Hey, everybody! Kuba from My Next Games here.

Ufffff…. It took me longer than I anticipated but I finally got our new game out into the world! It’s called Tales From The Arcade: Starship Murder and it’s an experimental murder mystery roguelite in which the killer changes every time you play. You can now get it for free via Steam:

or if you prefer web browser visit Newgrounds:

Hope you guys enjoy it! :D

With this little announcement out of the way, let’s move on to this month’s update. Today I thought I would tell you the story of Starship Murder’s development. I decided to do so not only to show you the process behind a curtain but also as a record of how this thing came to be.

As I mentioned in a previous update, it all started with Hank: Straightjacket - a tiny little adventure game we made at the end of last year. We came out of that side project with high spirit. It was a lot of fun to quickly create something small that everyone can enjoy. As soon as Hank: Straightjacket was released, in our spare time, we started brainstorming ideas for another little game we could make. After a month we took a vote to decide which one we’re gonna pursue.

The vote landed on the picture above. The concept was simple: you click different points of the space station to repair it. After a few more discussions we added in the murder mystery angle. Expecting the people to follow a real time dialog while they keep an eye on the station sounded risky. It could have ended up overwhelming a player. We decided to go with it anyway :P. After all, we were making a tiny free indie game. The goal was to create something unique and learn from the experience.

With all that out of the way it was time for a dummy screenshot. It’s a method I use to better visualize the game to everyone on the team. As my art skills are pretty limited (I’m a programmer) what I usually do is mash tougher whatever i can find on the internet until it resembles what I’m trying to convey :D This is also where we moved away from the idea of the space station in favor of a starship. The journey that is implied with a spacecraft was a natural way of telling the player when the game would end and at the same time it maintained the atmosphere of isolation we were trying to invoke.

Then, finally came the day when we started the development. Initially we set ourselves a two week deadline for finishing the project. We started working and… we failed :(. This is how the game looked at that point.

There were two main problems that we were facing. First, was that the game didn’t feel like you were playing as an AI (It was more like: you're just a human looking at a couple of panels) Second, was that the location window which was de facto the main view of the game was too small and cramped up. Even though we passed the deadline we decided to continue with the development.

With every day passing I started to become more and more angry with myself and the project. It was supposed to be done quickly and now who knows how much time it will take us to solve the problems we encounter. It also didn't help that at this point all of our personal lives suddenly became much less stable (housing situation, costs of living you know the staff). We needed to finish this thing ASAP!

The soundtrack came through on the last day. Witek(Artis) introduced me to his brother - Rafał. He has been making music for years and besides the tracks he released on the internet he also had hundreds of unpublished ones. He sent me this album - Vintage Dust - that's been sitting in his drawer for a while. I unzipped the package, added the tracks to my playlist and launched the game to see if what I’ve received fits the mood. A few moments later I knew we had hit the jackpot.

The game was almost finished. There were still issues of balance and dialogues though. Unfortunately we needed to stop - our lives became too erratic to continue… I hated everything about Starship Murder at that point…

Two months later things started to stabilize again. I don’t like to leave things unfinished so I reached out to Matthew(Writer) to resume our efforts on the game. We sat down and spent another week working on it. He was writing and I was tweaking the overall pacing. As I was going through the game I realized that the break we took refreshed my perspective. This thing wasn’t even close to being that bad as I remembered it to be…

Fast forward to today, I’m actually quite happy with how Starship Murder came out at the end.

Cya Around,

Kuba

P.S Overall, if you summed up all the time we spend on development it would be around 6 weeks.

Hey, everybody! Kuba from My Next Games here.

Not sure how this summer looks in your part of the world but for us here in Poland it’s hot. The temperatures are so high that most of the days everyone is just trying to hide from the sun. Maybe it’s just me spending too much time with our game's time manipulation mechanics but it seems like everything is happening in slow motion. Nevertheless I enjoy this change of pace. Between Digital Dragons and Summer Steam Next Fest, the last few months have been extremely busy. Now I can finally sit down and focus on making Hank: Drowning on Dry Land…

This unfortunately means that, besides solving some coding problems, there is not much to talk about this month. Don't worry, I won’t be boring you with some programming details. Instead I’d like to share with you some glimpses of what we’ve been planning for the upcoming month.

Right now our main focus is Hank. Although working on an ambitious time traveling game like that is fulfilling, it is also very exhausting. Who would have thought that making everything perfectly rewindable would take that much effort ;P What is the most discouraging is the fact that sometimes one day’s progress is so small that you feel like you haven’t moved at all.

Hank: Straightjacket, a free little game we made a few months back as part of the grand form CRPK, reminded us how refreshing it is to create something playable in two weeks. The game was very short and from the programming point of view it was held tougher with spit and duct tape… Making it was a lot of fun though. It was so invigorating that we decided to repeat this exercise whenever we get burned out.

In the weeks between Digital Dragos and Steam Next Fest once more we felt exhausted…

And so… we took a break and created this:

It’s called Starship Murder and we’re planning on launching it next month as a free game. If you want to know what it is and how you play it - stay tuned! I will be talking about it more as we get closer to the release. 

