been up to, shall we!?
Milestone Schedule

When we started the relationship with our funding partners, we put ourselves on a 2-month Milestone schedule. So every two months we do a progress report to them, to demonstrate what we have accomplished in the prior two months. And if they are happy with the progress, we proceed on and everything is hunky dory.

So far this process is going great! We just finished our 2nd official Milestone, and it is finally starting to look and play like a proper game at this point. All the pieces are starting to come together. Over the course of this upcoming Milestone (Feb and Mar) we are hoping to have a fully playable first chapter of the game. Granted, many animations, cutscenes, and audio won't be in just yet... but you should be able to play from the start of the game through to the end of the Prologue. That's a significant step! And it seems fairly achievable at this point. There's still a lot to do to get there - but we're feeling good about setting that deadline.

After that, it will be all about polishing that Prologue content and continuing to build the primary scenes for Act 1 of the main story (which is also already underway).
Adding Some Character

What better way to add character to something then to... well... add a new character! So with that, here is the latest from our Character Artist. Her name is Juliette, and she's a patent clerk by day, and speakeasy singer by night. What's her real story? You'll have to wait to find out.

Providing that "Lived In" Look

Characters aren't the only thing that bring the world to life! There are lots of bits and bobs that need to be made in order to fill the scenes and give them a sense that someone has been there... that things have taken place. Let's show off a few more ambient items that have been made with this in mind - including some lovely magazines covers with hand drawn images of the majority of our development team.

[Rath Darkblade]

Ooh! All right -- let's play "Guess what that item is"!

From top to bottom:

- Camera
- Magazine covers
- Knob (for lamp? Definitely not for central heating, too early for that)
- Office equipment
- Sack (of grain? Possibly for making alcohol?)
- Bottle of hooch
- Difficult. A shattered pot of some kind?
- Jerrycan

What do you reckon these things are, Tawm?

[Tawmis]

Ooh! All right -- let's play "Guess what that item is"!

From top to bottom:

- Camera
- Magazine covers
- Knob (for lamp? Definitely not for central heating, too early for that)
- Office equipment
- Sack (of grain? Possibly for making alcohol?)
- Bottle of hooch
- Difficult. A shattered pot of some kind?
- Jerrycan

What do you reckon these things are, Tawm?

Close to what you think...
It's a knob, for sure - but I don't think for a lamp. Something that has three levels. So I was thinking like a washer or dryer... but not sure how that'd tie into the game.
The sack... I think it's maybe coffee beans? Something hidden in the coffee beans perhaps?
You could be right about the broken pottery... I had thought it was crumpled paper.
And I assume Jerrycan is the Aussie version of gas can.

[Rath Darkblade]

A jerrycan is an old term for a gas can. I looked it up -- here -- and found that it was developed in Germany in the 1930s. I presume that's where the name came from, since "Jerry" is an old, World-War-2 British insult for Germans.

[Tawmis]

This is good news!

Curious - since you guys approached Activision about Laura Bow - with Microsoft's recent acquisition - does that change anything?

Hi Tawmis!
Indeed, it does! We have a much better and closer relationship to Microsoft than we do with Activision. And Microsoft is a lot more supportive of small indie projects. We were actually starting to make good progress with Activision... but we are significantly more optimistic now that Microsoft is in the picture. Unfortunately, though... this is likely to delay the process of finally making it formalized. Any deals of this nature will be postponed until 2023, most likely.
-- NineZyme

[Rath Darkblade]

This is good news!

Curious - since you guys approached Activision about Laura Bow - with Microsoft's recent acquisition - does that change anything?

Hi Tawmis!
Indeed, it does! We have a much better and closer relationship to Microsoft than we do with Activision. And Microsoft is a lot more supportive of small indie projects. We were actually starting to make good progress with Activision... but we are significantly more optimistic now that Microsoft is in the picture. Unfortunately, though... this is likely to delay the process of finally making it formalized. Any deals of this nature will be postponed until 2023, most likely.
-- NineZyme

To paraphrase Homer Simpson: "2023? Aww, but I want it now!" No, honestly, I'm ready to wait. It's all good.

I'm just surprised that Microsoft is supportive of small indie projects, given their reputation in the 1990s. But with the growth of indie games in the past decade or two, perhaps it was inevitable?

