Friday diaries: Release date

There it is, folks. Our over two years of development time is almost up. It's been a crazy ride so far, and I don't expect it to get any easier from here on out. Different yes, but certainly not easier.

We've updated the user interface, with the new inventory, objectives and map screen. We've revised the dialogue screen and its functions. Right now we're implementing a Horde mode bonus feature into the game. This play mode is based on our earlier Shooter version of Kalaban, but with updated graphics.

The horde mode features a couple of scenes familiar from the base game, but gives them a unique twist. The world is now seen some years later, fully corrupted by the same forces which created the mutations in the first place.

The world in Horde mode is utterly hostile, and keeps you on your toes at all times. You know you cannot survive the endless mutant onslaught, it is only a matter of time before your will breaks.

This game mode is not even meant to be fair, and even the most seasoned Kalaban players will die eventually. The base game has a difficulty setting which you can change from the main menu. This setting does not apply the Horde mode however, because we are keeping track of player's high scores and we want a universal score system for all.

We are planning on adding Spitter nests to the scenes in this game mode. These nests act as spawning points for the creatures, and they can be destroyed to momentarily halt the production of new foes. 

There's still a good number of things to do before we get to ship the game. The main quest storyline is pretty much finished now, so we're pretty confident with meeting the deadline. The finished game will be available on Steam, so there will also be unlockable achievements in the game. But more on those later.

So, that's it for this week's insight! Hope you enjoyed this post, and will tune in for more updates in the future!

Friday diaries: Creating the short film

Hello again, readers!

During this fall we shot a live action short film set in the world of Kalaban. On Sunday, 13th of November, we will be releasing the short, so today we'll be talking about its creation. The genre of the film is going to be an action / comedy thriller, with elements of horror.

We began the writing during spring, and went into preproduction in early August. Before shooting the film, we had to create the make-up effects for the mutant, and figure out how to do all the stuff we want to see on the screen. With a limited budget of course.

It became a very shoestring production, but we had a lot of fun in figuring out how things would work. The make-up effects were created out of liquid latex, put into a mold and then baked in an oven. These pieces took about two weeks total to create.

Before the shoot we had to find a wooden axe for Bob, as that is kind of his signature weapon. I recalled that my parents owned one, so I called them and we ended up borrowing that for the film. All the other props and clothes for our characters were relatively easy to find. During the first weekend of shooting though our head cultist Juha did not have but his cape. This was a bit of a hindsight on our part, as we did not even fully cast the short before shooting. Juha got into his suit on the second weekend.

So, the filming was done in two parts, the first one done in end of August and the second in late September. The locations were set in Eurajoki, my old home town, where one of our founding members Jyri resides.

We had previously shot a rehearsal version of the short film, to block out the shots and to plan the action beforehand. This helped a lot when we started preparing the locations for shooting. We also realized that a couple of scenes had to be left out, as they were not important for the story. One of them included a sport news report about Finnish hockey players.

The story takes place during the night, but most of the scenes had to be shot during the afternoon or evening, because we only had a limited time to shoot the whole thing. We had to get creative with the sets, and we used a lot of black plastic bags and black sheets to cover the windows. The scenes were lit using battery-lamps and work lights, with color gels on them. The only exception to this was the office scene, which also had a table lamp.

For the final part in our film we had to find a quiet place to shoot in, but with asphalt and streetlights. It required some messing around with cars and running with prop guns. That scene and a few others were shot authentically at night, so that it wouldn't attract too much attention.

We had to take multiple takes on the final shot of the film, at different locations, to get it right. We wanted to show this empty road up ahead, with a car driving on it. These shots were filmed during the second weekend, on Saturday. Lucky for us, Eurajoki is not a sprawling metropolis, so we managed to get the shots.

We aimed for a very fantasy-like, Evil Dead inspired look for the film. The lights were either bluish or pale fluorescent, to keep the visuals consistent. The image is not picture-perfect, but cinematic enough to convey the story. The final version will have added VHS quality to it, to complete the effect.

The folks at Rayhouse have created numerous short films before, so we have enough experience to know what works and what doesn't in an indie production. At some point our crew produced two or three short films in a year, but now the pace has gotten much slower. The last narrative short that we did was shot in November 2013.

Independent shorts also take a lot of effort to make, so without any financial return there's little reason to create them. Everything looks so easy when it's on the screen, but when you're in the trenches, creating them, it's a whole different deal.

