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: Creating the Greenlight trailer

Hello there!

On Halloween we're going to put the game up on Steam Greenlight to be voted into the store. We're currently rushing to get the intro cinematic finished. It will be featured with the in-game footage.

We envisioned this cinematic to be the cheesiest and most glorious retro nineties piece we can create. All prerendered graphics of course. So first we began by sketching out the look for it. We had something like the cg cutscenes of Command & Conquer (1995), the intro video to Dungeon Keeper (1997) and the introduction to Diablo (1996) in mind. The scanline effect, the hammy post-production effects and jerky animations were a must have.

About three weeks ago I learned how to create this very retro-looking, but kinda awesome fog effect in 3D Studio Max. The moment I saw that on screen, a lightbulb went off in my head. It looked almost exactly the same that I had seen in the first Command & Conquer many years ago. Now, looking back, that game and Red Alert (1996) had awesome in-between mission cinematics, done with top level computer graphics at the time. When I saw those cutscenes for the first time, I was genuinely impressed, and I had no idea how they animated them.

All of the scenes in this Kalaban cinematic however, have been created in a frenzy. We only had about a week to create the whole animation, due to the fact that we also had to make the game look commercial before the trailer. The character animations proved to be especially tricky, the monsters in particular. They're the same models used in the in-game sprites, and because they were never properly rigged, I had to get crafty with their animations.

I'm personally a sucker for all things nineties, especially the video game cinematics of that era. The live action FMVs (full-motion video) are my absolute guilty pleasure. The ones in old Command & Conquer titles are one of the best that I've ever seen. These days of course you can run photorealistic graphics in real-time, but back in the day developers had to resort to animations or acted out scenes to achieve that cinematic feel.

We still haven't done live action cutscenes at Rayhouse Productions. That's because building the sets, getting the props, the costumes and hiring the professional actors requires a lot of money. Even a half-decent cast requires some dough, not to mention a place to shoot the scenes in. Since Kalaban is strictly a low-budget indie game, we can't afford those yet. Who knows, if this game is successful, maybe you'll see some live action cutscenes in the future.

Be sure to check out Kalaban, once it goes live on Steam Greenlight, and be sure to give it a thumbs up!

KALABAN at Steam Greenlight

Friday diaries: Games that inspire us - Part 4

Hello, readers!

This week we will be wrapping up with our line of 'Games that inspire us'. There might still be one possible future recommendation after this, we'll see.

Honorable mentions

So, basically there are just way too many games for us to even count, which have inspired us during the years. I personally got my first computer in 1997, and during those first couple of years I played A LOT of games. I mean, I tried every possible demo and shareware I could get my hands on. Sports games, racing titles, boxing games, turn-based strategy games, you name it. Back then I was just so amazed by this new interactive medium (for me) that I wanted to try 'em all out.

A point worth mentioning is that we didn't have an internet connection when I started my gaming hobby. Nope, the games came on demo CDs, or on some friend's floppy disks. If I would've instantly had a decent internet connection, downloading and trying out games would've been so much easier. In my youth, we either bought magazines which had these CDs on them, or swapped existing ones around. So that way I never had this surplus of games, that the kids today have.

And also, at that time not every PC ran every PC title. Even if your computer was brand new. Our first computer had an integrated 2MB graphics chip, which didn't allow hardware acceleration. That would've required buying an extra graphics card, which we couldn't afford at the time. So, my first 3D shooters were all software rendered.

Quake II (1997) with software rendering VS. with hardware acceleration. 

1. id Software games

 

 Keen 4 on the left, and the first scene of Kalaban on the right.

At first I was going to mention Doom (1993), because that game has had such a huge impact on PC gaming in general. But come to think of it, most of the 90s id titles have inspired me as a game designer. You can look at the overworld screen in Keen 4 (1991) for example, and see that it looks similar to the overhead perspective in Kalaban. I used to play that game a lot with my big sister, and I think we once got the whole game beat. The game also had this open-ended Zelda style design, where you would unlock different parts of the map, or access them once you've acquired a certain item.

The influence of Quake (1996) also cannot be underestimated. The game has a very strong Lovecraftian horror theme, and the sound design is to this day nothing short of fantastic. The game takes place in alternate dimensions, which are really nightmarish and gave me night terrors for years. Gameplay-wise it's a classic old school shooter with highly tactical combat, and it really takes the players to their absolute limit. The opening area in Quake is also really clever, starting immediately ingame, and letting you choose your difficulty and episode while getting used to navigating the 3D world.

2. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995)

 

  Comparison of the horde in Warcraft II, and the one in Kalaban.

