Laura Bow and the Mechanical Codex

[Tawmis]

Aaand we wait...

Hello to all of you Laura Bow and Sierra Online fans out there! You know the drill, so let's just jump right into this month's newsletter.

The latest on the Microsoft / Activision saga is... [drum roll please]... we are still waiting. The CMA in the UK is holding everything up, and it looks like it'll be a few more weeks before we know the results of it. We'll keep you posted when we learn more. Otherwise, we're still regularly speaking with Activision about the project - and waiting to see how the chips fall.

In the meantime, we're still plugging ahead...
We Need Your Support!

As we look closer at our development timeline and budget, it's clear that we're going to need a little bit more money than we have in order to get this thing fully over the line. We have been brainstorming some methods of bringing in some income while we continue to build the game... so we've decided to start releasing some of the game development tools that we have created for this game as purchasable assets. We are using the Unity 3D engine to create the project, and they have a nice online store where people can publish their assets to be sold to other lucky developers.

We have broken out several of our tools and components that we plan to release for sale, and the first one up now! Some are small, and others will be more substantial. This first one is just a simple little utility which improves upon some of the default functionality in the Unity Engine... and also adds a new way for designers to determine game logic without needing to write extra code.

So if you'd like to support our game development goals with this project... you could really help us out by purchasing this little asset. You don't need to be a fellow game developer, or even understand what it does. Just know that every purchase goes directly back into the development of the game!

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/236016

Thanks in advance for any of you who would be willing to help out! Just click the link (or image) above, and you'll be taken to the purchase page. From there, log in with your email account, add it to your cart, and go through the payment steps. Easy peasy!
Big Milestone Achieved

This month, will we be hitting a major milestone in our development! Our very last character is currently in the process of being made... and will be done this month. And that's it! We will have the full cast of characters for the entire game, completely modeled, textured, and set up for animation.

It's a big step! And we're happy to have made it this far. So go and congratulate the team if you see any of them floating around your socials.
Blah Blah Blah Blah

Otherwise, another big milestone is finalizing the script for the first chapter of the game... and getting in the last bits of voice acting for that section. This work should also be done this month!

All in all, the first chapter will have around 40,000 words for the script! That's the size of a short novel. And that's just one chapter! There are still four to go. So when this puppy is complete, it's going to be one massively long script, equivalent to around three average sized novels!

Wish us luck getting all that text written! It's one big job, yet still only one small part of the project as a whole.

[Rath Darkblade]

Um - what happened here? I posted a reply to this thread, and now it's gone. (Yes - again.)

I was trying to say that:

a. The Activision / Microsoft thing is beginning to look like more trouble than it's worth.

b. Unfortunately, the development tool doesn't sound like something I can use.

c. 40,000 words is a lot of words. I know it sounds obvious, but I've written multiple short novellas of about 50-60K words, and it takes a long time to get them finished, even though I make a habit of writing about 2,000 words a week; but after that, I get them critiqued, then do the editing and polishing myself.

I usually get through about 2-3 drafts for each chapter.

So yes, I thoroughly understand why the 'writing' process (like any creative process) usually takes a long time.

[Tawmis]

Falling Ahead

Aaand we're back this month for another update on our upcoming Laura Bow point and click adventure game! We hope you're all enjoying the start of Fall. This one is going to be a quick one, though... cause we've got a lot going on at the moment.

Anyway, we made some solid progress the past month. Characters are done, more scripts are being written, new environments being made, cinematic being animated. Etc etc. All great stuff!

We also posted a new video of some gameplay and recent voice acting... so if you happened to miss it, just click on the image below to check it out. Let us know what you think of it!

Thanks, and see ya next month.

[Rath Darkblade]

This looks awesome. I love Laura's model and her voice, not to mention the work done on the telephone to make sure it sounds and spins right.

I'm just confused; where are all the reporters (other than Rube)?

[Tawmis]

I'm just confused; where are all the reporters (other than Rube)?

Dem'mo likely to appear later.

[notbobsmith]

I really like the overall look. The character designs look great. Not too real and not too "cartoony". And they really put some effort in the design of the office. I like the "blown out" lighting from the windows and the reflections in the floor.

