An' we liked it that way. 
It's the image of Laura Bow from the back of the box.Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 5:01 am no, I don't recall that image. But I was too young back then to be able to afford TCB in the shops.
'Tis a very nice homage, differences between the two images notwithstanding.
I was gonna dig up my scan - which is massive!Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 3:17 pm That's what I thought it was, but I've never seen it. *shrug*
Is there, maybe, a larger version of that image? One where I might read what the back of the box says? (Please?)
TCB reminded me very much of this locked-room mystery, plot-element-wise. There's the old man worth millions who wants to bequeath them, the jealous and fighting relatives, and the outsider sleuth who solves the mystery. (To be fair, those are fairly common elements in mystery novels). TCB is still a very good story, but it clearly owes a debt to HPC and others. May Day, May Day!
... we almost forgot to do the newsletter this month!
But fear not, we are still here... just a day late!The time is just flying by, but we're still making some great progress on the upcoming game. Our tiny little team has been working hard and putting together some new scenes for the title sequence and main Acts of the story. It's all coming along super well! Still lots to do, however... so I won't dally here too long today.
April was a pretty big month for us overall. The main highlights are a couple of big meetings that we had! So we'll skip any game development aspects this month, and just discuss what when down with those.
Activ-ate 2023!
First off, we had our next meeting with Activision - which was our first one of the year. We've also scheduled another follow up for later. It's been a long while since we last approached them, but we're still very much in the mindset of keeping Activision abreast of what we're up to. So far, it's a pleasant enough experience.
We gave them their first actual live demo of the game, playing through the introduction and initial parts of the Prologue chapter. They were very pleased to see it coming along so well! At this moment, they don't seem to have any critical feedback on it - so it seems that they're happy enough to just let us potter on and just do it the way we want to do it. They're trusting us to just continue doing great work - which is a nice position to be in.
The Microsoft acquisition is still looming over any final negotiations, however. It's been over a year already... and it keeps getting drawn out longer and longer by the MANY parties involved. The UK has unfortunately thrown a huge wrench into the works by officially declining the merger - causing Microsoft to go into an appeals process. This has the possibility of tanking our plans entirely... but we'll see how it goes. It's not over yet, and there are still some other avenues to pursue. So we're continuing on the wait-and-see path at the moment. More news should come around over the next month or two, so we'll try to update everyone in the upcoming newsletters with whatever happens there.
A Colossal Pleasure
After that, we also had a lovely call with the one and only Ken & Roberta Williams. If you're reading this newsletter, then you probably already know who they are. But just in case you don't... they are some of the biggest pioneers in gaming history, founding Sierra Online, and were the original creators of the Laura Bow series.
They have recently launched a brand new game called Colossal Cave 3D under a new company called Cygnus Entertainment. It is a reimagining of a game from the 1970s, which is what inspired them to get into game development to begin with. They are still working to improve the game and release it on other platforms.
Anyway, they appear to be wondering what might be next for them and were curious to see what we've been up to on our project. So we also gave them a live demo of the first 30 minutes or so of the game.
They both seemed extremely happy and impressed with what they saw! It was nothing but extremely positive feedback. And for two people who we've been fans of for so long... it's amazingly humble to say that they now appear to be fans of ours! So at this point they're wondering if there is any way in which they could help us with the project. We talked about many possible avenues, from marketing, to financing, to translating, to porting. Those all fall more into the publishing category of assistance - they seem to be plenty happy to just let us handle the actually development side of things. Roberta herself even mentioned "passing the torch" to us, as a trusted new generation of developers for the adventure game genre. It was truly a childhood dream come true!
So, we're not entirely sure what a partnership between NineZyme and Cygnus might look like yet. But we can definitely say that we are excited to have them supporting our efforts - and really hope to work more closely with them in some manner, heading into the future!
Obviously Activision and Microsoft would have more resources, finance-wise, than Ken and Roberta. Not that Ken and Roberta are resource-poor, of course! But somehow, if a global company or two was backing you, it seems like they'd have the dough-re-mi to do it. 
Which is silly, about UK being concerned about CoD... Sure, a great seller. But enough to be a concern?goatmeal wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2023 9:41 pm The UK Government has put a kibosh on the Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard over monopoly/anti-competitive concerns, especially for the "Call of Duty" games (one of Activision's best -- if not THE best -- sellers).
That concern is that Microsoft could make "Call of Duty" games as Xbox-only exclusives, leaving PlayStation owners (and maybe PC users) out of luck; if they want to play, they HAVE to buy/play on an Xbox.
Microsoft has claimed they wouldn't do such a thing, because they would make more money by selling to both or all 3 systems like Activision does now, rather than making it an Xbox-only game (and exclude the PlayStation). Most recent estimates of worldwide market share between the two consoles is ~70% PlayStation and ~30% Xbox:
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... ft-claims/
Microsoft is appealing the UK ruling blocking the purchase...
Microsoft had already bought quite a few studios, the biggest of which include Bethesda, ID Software, Zenimax and Double Fine Productions. Now I see why the UK government is so concerned. The thing with WoW though is that it's not exclusive to XBOX or PS. It's available on PC, which means you don't have to own the company's specific console to play it.Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 3:19 am Rats. I can kind of understand the UK government's concerns, but if Microsoft's 70/30 claim is accurate (which seems feasible), then selling Activision Blizzard games on Xbox only would be ... well ... stupid.
