Happy July! To those who picked up The Maker's Eden during the recent Steam sale, welcome aboard the "waiting for act 2" train! :) Consider yourselves lucky though as the wait won't be quite as long as for some other folks. We're coming up on the first year anniversary since the launch of Act 1, after all. Progress has been steady, with most of the work being done outside of the house in a cafe where there's less to distract. In fact, this is exactly where I am right now writing this. So far in act 1 we've mostly just seen the parts of the city that is lived in, but there's another part of the city that's in less good shape. Below is a comparison of what a scene from that part looks like in-game, vs the layers that make it up. You'll notice that it's not flat panels, nor is it 100% accurate 3D. It's just enough 3D so that when the camera moves side to side, or when a light source moves over the floor, the illusion of a 3D environment is kept, while still looking hand-painted. Story-wise, things are unfolding nicely too. Act 2 is very exposition-dumpy, which has the potential to be quite boring, so we've tried to combat that by keeping the character interactions and environment interactions fun and interesting. The overall idea is the same: Tell a serious story, but in a light tone. The heavy exposition comes from the fact that by the end of act 2 there should be no more surprises or secrets. Act 3 is all action. Well ok, so maybe there's one thing in act 3 you won't see coming. Maybe 2 things.
EDIT: Ok, just because I am a tease, here's a list of the returning characters from act 1, and the new ones, with some placeholders. Who are these other people??

Happy July! To those who picked up The Maker's Eden during the recent Steam sale, welcome aboard the "waiting for act 2" train! :) Consider yourselves lucky though as the wait won't be quite as long as for some other folks. We're coming up on the first year anniversary since the launch of Act 1, after all. Progress has been steady, with most of the work being done outside of the house in a cafe where there's less to distract. In fact, this is exactly where I am right now writing this. So far in act 1 we've mostly just seen the parts of the city that is lived in, but there's another part of the city that's in less good shape. Below is a comparison of what a scene from that part looks like in-game, vs the layers that make it up. You'll notice that it's not flat panels, nor is it 100% accurate 3D. It's just enough 3D so that when the camera moves side to side, or when a light source moves over the floor, the illusion of a 3D environment is kept, while still looking hand-painted. Story-wise, things are unfolding nicely too. Act 2 is very exposition-dumpy, which has the potential to be quite boring, so we've tried to combat that by keeping the character interactions and environment interactions fun and interesting. The overall idea is the same: Tell a serious story, but in a light tone. The heavy exposition comes from the fact that by the end of act 2 there should be no more surprises or secrets. Act 3 is all action. Well ok, so maybe there's one thing in act 3 you won't see coming. Maybe 2 things.
EDIT: Ok, just because I am a tease, here's a list of the returning characters from act 1, and the new ones, with some placeholders. Who are these other people??