[Rath Darkblade]

I really like the overall look. The character designs look great. Not too real and not too "cartoony".

I agree. Laura and Rube look very good indeed. I also like the slightly-scratchy effect on the voice on the phone; early phones were like that.

I'm also old enough to remember rotary phones, and I like the rotary phone sound effect; I know it's a small thing, but it sounds just right. (Rotary phones made a comeback recently; I'm not sure if they're still a thing, but I found some rotary models for sale that look similar to the phone in this video. Art Deco can be very beautiful. The phone in this video looks more like a functional, no-nonsense model - just the thing for an office).

And they really put some effort in the design of the office. I like the "blown out" lighting from the windows and the reflections in the floor.

Agreed! The reflections on the floor and the lighting from the windows are highlights (no pun intended). Not everyone would put in so much effort.

[Tawmis]

One, Two, Three...

Yup, that's how many days that we kept procrastinating (ie. forgetting) about writing the newsletter this month, ha! But hey, we're here now, so you can rest easy.

This past month the focus was mostly on Environment Art and getting the 18 scenes for Act 1 entirely done (there were only 9 for the Prologue chapter). We're getting pretty close to that at this point! A few scenes are still a work in progress; and there are some smaller ones that we haven't started yet; and, of course, I'm sure there will be some tweaks/additions here and there to all of them over the course of production; but overall we made some very good strides.

We've also been working on the very End of the game. Yup, that's right - working on the end before the middle is done. That's mainly due to the fact that the ending takes place in some scenes that we have already visited. And we also want to make sure the ending gets the time and attention it deserves - instead of scrambling to put something together when we're out of budget, tired, and hungry, at the end of the project.

Anyway, we're trying to keep some of the main story parts of the game under wraps (to avoid spoilers so early on) - so we won't be revealing too much from here on out. But perhaps you'll still get some slightly vague out-of-context closeups like this every now and then. So we hope you enjoy those for the time being.

Wonder Twin Powers... Activision!

(See what I did there?)

On the topic of the whole Activision / Microsoft kerfuffle... we're excited to say that the deal is finally done! Yay! Microsoft now officially owns Activision and all of their intellectual properties.

This is good news for us, as we have a much better relationship with Microsoft than we did with Activision. So things are looking pretty good that we can soon move forward on a more official capacity. And it appears that our contacts at Activision will remain in the loop, so they can hopefully help kick things in the right direction, when the time is right.

That being said, we're still going to be waiting a while. The dust needs to settle on the merger, and they'll need to figure out some strategies and whatnot before they delve into anything new. So we've probably still got several more months before we have any further updates on that front.

Anyway, stay tuned for that! It'll be an interesting ride, at the very least...

[Rath Darkblade]

Working on the END of the game is interesting. Having an idea of how your game should end is good - then you can work towards it.

Also, I'm wondering about this:

But perhaps you'll still get some slightly vague out-of-context closeups like this every now and then. So we hope you enjoy those for the time being.

Um, those? There's only one.

[Tawmis]

Probably more of the close ups in the upcoming "monthly" updates.

[Tawmis]

A New Year Is Upon Us!

Ta-da! Did we throw you for a loop this year? Normally we would be speaking to you in December and skipping the January newsletter due to our end-of-year-break... however, we decided to mix it all up on you this time, because we're crazy like that. Someone needs to keep you on your toes, ya know.

Anyhow, we're back for a brand new year of adventure! Let's get into what we can expect to see in 2024!

Also, if any of you have some fun new year predictions, send them our way. We love hearing those kinds of things...
Putting It Under The Microsoft

In Q1 of 2024, we expect to see the dust settle on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision/Blizzard. This hopefully means that some new initiatives will be realistically discussed, including making our project official (finally) and also the King's Quest remastering project by our friends over at The Odd Gentlemen. And who knows, maybe some other things related to Sierra's back catalog.

We have a good relationship with Microsoft, so we're excited to involve them in our previous discussions with Activision. Hopefully that can help drive some of these things home... and also maybe open some doors for other future projects.

Anyway, we'll keep you posted on our upcoming talks with them...
There's No $ In Team

This year, we will unfortunately also see the contracts of most of our team members expire. The original plan was to keep everyone on throughout March 2024, and hopefully have enough done by then in order to keep on only the absolutely necessary people to finish the game - and move everyone else to a part-time / on-demand contracts for the occasional extra piece of content here and there.