The games market isn't dominated only by behemoths like Sierra, LucasArts and Blizzard any more. Lots of people are making games ... which gives you lots of choice, sure, but which also makes it harder to choose.

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

This is good news!

Curious - since you guys approached Activision about Laura Bow - with Microsoft's recent acquisition - does that change anything?

Hi Tawmis!
Indeed, it does! We have a much better and closer relationship to Microsoft than we do with Activision. And Microsoft is a lot more supportive of small indie projects. We were actually starting to make good progress with Activision... but we are significantly more optimistic now that Microsoft is in the picture. Unfortunately, though... this is likely to delay the process of finally making it formalized. Any deals of this nature will be postponed until 2023, most likely.
-- NineZyme

Good news INDEED! I was expecting the complete opposite, but am so relieved to learn otherwise. I’m not at all concerned about delays, as long as they have the time they need to deliver their vision.

[Tawmis]

Good news INDEED! I was expecting the complete opposite, but am so relieved to learn otherwise. I’m not at all concerned about delays, as long as they have the time they need to deliver their vision.

Agreed.

[Rath Darkblade]

I just hope their vision isn't interfered with by middle managers (e.g. "Wouldn't it be cool if...") and marketing managers (e.g. "Can't you go any faster?! We need this game out the door by Christmas!!!"), etc.

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

I just hope their vision isn't interfered with by middle managers (e.g. "Wouldn't it be cool if...") and marketing managers (e.g. "Can't you go any faster?! We need this game out the door by Christmas!!!"), etc.

It’s been 30 years since the last LB game, I’m sure nobody will mind waiting a little longer. Also, I don’t think demand for this type of game is exactly generating “Call of Duty” levels of anticipation for most people. Obviously we’re all anxious for it, but this is more of a niche genre nowadays.

[MusicallyInspired]

As much as Microsoft has been hated over the years, Phil Spencer has been doing a great job with XBox and Microsoft Gaming. I've only ever been optimistic about the acquisition (forthcoming acquisition, that is. It's still not finalized and could be blocked, though I don't believe it will be).

[Rath Darkblade]

Fair enough. TBH, I haven't heard any news about Microsoft in a while ... but my comments re: middle managers and marketing managers wasn't meant as a dig at Microsoft -- just at interfering managers. I've had a few over the years, myself.

[Tawmis]

Marching Forward!

Hello again, everyone!

We are back for another monthly newsletter to talk about our progress on Laura Bow's next big adventure. Lots of great stuff has been happening, although the time is disappearing quicker and quicker with each passing month. There is a ton more work to be done, but we are very happy with the quality of game we are putting together so far. We really believe that all of you classic fans out there will be quite impressed with our vision of a modern day point-n-click adventure!
Allow Myself To Introduce... Myself

Previously, we have shared a snippet or two from our intended intro cinematic. Well, we have made some more great progress on it recently, and will be revealing a video of it in the near future. We are still working on some finishing touches to it, and have our audio team doing a pass on it as well - but we hope to have it ready to show off sometime this month! If we do manage to finish it, we will post a video on Facebook and share that link in the next newsletter as well.

There will eventually be a pre-intro cinematic which relates more to the story... but we haven't started working on that one just yet. This particular cinematic is meant to establish the setting that Laura finds herself in at the start of the game (New York City & the newspaper office).

Anyway, here is a little preview image from it...

The InterActions Within

Another aspect which has had a lot of focus lately are the interactive elements in the game. We've been mostly focused on the interior of the office, since this is where a large chunk of the gameplay takes place in the prologue chapter. So we now have a fully interactive telephone, typewriter, notice board, office entrance area, filing cabinet, coffee station, Sam's office, Laura's desk area, radio, etc. And everything works with mouse, keyboard, or gamepad controls! We're getting fairly close to done with the interactions inside the office! Just a couple more to go - and a lot of dialog to hook up still!

We are also well on the way with the other scenes in the prologue as well!

More Artistic Power!

We'd also like to take the opportunity to mention a new team member we have this month - our new concept artist, Anastasiia! We are very excited to have her on the team, and look forward to her help on many of the upcoming scenes that we will be working on in the near future.

She lives in Ukraine and is unfortunately going through this terrible crisis here in Europe. Her family has had to flee their home in Kyiv - however, at this moment, they are thankfully unharmed. That being said, the harrowing events they are living through right now is both disturbing and heartbreaking. We fully stand with the Ukrainian people throughout these events!