This one is a bit more specific. I first encountered Blizzard's Warcraft II on a demo disc, and I hadn't played the first one at that point. I had only seen the first one on my school's computer as a shareware. Some of the older boys from my school had installed it on the machine at the back of our classroom. We used to play Warcraft and other shareware titles in between classes on that computer.

But back to Warcraft II. I remember instantly falling in love with the hand-crafted animations in this game. The design on the characters and the world is masterfully done, and you can see that the developers clearly put a lot of time and effort into it. In my mind, the graphics still look pretty neat today. I think that the art style in this game has stood the test of time better than some of the more photorealistic titles of the same era. You really get the impression that you're controlling miniatures, which have come to life on a real-time battlefield.

Also, a thing worth mentioning is that when we began creating the character animations for Kalaban, this game was our main starting point with the look and the perspective. It's not a straight-up imitation of course, but something we drew inspiration from. Warcraft II has this slightly slanted topdown look, which isn't really isometric. Bonus mention goes to the wonderfully cheesy cutscenes, with some fantastically overdone voice-acting. Everything in these early Warcraft titles (and often Blizzard games in general) feels epic, and everything is so grand that even the voiceover feels in place. The story in itself is quite serious, but the game is filled with comedy.

 3. Blood (1997)

 

In comparison, neither one of the games shy away from gore and horror-themed settings.

To anyone who has seen Kalaban in motion, this is should not come as surprise. Cultists, masses of undead minions, a gothic-themed 1920s setting and of course, tons of gore. This classic horror shooter from Monolith Productions has it all. This game is personally one of my favorite FPS games of all time, and not just an inspiration for Kalaban. Growing up, this game was both haunting and exciting, but to be honest, it never got into my head like Quake did. I might've had dreams about it, but not nightmares. Maybe it's the more cartoony violence and sprite characters, but even as a kid I was perfectly able to distance Blood from reality.

I think the level design in the game is superb, and it was done with the same engine as Duke Nukem 3D (1996). The theme in this game is well-presented, and it's consistent, although the game makes many pop culture references, to both horror movies and written fiction. The easter eggs and secrets in the game are wonderful, and always a joy to find.

The protagonist in Blood, Caleb, is an undead gunslinger and without a doubt an antihero. We wanted the action to match the craziness which goes on in Blood, just from a topdown perspective. Storytelling-wise the games are quite different, as Blood is an old school shooter, and its levels are basically 3D monster mazes.

4. Diablo (1996)

 The first boss in Diablo, and the aftermath of a battle in Kalaban.

The loot, the monsters, the creepy and shadowy environments. Ah yes, where would we be without Diablo? Like Warcraft, this game was also developed by Blizzard Entertainment, but by another team called the Blizzard North. I do have to confess that Diablo II (2000) had a much larger impact on me than the first one, but it was a necessary step in evolution. The game still has a fantastic atmosphere, and I like that they've taken the hardcore idea of roguelikes and put it into a mainstream game.

The game was a modern, realtime take on the role-playing and dungeon crawling. There had been a few similar titles like it on the PC, such as the Ultima 8 (1994) from Origin, but none of those were done with the same level of quality. Diablo truly is a "gameplay first" type of game, where it lets you get right into action.

The game has a branching storyline, and when you start the game, you can never know which one the game is going to choose. In addition to that of course, the environments are procedurally generated. Advancing towards Diablo, the main antagonist in the game, is pretty straightforward, as you descend to the hellish dungeons beneath the cathedral. When you've reached a whole new area in the dungeon, an exit appears on the overworld, through which you can travel back to where you were.

Diablo really sticks to the wisdom that simple is beautiful, and it doesn't hold back important information from the player. Everything in the UI is simplistic and straightforward. The chance for a better loot drop makes you wanna replay the game, time after time.

The misconceptions

 

A lot of people have told us that Kalaban reminds them of Postal (1997). Maybe it's the art style, the perspective or that both of the games feature brown-coated men as protagonists. I don't know, to me it seems a bit weird. Sure, I have played Postal 1 and 2, but neither of those games have inspired me in creation of this title.

The abandoned gas station in Kalaban.

Kalaban is more of an open-ended story simulator, where Postal games are like Carmageddon: you can choose to complete the challenges, or play around killing NPCs for fun. They thrive on shock value, and that has not been our goal. Sure, our game has a lot of gore and horror elements, but it's all done in a story-oriented manner.

I think the closest analogy of our game would be topdown System Shock, with a retro alternate history theme. Sure, the gameplay is a bit different and our game has NPCs instead of emails and audio logs, but the goals are similar. The game has RPG style mechanics, but without leveling up and gathering experience. Some might call it "Metroidvania", others would compare it to Zelda, but the official genre of course is "action adventure".