Cya Around,

Kuba

Hey, everybody!

Kuba from My Next Games here. I’ve been a little nostalgic recently. I think what triggered it is the upcoming 10th anniversary of me quitting my job and becoming an indie game developer. It’s been an interesting journey. When I started I knew it would require a lot of work. What I didn’t know was how much talking would be involved :D.

The life of an indie game developer requires you to constantly introduce your projects to new people. After a while you can do it in just one sentence. For the game I’m currently working on Hank: Drowning on Dry Land the phrase I’ve been using goes like this:

“It’s a game about a time-traveling Batman-esque vigilante with an alcohol addiction problem.”

If the person you’re talking to is interested, what usually follows is:

“Ok, sounds cool… But how do I play it?”

The obvious answer is the genre. This is also where the problem with Hank begins. It might sound stupid… but… I don’t know the genre of the game I’m making :( When I started to work on it I wasn't thinking about some other game I wanted to emulate, I just had an idea for an interesting time traveling mechanic that I wanted to explore. How do I answer the “How do you play it?” question then? Well… What I usually do is just show the footage of the game.

Although this answer is satisfying, unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem. Modern gaming is built on the scaffolding of genres. Steam, Newgrounds, Itch.io, Striked wherever you go you use them to find games you might be interested in.

We’ve decided to do something about it. Today starts the Summer Steam Next Fest and Hank: Drowning on Dry Land will be included!

The short demo we’ve prepared focuses mostly on showcasing the game’s mechanics. Yeah… There is some intrigue there (We couldn't help ourselves :P) but the story will be a much bigger part of the final game. Anyway you can play it right now and if you do - don't forget to let me know what genre you think our game is. If you'd like to also discuss it with us, drop by one of our Next Fest Steams. Here are the dates:

First Livestream Event Date: TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 9PM CEST

Second Livestream Event Date: FRIDAY, JUN 23, 9PM CEST

That would be all for now.

Cya Around,

Kuba

Hey, everybody!

Kuba from My Next Games here. Sorry for ghosting you on the update last month, but we've got some epic news to spill! We totally scored a spot at the Indie Showcase during this year’s Digital Dragons! Can you believe it?

Digital Dragons is a super cool gaming conference that happens every year in Poland. It's like a big party for video game peeps from all over Central Europe. You'll find game developers, publishers, investors, and all sorts of industry experts hanging out and having a blast. One of the highlights is the indie game showcase, where small game developers can show off their awesome projects.

Our game made the cut and ever since the news dropped We've been busting our butts getting ready for this awesome event. From tweaking gameplay to making the graphics pop, we've been working non-stop to make sure our game stands out. So, yeah, the newsletter had to take a backseat while we rocked the Digital Dragons prep.

All the hard work, late nights, and endless cups of coffee paid off big time and our game earned the prestigious Special Recognition award! Can you believe it?

It's honestly hard to put into words just how honored and appreciative we are. This recognition means the world to us, and we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey. We're still pinching ourselves, but rest assured that this recognition has only fueled our passion and motivation to create even more amazing experiences for you. Stay tuned as we continue to work hard and bring you more exciting updates and surprises in the future. Together, we're on an incredible adventure, and we couldn't be happier to have you along for the ride.

Cya around,.

Kuba (I'm the guy in the meddle)

Hey, everybody!

Kuba from My Next Games here. Today I thought I would introduce you a bit more to the hero of our games.

Hank Bukowski is a recovering alcoholic who in a moment of weakness suffers a relapse. When he wakes up from a drunken stupor he realizes that he came in possession of a very unique superpower - he became a time traveler.

Feeling a need to repent, Bukowski starts to use his new ability to help others undo their mistakes. However, believing that he can always revert time and simply walk away from any harm, he decides to take a step further. He puts on a mask and assumes a new persona, a crime-fighting vigilante roaming the dark and dangerous streets of Lucrum City.

To downtrodden citizens, Hank is seen as a masked vigilante who, thanks to his incredible resourcefulness, mobility and survival instincts, emerges unscathed from even the most unpredictable encounters. They, as well as his numerous adversaries, do not know that Hank manages to escape death thanks solely to his ability to time travel. All this makes him lead not a double, but a triple life.

At the beginning of his crime-fighting career, Hank has ironically called himself Mayfly, partly after a creature that has a lifespan of 24 hours and partly because of his real-life nickname - Barfly.

With time, the great opportunity he was given started to be his biggest downfall, he relapsed. Realizing that he can barely save himself he started to run away from the responsibilities he once sought out.

His costume started to show wear and tear, his equipment broke and was never fixed. He started to look like a bum pretending to be a superhero. He even stopped covering up his tracks. Once someone overheard his real name when he was yelling at himself while peeing in a dark alley. Even though he was still protecting the citizens of Lucrum City, his reputation has gone down drastically.

That’s all for now, Cya Around

Kuba