Why should Microsoft force Playstation (and maybe PC) owners to buy an Xbox? Or completely ignore Playstation/PC owners? I suppose they could do that, in theory, because it'd be easier for them. But then, they'd be making less money. It'd make more sense for Microsoft, business-wise, to hire Playstation and PC programmers (if they don't already have them). *shrug*
I'm also a little puzzled at the UK government's focus on the "Call of Duty" games. Of course they are big sellers, but aren't the "World of Warcraft" games even bigger? 'Call of Duty" (according to wikipedia) is certified by Guiness World Records as the biggest-selling FPS of all time. World of Warcraft (according to wiki) is "...the most popular MMORPG of all time..." and "...by 2017, had grossed over $9.23 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time."
If Microsoft owned both CoD and WoW, they'd have their hands full just keeping those two going, never mind taking on Laura Bow.
What do you think?
Like A Month To A Flame
Ok, admittedly... we nearly forgot to do the newsletter again this month! But hey, we're busy plugging away, making a great game. I'm sure you'd rather have us doing that anyway, right?
Before we get into it... if you missed the news last month, check it out! We talked about a recent chat with Activision, and a separate one with the great Roberta & Ken Williams. Some truly amazing and humbling feedback from all of them about what we are creating here!
So let's dig into the things that happened in May, shall we.
Micro-Happenings
Again, this month, we had another followup meeting with Activision. Things are starting to pick up pace there, and they seem more keen to stay regularly up to date about our progress. We've already scheduled another sync in another month-ish, also. So that's good news. Their interest has grown, and they see our project fitting nicely into a "plan" that they are exploring (which we can't quite discuss yet). However, there's not yet anything official to announce regarding our relationship with them. At this point, we're still just waiting for the dust to settle on the Microsoft acquisition deal.
Speaking of that, it's looking fairly good. The UK is still the only significant blocker, and there is an upcoming appeal case at the end of July for that - which aligns fairly close with Microsoft's originally desired deadline to get the deal closed.
Anyway, we're still in a holding pattern until that happens. But things are still looking mostly favorable for it to go through (which would be good news for our project).
The Promo Circuit
We still have a good amount of development to go before the game is 100%... but we are interested in starting to hit the promotional circuit in the near future. The game is at a point where we will probably start to put it into the hands of a select group of people, for testing and feedback. This is likely to include Activision / Microsoft, Roberta Williams, some key people who helped get the game going, and maybe even a handful of fans/reviewers out there.
Also, we have just submitted an application to be part of Adventure Expo 2023 this November. So hopefully we'll be attending that, for our first public showing of the game. We'll let you know if we get accepted - then you can swing by to see the game in action, if you're in the London area (Nov 4th & 5th). There was a hope of attending Gamescom in August too, but it turned out to be prohibitively expensive for now. Maybe next year we can do that, and find a space in the Activision / Microsoft booth.
Icing On The Cake
On top of that, we've also done a lot of great game development (that's kinda an important bit of all of this, ya know). We've been testing and polishing up a lot of the earlier parts of the game, getting ready to bring some voice actors back "into the studio", and making some great progress on the environments for the main story chapters.
The entire cast of characters is close to being 100% done. Fully modeled, textured, rigged, etc. That's a big milestone! There are only a couple of "special appearance" ones for the end of the game that still need doing. So we'd imagine maybe 2 more months and we'll be done with them all. That's great progress! There are 26 unique characters, plus 17+ variations of them, plus 8 unique animals - all done by 1 character artist!
Finally, let's finish it off with a new screenshot, since we haven't done one in a while... enjoy!
Re-re-re-looking at the 'new' Laura, she seems more up-to-date and less 'naive' than the 'old' Laura (if I may describe 'old Laura' as naive? At various times - e.g. Laura getting off the train at the beginning of LB2 and someone takes her suitcase - I found myself shaking my head and thinking "Really, Laura, you couldn't see this coming?" Break Me Off A Piece
A big hello to all the Laura Bow fans out there. As we continue to await the shakedown from the Microsoft Activision deal, we are currently all enjoying our mid year break!
Hope you all are enjoying your summer or winter breaks too!
We’ll be back next monthly to chat more about our progress on the game. See you then!
Back In Action
Hey everyone. Welcome back to another (nearly forgotten) month news update about our upcoming adventure game!
We have been back from our mid-year break for a bit now, and are actively working away to bring you the latest installment of the Laura Bow franchise. Anyway, we'll keep this short, and get back to working on the game that you're waiting on.
Merger Right Ahead
We are still awaiting the outcome of the Microsoft and Activision merger. The original deadline has come and gone; things got renegotiated; more talks are being held; etc etc. It's been a long long road. We are currently waiting on a new verdict from the CMA (the UK anti-trust organization) which should hopefully come through next week. I don't think Microsoft will go down easily on this, but there is still a chance that the entire deal might fall through. As a result, any true legal agreements are still on hold until it all goes one way or another.
Anyway, we are continuing to have regular meetings with Activision these days. They still seem keen to chat with us about the project - so we believe it is something that certain people in the organization would really like to make official. So all we can do is continue down this route for now and see how it goes.
The Flip Side
We have continued to keep in touch with Ken and Roberta Williams, also. They are still very keen to help out with the project in some fashion (mostly as a publishing role). It's great to have them supporting us, even if it's just in spirit for the time being. Once we get further along in development, we'll see where everyone is at, and re-evaluate what makes the most sense.
Unfortunately, we did not end up getting invited to participate in Adventure Expo 2023 in London this November. The competition was steep, and spots were extremely limited. We can only assume that they are mostly interested in games closer to their release dates, and actively in a Greenlight stage... or we just didn't send them a complete enough demo to spark their interest. Either way, we'll try again next year, and see how that goes - along with some other conferences (hopefully).
Anyway, we'll leave you with that for now... and come back next month with some new information, and maybe more screenshots (if we can avoid spoilers).