So... do we actually have enough done in order to continue with that original plan?? Well, not really - we're admittedly not as far along as we had hoped to be at this point. And while that is quite a common scenario for this industry, it's always a bit disappointing to be behind schedule. The team has done some amazing work, and we did get quite a lot done - but there's still a solid amount of work remaining that needs doing.

That being said, we do still need to stick to the original plan, since that's what our budget allocated for. So, unless we can come up with another way to support our team members, we will unfortunately have to say goodbye to them, for now, until something else can be arranged. We have become quite close as a team, however, so hopefully we will find some way to stick together and keep doing what we do!

What's The Adventure Plan?

So, what happens from here? There are actually quite a few possibilities! It's a bit of a dice roll on which one is most likely to get us where we need to be... but at least there are some very possible avenues (that's more than many developers have out there). It might even involve all of them combined, who knows.

First and foremost, we're planning to keep pursuing our relationship with Microsoft/Activision and see if we can build something concrete there. It's very possible that, if we reach some official agreement, that it would also include additional funding to keep the team together and finish the remaining aspects of the game. That would be the most convenient arrangement for us, overall. Although, seeing as the merger took WAY longer than anyone expected (we've been "on hold" for 2 years now), it's very possible that this could also take so long that the team will be forced to move on to other gigs before we see anything officially signed off on. And getting everyone back together at that point might not be an option anymore.

As another possibility... Ken & Roberta Williams have seen a demo of our game, and they're quite impressed by it so far! They have suggested that maybe a publishing agreement between us and their new company (Cygnus) would be possible... which might also include some funding for the remaining parts of the project. We would still ideally like Microsoft's involvement for the license, however... otherwise, a rebrand would be necessary. But with Ken and Roberta helping to promote things, that could potentially make up for it!

A third possibility would be to focus the team on something MUCH smaller for our remaining time, and try to get something together in quick order in an attempt to raise funds. And also focus on sellable parts of things that we have built to make this game. Of course, that relies on the success of whatever we make - but it would also keep us independent from any other contractual obligations. That would perhaps be the best case scenario, if it works (for various reasons)... but it's also a gamble.

Another option would be to just pull the trigger on a rebrand of the game, and attempt a crowdfunding campaign for the remaining required budget. It's not a horrible option - but not super desirable either. And we may very well not hit our funding goals (especially with a rebrand).

The least appealing option of all, of course, would be for all of us to return to working at other gigs... and continue this project in our spare time. It would take forever - but eventually, it could still come together.

Anyway, that's a lot of stuff, I know! Whatever happens, we're committed to getting the game done in one way or another. We've come this far, and we want to see it through!

If anyone out there has any other ideas or advice... feel free to shoot us a message and let us know what you think would be best. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Long Story Short

... too late, I know.

We are still here, plugging away on a sequel to the beloved Laura Bow series of games! It's going to be an interesting year, one way or another... and we're happy to have you on this [not-so] little adventure with us.

At the very least, we hope to release the first chapter of the game this year for people to play, in some fashion. Of course, if we end up under some new contractual obligations, we may not be allowed to do that... but we'll try our best to make that happen.

Happy New Year! We hope everyone is happy and healthy...

The Fog Of Brain Is Real!

Hey, it's a new year... and we're still not fully awake from our holiday slumber. But we forgot to mention something from our last newsletter!

To go along with our "sellables" concept that we discussed before, we have not one, but TWO new assets for sale in the Unity Asset Store!! We have been waiting on these to be approved for 2-3 months now, and they have both just arrived on the store this week.

If you are a fellow game developer in Unity... or you'd just be keen to help us keep the lights on and continue development on our Laura Bow game... please check them out and see if you might be interested in purchasing them. We'd also really appreciate some positive reviews, if you do buy them!

Here are some links and rough information.

Hierarchy Messages

This one is a simple yet very useful debugging and validation tool which helps view potential errors and other useful information at a glance. Take a look and see if it would be useful for your project!