That's it for this blog post, hope you enjoyed that! We'll be releasing the short film soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, go vote on our game at Steam Greenlight, if you haven't done so already: Kalaban at Steam Greenlight.

Friday diaries: Quality control

Hello there!

A big part of game development is refining stuff that you've already created, be it code, sound effects or graphics. Sometimes it's also taking stuff out permanently, bits and pieces which don't fit the narrative or overall story.

This week we'll take a peek into what's been left on the cutting room floor, and what features or assets have been altered during the process. Of course we'll be talking about the highlights, not every single thing that has changed during development. 

Background art

The home road scene from one of the first builds, circa February 2015.

Comparison shot from one of the background assets.

Especially the early scenes, which have been there from the start, have gone through many iterations. The graphical style has been re-hauled a couple of times, and that has required  some drastic changes. At first, we created the environments in this very fantasy-like fashion, with crazy lights and mostly prerendered stuff. 

During the spring of 2015 we moved to a more serious tone with the background art, and revised the areas to look more realistic. Trees looked like they could belong in the real world, and ground looked more realistic. Of course there's still this comic-book style flavor to the assets, but now they at least  represent actual real-life scenes, instead of this very abstract and game-like environment. 

The third version of the background art came when we decided to set the game permanently at night, or at the hours of dusk. All the lights would be pre-set in the locations, and the sun would never come up. An eerie fog rolls over the scenes, and there is an ominous glow to some areas. Most of the areas look very different, than they looked during daylight. 

Art style 

Original design of the big house on the left, and current version on the right.

Screenshot from the current version of the game; the abandoned gas station.

This is partially related to the earlier point, but this one is about the big picture. In the very first draft our game was designed to feature a fully top-down view. Then, we tried to create a sidescrolling concept, but that lacked all the fun and engaging gameplay that we wanted to achieve. After that we settled on this slightly slanted bird's eye vision. It was supposed to function like a top-down game in the code, and reveal a bit more about characters and environment, but it soon transformed into this isometric type of deal. Now we have to deal with things being behind other things, walls to become transparent once you're inside the building, and avoid player overlapping things.

When we finally got past the initial birth pain, I took some time to sketch stuff out, and think about how I wanted the whole game to look and feel. In the spring of 2015 I had recently watched the Nirvana documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck, which featured these beautiful hand-animated sequences. Those became one of my main inspirations in creating the look for this little mid-nineties Finnish town. 

Another key inspiration at that time was the wonderful artwork done by Simon Stålenhag. He has created some really unique vistas, which perfectly capture the bleak and beautiful nordic atmosphere. 

Enemy design

The old enemy design in motion. This build is from the summer of 2015.

The evolution of the Bruiser design.

One character asset, which has gone through most iterations, is the 'Bruiser' monster, also known as 'The werewolf monster'. The very first version was this demon-like hairy blob of flesh, which was inspired by Warhammer chaos miniatures. Then, we took the design to a more standard humanoid / werewolf form, which is more streamlined and clear visually. 

The writing 

One of the more grislier bits of Kalaban, seen in the current version of the game.

Oh yes, even the core of our storytelling has changed quite a bit. Kalaban was originally set during the winter, in some generic American little town. The town was overrun by demons and monsters, but we then decided to make the story and setting more personal. The date was set to be in 1995 in early development, and frankly it could've been set in -94 or -96 as well during that time. Somehow just setting it in the smack center resonated with us, especially with the cultural transition happening during that time. For example, the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins, and films like Se7en coming out that year.

All the dialogue and interactions in the game are written by either Tuukka or me. We've discussed about the tone and the themes endlessly. If something needed to go, it was axed. If something had to be added, we worked it into the game. Earlier this year we did a huge re-haul to the story, and decided to add the NPCs into the game, with their own little side quests. Now, it would be impossible to think about the game without those characters. They are an integral part of the experience. 

User interface

Original UI from early 2015, where inventory bar was always visible and in real-time.

Comparison between the old icons, and the new.

The UI in Kalaban has been through a lot of changes. Originally, we started the game as a purely horror-themed adventure game, and then moved more towards action adventure genre. We needed to add the inventory screen to the game, so that players could manage their hotbar and the items they're carrying, all without interruptions. 

