Hey guys!

Check out more screenshots here.

I'm a game developer working at a small independent game company in Sweden. We are currently working on our point-n-click adventure game "The Journey Down", and I thought this would be an excellent place to try and get the production some much needed exposure. (We are a tiny company and won't afford marketing costs, so rely solely on word of mouth and being seen on forums.)

I hope you'll find this thread interesting and I'd love to answer any questions you've got regarding the game or the game's development. Please ask, as I love talking about it.

For those not familiar with TJD, chapter one was first released last year as a free retro type game and can be found here. Since then, me and my buddies at SkyGoblin have decided to re-release chapter one in HD with speech and added story and puzzles, but this time as a commercial game that actually costs money. This in the hopes of being able to fund the production of the coming chapters. A lovely thought, I think.

So here's the sales pitch:

The Journey Down is a classic point 'n click saga with a black African twist, owing much of its character and pattern design to traditional central African arts such as carvings and masks from the Makonde and Chokwe tribes. Mixed with an all original jazzy reggae soundtrack, feedback-oriented puzzles and tons of hand painted environments, the unique cultural fusion of The Journey Down is bound to draw you in.

In the first part of four, Over the Edge, our hero Bwana and his trusted sidekick Kito struggle to make ends meet at their run-down gas station. One day their lives turn upside down as they're thrown into a twisting plot of corruption, laughs and brainteasing adventure.

Follow the development of The Journey Down on skygoblin.com, and check out more screenshots over at the official webpage.





I'll try to keep this thread updated when we've got news and again, I'd love to answer questions. I'm practically begging for them, lol.

Thanks, y'all! (specifically, thanks Ana for letting me post this spam-like thread.)

to GameBoomers theo!

It looks great and I am looking forward to seeing more.

Ana

Hey, looks pretty cool:) Thanks for posting!

Questions are okay?

Do Bwana and Kito stay in the city, or does The Journey Down take them into less civilized places?

What are your favorite adventure games, and did they inspire you when you were writing The Journey Down?

How soon will the follow-up episodes be releasing?

Thanks!

Thanks guys!

Becky: Bwana and Kito's full journey is a long one and it covers A LOT of ground. Painting weird environments is pretty much my favorite passtime, so expect several eotic locales to discover and explore.

My absolute favorites include Grim Fandango, LeChuck's revenge, Full throttle and Gabriel Knight. These are all games that I've drawn inspiration from one way or another. Gameplay wise I've been inspired by the Broken sword games, when it comes to game-flow.

Well, the first chapter is planned for a PC and Mac release some time Q1 2012, with handheld versions soon to follow. The next chapter (which has been largely written and designed, but not in fact implemented) will aim for a release roughly half a year later. We hope to be able to deliver the chapters on a half-year basis, but who knows?

The scale of the whole game will definitely be subject to how well we manage to reach out with the game commercially. Making games is crazy expensive. If anyone here has any ideas regarding how to reach out to as big an audience as possible, I'd love to hear 'em!

Thanks again. I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction.

Theo -- I enjoyed your answers very much!

Hello Theo. We are certainly glad to have that first chapter "free retro type game" in our Free Games Galore section.

Good luck with the commercial part.

Chief

New screens have been added, check them out here.

Looking good Theo!

Ana

Thanks all!

I'll be sure to keep you guys posted whenever new media pops up. We are churning new stuff out by the day.

THanks Theo!

Ana

Hey guys!

I just thought I'd give you a quick status update:)

We recently finished recording the dialog for our main character "Bwana". This feels very very good since that was one of the last huge pieces of the puzzle that needed to fall into place.

Also we've finally cast an actor for the role of Matoke, which REALLY was about time. He's no huge character but he's got quite a lot of lines so the sooner we get that ball rolling the better.

Here's a new pic from the devblog by the way:D

http://www.skygoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/pumpzoom.jpg

Hope y'all had a nice xmas. Don't forget to drop by the dev-blog!

Thanks Theo!

Looking good Theo!

Ana

Time for another little update!

We recently wrapped up implementation of all the core puzzles and key interactions of chapter one of The Journey Down and have now moved over to the actual polishing of it all. This phase should by no means be underestimated though, just the sheer size of the task of making bwana move to the correct location, turn to the correct angle, and play the correct animation on every single interaction we've got - is a gigantic one.

In short, we seem to somehow magically still be on schedule and are still geared for a PC and Mac release some time by the end of March.

Link to pic. (Over 20k!)

Here's a pic from inside Bwana's dented old airplane. I've spent the last week working on implementing Lina's different animations into the scripts, and this is one of the scenes I wrapped up yesterday. The actual animation work is done by my colleague Henrik though, I'm just standing in as script-monkey.

I also did some ranting on the dev-blog today about implementing emotion in characters, if you're curious, please check it out here.

Hi Theo -- intriguing ideas with the masks and emotions.