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/264667

Grass Generator

Ever wanted to just quickly paint some thick and lush grass directly into your Unity scenes? Well our new grass generator tool has now been approved on the Unity Asset Store! Check it out and let us know what you think.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/268716

[Rath Darkblade]

Well ... that's a heck of a lot of news.

Putting It Under The Microsoft

In Q1 of 2024, we expect to see the dust settle on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision/Blizzard...

So, what happens from here? There are actually quite a few possibilities...

First possibility: we're planning to keep pursuing our relationship with Microsoft/Activision...

2nd possibility -- Ken & Roberta Williams have seen a demo of our game, and they're quite impressed by it so far! They have suggested that maybe a publishing agreement between us and their new company (Cygnus) would be possible...

3rd possibility - to focus the team on something MUCH smaller for our remaining time, and try to get something together in quick order in an attempt to raise funds...

4th option -- just pull the trigger on a rebrand of the game, and attempt a crowdfunding campaign for the remaining required budget.

The least appealing option of all, of course, would be for all of us to return to working at other gigs... and continue this project in our spare time.

Far be it from me to advise them what to do, of course. It also seems like it depends on Microsoft, and that looks like it will take forever.

I wonder if Microsoft is actively hoping that the team would be forced to tell people "Sorry, there's not enough money for everyone", and then people would go their separate ways ... and THEN Microsoft will swoop in and replace them with their own team? *shrug* I know, I know -- that sounds like Microsoft has an eeeevil plan, moo-ha-ha-ha, Saturday morning cartoons etc. But is it possible? (Again, yes - anything is POSSIBLE. The question is, is it even plausible?)

The second option (i.e. working with Ken and Roberta) sounds like a good idea too. Ken & Roberta have the necessary resources and loads of experience and connections. I wonder what they would ask in return, though. I'm sure they wouldn't work with the Laura Bow team just because they love the idea. (It would be nice, sure -- but I doubt it).

Fingers crossed that something would come up.

[Tawmis]

Well ... that's a heck of a lot of news.
I wonder if Microsoft is actively hoping that the team would be forced to tell people "Sorry, there's not enough money for everyone", and then people would go their separate ways ... and THEN Microsoft will swoop in and replace them with their own team? *shrug* I know, I know -- that sounds like Microsoft has an eeeevil plan, moo-ha-ha-ha, Saturday morning cartoons etc. But is it possible? (Again, yes - anything is POSSIBLE. The question is, is it even plausible?)
The second option (i.e. working with Ken and Roberta) sounds like a good idea too. Ken & Roberta have the necessary resources and loads of experience and connections. I wonder what they would ask in return, though. I'm sure they wouldn't work with the Laura Bow team just because they love the idea. (It would be nice, sure -- but I doubt it).
Fingers crossed that something would come up.

Well, the thing is - even if Microsoft did the wait - and hope they don't have enough funds - they would not have to surrender their content at all to Microsoft. They'd just go with Option 4 which was the Crowd-Funding Route under a new game name (like "The Roaring 20's Mystery!"). So there is no way for Microsoft to claim what the company has already done.

As for Ken & Roberta - I wouldn't say they have the "necessary resources" - according to their site - Cygnus currently has twelve full time workers, all of whom are independent contractors. Ken Williams is the Managing Partner of the LLC, and Roberta Williams serves as the Creative Director - so it's not like they have a sole company with these employees. What Ken & Roberta DO have for sure is their name and their success rate with games. Which is a very good thing to have.

I do wonder if they did it under Ken & Roberta, if the game would still need to be re-branded, if they don't go through Microsoft. Because, I assume (I have no idea how the smaller game IPs work) - that with the acquisition - the "Laura Bow" games now fall under Microsoft's umbrella.

So I am sure some form of permission or lease of the IP would need to be gained through Microsoft.

[Rath Darkblade]

I agree, Tawm. I'm not suggesting that Microsoft is hoping to swoop in and grab everything that they've done, and as you said, that would be illegal anyway. I just wonder if Microsoft has something against the team that's currently working on the project? *shrug* Some personal or financial motive? I wouldn't be surprised. Many years ago, a company I was working in was taken over by new management, and they brought in their own staff -- only to help, they claimed -- but then they went around undermining staff morale by doing things like:

1. Claiming that their staff could "do our job" and do it cheaper
2. Having shouting matches with existing staff (in one case, one of our admin staff had to take leave to be with her sick dad in hospital, and she was harangued over it)
3. Wasting money by buying plants to "pretty up" the office but not taking care of the plants, so they died
4. Allowing their own staff to abuse us (e.g. I was verbally abused by one of their accountants, and when I complained, I was told to just "suck it up" and "not be a whinger")
5. Etc.