This gave the game more action RPG type of flavor. The changes and reworks took a long time to refine. We started planning the new inventory in October 2015, and at first it was going to be a drop-down menu like in the early Fallout games. We then opted for a more standard grid-based view, but that meant scrapping the previous system entirely. 

Not only have we redesigned the interface over and over, but we've also thrown away the old icons. They were created in the early stages of our development, and they no longer represented the overall visual fidelity of the project. The current ones are better in line with the present art style.

Initial sketch art of the drop-down style inventory, with old icons as placeholders. 

Current version of the inventory screen, with ammunition counters and the classic paper doll. 

But it was the right call, and that choice gave the inventory a lot more clarity, without having to scroll through the whole list, and sub-tabs. Ease-of-use and speed are everything when you're creating the UI, and that's what we went for. 

Now you can drag & drop items to your hotbar, like the health items and weapons, and equip them in real-time. The inventory screen pauses the whole game, so you don't have to worry about enemy attacks, as you read through the flavor text. 

 Sound design

We can't present you the current sound fx, so we present some moving pictures.

The original sound design in Kalaban was godawful. It was just a bunch of freeware and stock effects cobbled together by me. They were only meant to give you a general idea of what you might hear in the game. For the longest time, we did not have a real sounds for any of the inventory items, or effects for the UI. Those details were only recently been added to the game. 

The enemy sounds in the game were particularly awful in early development. The werewolf monster taunts were recorded by me, and I made them as total placeholders, so that they could be replaced at any time. Now, finally after a long wait, our audio mastermind Eetu re-designed the mutant sound effects. And my god, they're a thousand times better than the old ones!

Combat with the Blow-up mutant. 

In other news

Our game was finally launched on Steam Greenlight on Halloween. Some people have missed the point of our very retro intro cinematic, which is not that surprising. I do understand, that for those people who have not grown up with PC games of the nineties, that cinematic can be really confusing. Some people thought that it was just laziness to create such visuals, or that perhaps we don't care enough to put more effort. 

But in fact, the cinematic looks pretty much exactly like we wanted it to look. We wanted to faithfully re-create the cgi videos from the mid-nineties, and all the details in that animation was done with this in mind. The game in itself is done with a quite serious tone. We wanted to have a bit of fun with the trailer, and show our love for the old cinematics, and their wonderfully cheesy nature.

I think people have different kind of ideas about nostalgia. A show like the Stranger Things is set in the 80s, and takes story cues from the old Stephen King stories and Spielberg movies. But at the same time it has very modern visuals, with CGI effects, and all the frames looking polished and perfectly lit. That's what viewers today expect, not the authentic retro quality, which would actually represent the era truthfully. And that is totally fine. We've been taught to expect the certain kind of visuals, no matter what the subject.

Anyways, our game is on Greenlight right now, so go give it a thumbs up, and help us fulfill our dreams: Kalaban at Steam Greenlight.

Friday diaries: Games that inspire us - Part 3

 

Hello there!

It's time for another tale of inspirational games. This week we have the Sanitarium (1998), a demented and weird adventure game. The game is seen from an isometric perspective, with prerendered cutscenes thrown in between and in the middle of story sections.

Our mockup of Sanitarium set in the world of Kalaban.

I first saw this game in Pelit magazine back when it was released. During that time I was more interested in 3D shooters and real-time strategy games, so I never got my hands on this game back then. The first time I properly saw it in action was during a screenwriting session with Tuukka, in early 2011. The atmosphere was instantly haunting and chilling, as the game starts from an asylum, and you can't remember anything. Your head is wrapped in bandages, and you've been in an accident.

During an early section you explore a town filled with disfigured children, with no adults in sight. The story immediately raises scary questions: Who are these kids? What happened to the adults? Did the kids murder them?

I've always found psychological horror and atmospheric stories to be more interesting than straight-up gore fests. When I think of gory movies and games, I think of works such as Total Recall (1990) or Blood (1997). To me the gore factor takes away the tension, and it takes direction more towards a macabre thrillride. They may shock you, but they will not truly get inside your head.

On that note, there will be a couple of graphic scenes in Kalaban too. The game is seen from a topdown perspective though, so it takes a certain distance to the shock factor.

