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: The Road to Greenlight

Hello there! This Friday I decided we could have a general look at the project and where it's going. As many of you know, we're launching Kalaban on Steam Greenlight on Halloween 2016. We're all really excited to finally get this project to public knowledge, but it demands a lot of hard work.

The promotional picture for our Greenlight launch.

I've been adding new features to the game like crazy over the past couple of weeks. One of these include the new lumber mill scene, where you can meet your former employer, Keijo. Changes and updates have also been made into the user interface. You can now instantly check your enemies' health by hovering your mouse over them.

 Showcasing the enemy health bar. 

We've finally added a couple of bigger boss encounters into the game. These characters will appear at the high points of the story. Both of them can be approached in the way that player chooses, by trying to avoid them entirely, or facing them head on.  

You encounter a huge, wobbling monstrosity near the purification plant.

I've also added lots of story stuff into the game, most of which I cannot show you without spoilers. Keijo now has full dialogue, and many of the quest events have now been fleshed out. This week I added one silly piece of interaction into the game: you can access a computer terminal and write text on it. I think little things like these make the environment seem more alive. 

 The very retro terminal screen at the purification plant.

We currently have Kalaban in early access at GameJolt. This really is the current development version of the game. So if you're really curious to see what the game looks in motion, then head over to GameJolt and get your hands on that version. 

 The first scene of the story currently in game.

Next week we'll publish the last 'Games that inspire us' article. It will tangle one of the most important games for us during the development of Kalaban. We're gonna wrap up with the nostalgia pieces after this and crank up the crunch factor to get this game actually finished. 

We're constantly looking back and reviewing how our vision and scope has transformed during the project. This is necessary so that the big picture doesn't get lost in the bug-fixing, details and new features.

One of the recent props which I've designed. It's this sort of an eighties, early nineties slot machine, done with (almost) historical detail. 

Most of the really important stuff has survived the process, plus the mood and feel which we envisioned for the game to have from the beginning. The game still is an adventure game, with lots of detail, and it has open-ended gameplay. With one of the most important elements: player choice matters. That's the stuff we're pushing towards.

Brawling against the mutated locals.

We also value depicting the mid-nineties Finland, and all the flavor that comes with it. We're not aiming for absolute historical detail, because after all, we're creating an alternate history game. Kalaban is pretty much a dream project for us. But creating your dream game also means that you have a huge pressure to deliver both to yourself, and also to your audience. 

That's all for this week. Thank you all for tuning in, and farewell!

Friday diaries #8: Getting connected

Hello everybody!

Phew, it's been four weeks since our last Friday diary entry, so I figured it would be time to have a little chat. You know when people on the creative field always tell you to "get connected"? I've always been a fan of that myself, and indeed found the value in it. Not only does it possibly land you some job offerings, but also helps your business.

Because, after all, if nobody knows about the game you're making, and nobody is fan of your work... Then nobody's gonna play your game! It's really that simple. I kinda understand people who think that they should just "keep things secret and keep working on their game until it's perfect", but I'm just not a fan of that, and I think it ultimately just doesn't work. What ends up happening is that you're just gonna sit on your product, and nobody's even gonna know you're working on it.

I tend to show things off a little too early, and sometimes I get bitten in the ass because of it. But it rather deal with that, than go with the other option. As soon as you have something to show, I suggest you start building a fanbase around it.

Gamedev is risky and unstable business. Sometimes, and honestly more times than you might think, a game ends up being cancelled. So, if people are not gonna see your finished product, then at least show 'em your unfinished product. I've read about these really sad stories, where a big game company is working on a huge game. Then it gets cancelled, and all they've released during three years of devtime is only a couple of screenshots. To me, that's just ludicrous. I remember when the guys at 3D Realms were developing Duke Nukem Forever (2011), and from the year 2001 to early 2007 fans didn't even get to see a glimpse of that game.

This issue becomes even clearer in indie game development. When you don't have a huge budget, or a any kind of marketing budget at all, you gotta work extra hard to get your product out there. I recently created a Game Jolt profile for Kalaban to showcase our game, in this spirit. I'm actually a fan of that site, and I've been a semi-regular user of it for years now, but never had my own stuff there.

And oh yeah... one other thing... We created our very first trailer! Woop woop! It's a quite short demonstration really, and the footage is missing some weapon animations, and small details like that. Once we get all the enemies and weapons working properly in-game, we'll make a fancier one.

That's it for this week, guys! We'll be back with more news and features soon. If you wish to see more certain kind of content on this blog, message me on Twitter and let me know. See ya!