Needless to say, the old staff left in droves. (I stayed long enough to be fired, so they'd have to pay me severance pay. It was hard). But last I heard, the middle management that gave us all a hard time were all sacked not long after I left. Good. IIRC, one of them bullied me into lifting very heavy things because "You're a man! That's what you're for." Not long afterwards, I developed back pain. Gee, what a surprise.

So, I'm wondering if someone in Microsoft is planning something like that, that's all. I wouldn't wish something like that on anyone.

[Tawmis]

This is a bit of a bummer.

2024... Am I Right?

Apologies for the delayed newsletter this month. But we're still here! It has been a very interesting start to the year and we're still getting our feet back underneath us.

As many of you may have experienced, there's been a lot going on in 2024 already, and it's only February. It's shaping up to be quite a year, both good and bad. So let's unpack some of it.

Industry Turmoil

As some of you are probably aware... the game industry is in a major state of change at the moment. Last year (2023) saw around 10,000 job cuts worldwide, which had everyone seriously pondering what is going on out there. These figures are significantly higher than most major industries - and yet the overall revenue continues to grow.

Then 2024 rolls in and slaps everyone in the face... with another nearly 10,000 cuts just in January alone. And the predictions are that this trend will continue throughout the year, likely into 2025.

So what's the deal...? Corporate greed? Consolidation? Over-hiring? Market saturation? Predicted economic downturn? Job replacement? Overhead increases?

Honestly, it's probably a bit of all of that... we can't simply categorize it all under one umbrella. Each situation needs to be evaluated on its own merit. But with major studios laying off hundreds (if not thousands), and many smaller studios just shutting down entirely... we are clearly at a major changing point
in the industry.

Where's That Place Us?

We are still going, at the moment... but of course, all of this ends up affecting us too! As we've talked about before, we started talking about our Laura Bow project with Activision (the owners of the IP) about 3 years ago. Then Microsoft makes a move to purchase Activision, which delayed all business negotiations for 2 of those years. Now Microsoft has laid off 1900 roles across its gaming sector.

Throughout all of this, our previous contacts that we have been discussing our project with have also been severed... and frankly, they really left us hanging - no handover, no warning, abandoned meetings, etc. Not exactly professional. But with such chaos, it's easy for smaller projects like ours to get "lost".

That basically mean that we're back to ground zero with our goals. However, it's not all bad. Our contacts and relationship with Microsoft are great - and yes, most of them are still around. So we are actually still quite confident in building some new bridges.

That being said... it's not the right time to do it.

The entire global industry is focused on "less" at the moment, not "more"... and the wounds of major layoffs are still extremely fresh at the moment. So I'm afraid this places us on yet another holding pattern.

Sooo, What Now...?

Well, now... that's the big question isn't it!

We aren't quite ready to abandon our original goals yet, and just go with the backup rebranding plan. The idea was always an official Laura Bow game, not just a spiritual successor. So we plan to keep pursuing that for now. But it will take time... more time. And more money, honestly. We've put a whole lot into this project so far, though... so we're not going to just stop.

If we could afford to just continue on and make a free fan game out of it, we probably would... but we're not rolling in moola enough for that, unfortunately.

So, while we are in this holding pattern (an experience not wholly unfamiliar to us)... we are temporarily slowing down on development for Laura Bow 3. That means we won't be developing any more new areas for now. We'll just try to finish composing some of the existing ones, and work on only the narrative for other parts.

In the meantime... while we wait... we have decided to focus the majority of the team's effort on a significantly easier project, in the hopes of building some more business and financial momentum from that. It's a small puzzle game, with a big personality... and it's coming along great so far! We're aiming to release it in March/April on various platforms. So keep an eye out for more information on that.

Anyway, we'll see you all again in the next newsletter!

If you have any thoughts or questions, please reach out. We love to hear from you all.