The Indie Game Magazine December 2014 | Issue 44 | Page 9

GAME WATCH W DESIRE by Vinny Parisi elcome back to Game Watch. Picking up right where we left up, we’re continuing to track Mooneye Studios as they develop their work-in-progress, currently under the codename “Desire.” In case you need a refresher, the game is an exploration adventure game in which players assume the role of a wolf who possesses the strange ability to switch into other animals’ bodies and control them. Taking place over the ruins of a Mayan or Inca-like civilization, the Wolf begins a journey to “wake” the various temples he/she comes across, slowly causing the ruined cities to rise once more. Last month, I mentioned that the team’s goals before the next progress update included completing the modeling for the wolf, building a small demo to showcase the game’s basic movement controls, and developing a framework for the game logic. So, how did the team do? Programmer Tobias Graff told me that “we modeled and skinned the wolf and created new concepts for the temples and artifacts.” In addition to that, the team “developed the mechanic for waking a temple: As you can see in the attached images [the concept art which features the wolf standing on the rising temple], the structures have iron ornaments embedded in them that will start to glow and burn the foliage around the temple.” As far as progress on constructing the demo, the team actually decided to switch objectives. Instead of building a demo that serves as a complete Alpha version, Mooneye is opting to focus on a wellpolished vertical slice they can show off to the public. They’re hoping to complete work on this by the end of January. I asked Graff about the change in direction, and he told me that, “we participated in the Making Games Talents event – a job convention for the gaming industry in Germany – and talked to a few bigger studios… about how to best present the game to the public and advice for releasing the game in general. And they told us to focus on an awesome vertical slice that will wow everyone.” He concluded that, “this way we’ll have some really cool screenshots and gameplay videos that show the (nearly) final quality and that will amaze people.” The final goal for the month was developing a framework for the game logic. Unfortunately, the team didn’t quite make all of the progress they were hoping for in this department. Graff explained that “we didn’t get as far as we planned due to another contract work that we did, but are on a good track for developing our Game Framework (an Entity Component System) that we plan to use on multiple projects in the future and is independent of the underlying engine (Unreal in this case).” Optimistically, he told me that, “the first demo level may be finished by next month.” Looking ahead at the next month, two clear goals stick out to the team: Developing a vertical slice to showcase the game in a way that accurately reflects their vision for the final product, and completing the game logic framework that will become a major part of both Desire, and subsequent Mooneye Studios projects. These will be the two key focal points discussed in the next development update. That’s all I’ve got for this installment of Game Watch. Be sure to check back next issue to see how Desire is progressing. If you’re curious about any particular aspect of development, be sure to send an email to [email protected] with the Subject Line: “Game Watch”, and then tune in to next month’s issue to see if your questions are answered. As always, thanks to Mooneye Studios for letting me get an early look behind the scenes of their development process. Developer: Mooneye Studios Website: http://mooneyestudios.com/en/ Twitter: @MoonEyeStudios Meet the Makers of DESIRE Last month we introduced the core team members of Mooneye Studios. This month, the team is joined by a new external contributor: Florens Huhn, 25, is writing the background story for the game. He studies German language and literature in Hamburg, and worked in the film industry for 5 years. Currently, he’s working on a symbolic language that the old civilization used in their temples that can tell keen observers some details about the story.