To me, one of the few works which successfully combines gore with psychological tension is John Carpenter's 1982 The Thing remake. It has a haunting atmosphere, filled with paranoia and suspense. And it also features truly nightmarish monster visuals, all done with masterful practical effects.

Sanitarium has some elements of graphic content, but it's always done in a way that enhances the atmosphere. I'm personally a huge fan of prerendered artwork, especially from an isometric perspective, so this game has a special place in my heart. There's just something about prerendered art that makes me feel cozy. One of my favorite games of all time, Diablo II (2000), also has really timeless prerendered art. Of course, prerendered art is not just a thing of the nineties and early 2000s, and it's still used in games today, like the Clash of Clans (2012) mobile game.

When we started creating the current topdown version of Kalaban back in January 2015, I remember thinking about this game. The writing on the first scene reminded me very much of the style in Sanitarium. The way you click on things, and the way Bob comments on them, etc.

Kalaban was originally designed as a three act story, but we decided to put our focus on the first act and make it as good as we can. The original idea was that first part would be more like an adventure game, second part would be more action-oriented with open-world exploration, and the final part would be all action. Now, all of those elements will be in the current game we're working on.

I'm a strong believer of games that serve a smaller world with lots of detail, instead of a huge open world sandbox with shallow gameplay. Sanitarium is definitely a game that belongs in the former category.


In case you haven't tested out the Early Access of Kalaban yet, then download the newest version now:




  

Friday diaries: Games that inspire us - Part 2

 
Hello again, readers!

This week we'll take another trip down the memory lane and talk about another game which has inspired us. These chosen few are not only games which have influenced the development of Kalaban, but our whole career as indie game developers.

" Enter Crimsonland " 

Over  fourteen years ago, when I first booted up the executable called "crimson.exe", I really had no idea what to expect. I had downloaded this freeware game, made by a couple of hobbyist game developers, from the Pelit magazine's gamedev forum. Pelit is a popular video game publication here in Finland, and around that time many young indie developers used to hang around those forums.

 
At first you're greeted with a topdown view of a featureless playfield. Then, little by little, gray alien creatures start to appear from the edge of the screen. You click on your left mouse button, and the virtual avatar fires a single shot from his pistol. Blood splurts from the enemy, and it falls over. Soon the whole screen is clogged up by slowly moving monsters, as you try to avoid them. Before long you get your first level up; a perk of your choosing. These range from weapons mastery, to regeneration, to faster movement and picking up objects from the distance with your mind.

The gameplay is simple, straightforward and fun. And I was instantly hooked to it. My fourteen-year-old self had found a game, which was exactly the kind of game I wanted to create at that time. Later, when the freeware Crimsonland evolved into the full version with multiple game modes and quests, I dreamed of creating a first person rendition of the same idea. Sadly, that concept never came to be.

Playing Crimsonland is like playing Doom (1993). Here's your gun, there's the monsters, no questions asked. The view is far enough from the player that you always have a clear vision of the battlefield. The weapon fx and bonus item effects still look great, thirteen years later. It takes courage and vision to hone the gameplay to such a pure and simplistic level that it just works. After that, you just add enough weapons, different foes and perks to keep it interesting.

The secret of Crimsonland is its spartan action, with everything useless removed from the UI and from the game itself. The idea is so simplistic that you can imagine any gun-wielding character in place of the player, blasting away endless foes. That is what drove me to vision my own version of it at the time. The exactly same gameplay would not work from a first person perspective however. If you have enemies approaching at you from 360 different angles, defending yourself becomes impossible. That's why you need some cover and structures at the playfield, to funnel those foes through.

When we began writing new combat system for Kalaban, I had this game in my mind. Attacking should feel intuitive and powerful. Enemies would occasionally drop loot and they would vary in speed, strength and style. Others would fire projectiles at your, others would be purely melee and others would blow up on touch. And attacks, blasts and damage would result in violent screenshake.

Recently, when we created the Shooter demo of Kalaban, we had these gameplay lessons in mind. We took the basic combat from the main game, and just added more spawning monsters and a high score which would rank up with every kill. We wanted to create a good view into the visual world of our game, without compromising the detail and depth of the actual game.

Who knows? Maybe we'll create a game purely built on combat in the future. In Kalaban we've wanted to make the experience atmospheric, filled with exploration, discovering story breadcrumbs and working with the NPCs to survive. And of course, there's plenty of combat...


You can download and test our shooter demo from below: