One Last Sunset

I could tell by the stench more folk’d died in this clinic than’d been saved...

We’ve been silent, we’re sorry.

Our artist, Ben, moved onto other gigs earlier in the year and we’ve been deciding what that meant for the game. So for a while, we’ve been doing some redesigning and exploring other art avenues. Above is a background drawn by our chum Tara, for example. We’ll share some new character art in the next while, too.

It may be slow for a while as we’re needed over at Darkside Detective right now, but once that wraps up, we’ll be diving into this a lot more.

For reasons beyond my ken, the swordfish had a speaker jutting out of its mouth.

We’ve been quiet these past few weeks, eh? Sorry about that. We got caught up reworking some backgrounds, expanding locations and taking on some extra hours at paid gigs here and there to help prepare for the Christmas Vortex. This week we wanted to show you how this stuff comes together in the really early stages. The images attached are our rough notes on two locations - the town of Rust (on the left, written on a train in Vietnam) and The Cliff of Reflection (on the right, drawn atop Bayon temple in Siem Reap). (At this time, Tracey wants to point out that the writing and drawing belong to Dave who, if illegibility is anything to go by, could have been a doctor).

Anyway, with the Cliffs you can see the kind of rough-assed sketches that Ben gets handed to turn into nice looking environments, while the Rust notes show the kind of fast paced and scattered thoughts that slowly intertwine and build up into a place worth investigating. There are all sorts of spoilers hidden in those notes, so read at your own peril. They not only show the framework for Rust, but contain notes on how it ties into other parts of the world.

The next stages, then, are:

Rust needs some location art and these notes to be written up and expanded (on a Com-Put-Or, so they can be read by people who don’t write like 1st graders)

The Cliffs needs their bullet point mess, then grown-up notes

Both then get drawn up by Ben, written up by Dave and turned into something playable by Tracey

Fancy stuff, eh? Anyway this is really just a quick hello and “don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you!” We’ll probably be a bit silent until we get into the new year, but when we talk to you then we’ll have some funky stuff to share.

Ain‘t nobody ‘round for miles Guess all that‘s left to do is sit here and bleed out

Out of respect for the horrific events in Paris last night, the lives lost and the grieving families, we're not posting a screenshot today. Instead, consider these words of solidarity:

So, where did the idea of One Last Sunset come from?

Our artist, Ben, came up with the idea and shared his concept art at around the same time that Tracey and Dave were looking for something to make for the 1GAM* theme Dangerzone. The IF game he describes in this link became the prototype for the game we’re building now - One Last Sunset.

Check out his original art and let us know what you think!

After the Fall, you could live anyplace you wanted, long as you could hold it - or it was so far outta the way that nobody else cared.

Sometimes, when she thinks nobody's watching, she looks at the pages of some old fashion magazine she's found. The way her eyes gloss over you can't help but think if the Fall hadn't happened, a girl like her could have been on the cover.

Betrayal ain't never pleasant, but Belt made sure this one hurt more than most.

Exciting news everyone! Our very own programmer Tracey will be appearing in Orbero, Sweden next July to participate and give a talk at next year’s Castle Game Jam!

All details for this awesome event can be found on their website.

Tracey spent eight years in Trinity College Dublin learning to program and messing around with cognitive radios. A pauper, she fell for the shallow promises of cash and, well, cash in the financial sector. She spent the next four years writing back-end code, making rich people richer. Eventually, she came to her senses and decided to return to the pauper life to do something she actually cared about. Now she travels the world with her husband, Dave, making silly games which she really hopes you’ll enjoy playing. She is currently working on the comedy-horror adventure game, The Darkside Detective, and the post apocalyptic western, One Last Sunset.

Her life philosophy is <code> while (alive) { learn(); unlearn (); } </code>

Old Jeb - how an old guy with only a fishing rod survives out here is beyond me, ‘specially given his endless supply of gas and proximity to the Molerats…

Note that this is very much a work in progress, friends. We focused on gameplay over animation this week - which means you cats get to see step-by-step progress - whoop whoop!

Ain't many folk out there who'd lose an eye and keep on smiling. Some folk say it's optimism, an unbreakable spirit, a can do attitude. But, way I hear it, any trouble in her town gets dealt with by live-skinnings or prye-burnings, all under her watchful, ever-smiling eye.