The Indie Game Magazine March 2015 | Issue 47 | Page 10

GAME WATCH

LOST EMBER by Vinny Parisi

I

hope you’re ready, because it’s time for another installment of
Game Watch. We’ve got a lot to get through this month, so I’m
just going to jump straight into it. The team at Mooneye Studios had a short list of priorities to get through over the previous
month, including programming goals, launching the game’s website, and developing a teaser trailer. In addition to that, the team
finally solidified an important partnership they’ve been waiting to
announce for a couple of months now.

As for the vertical slice demo and impending teaser trailer, the team
admits that progress will be slower on that front over the coming
month. Graff told me “that will take at least until April, as we have
to deal with a lot of bureaucracy over the next few weeks, and
other things that keep us from work are interfering frequently. But
we’re getting used to it.” After the demo and trailer is complete,
Mooneye plans to court investors to fund the complete development of Lost Ember.

Beginning with the programming goals, I checked in with Programmer
Tobias Graff about the status of Lost Ember, and he mentioned that
“the goals for next month are reworking the wolf. Max [Jasionowski,
Art Direction] finished the new concept this week and modeling
has already begun, so you’ll probably see new screenshots of the
in-game wolf with new animations next month.” The team is also
expanding a bit this month, bringing on two new team members
to help with various tasks. The first is development related, and
Graff stated that “Miriam Komorek is joining us in March, too. She
will work on another small project at first and then most likely do
concepts, textures, and small models for Lost Ember.”

Switching focus to the game’s story, Mooneye is focused primarily
on structuring the first episode. As mentioned last issue, Episode
1 will allow players to jump into the body of not only the wolf, but
also a parrot (and potentially a hawk as well). “Besides from that,
we decided on some final details of the story and gameplay of Lost
Ember’s first episode, so we can start to develop some of the mechanics,” Graff noted. “When the wolf controls are finalized, we’ll
turn to the switch mechanic again and work on some prototypes of
controlling the parrot.” Every episode of the game will introduce a
new animal to control, with each offering new abilities. According
to the new website, other animals include a bear and a mole, as
well as what looks to be a beaver.

The other new member of the team coming on board is Marco
Apel, and he will begin handling the studio’s social media and blog.
That’s right, the team completed their goal of delivering a finished
website. In fact, not only is there an official Lost Ember website,
but the Mooneye Studios blog launched, as well. The Lost Emb \