Yesterday I made a new scrolling credits page. The old one was getting far too crowded, which doesn't fit a minimalist game. Now the names scroll up like at the end of a movie. But since this game never ends, you see it by hitting 'c' for copyright/credits at any time.

Actually, that whole 'game ends' thing always bothered me. I understand that a STORY must end, but why musta GAME end? If a story is good then it introduces us to characters we want to see again, and places we want to explore. So in my game you can wander around forever if you want, discovering more and more good stuff. That's the whole point.

Today I should have all the music chosen (around fifty tracks). I plan to process them tomorrow and code them into the game on Monday. Some of it is really beautiful. Now it's up to me (and soon to the testers) to make sure the music and gameplay work together to create a powerful whole.

'anonymous' pointed me to an excellent guide to a successful software launch, and I've been giving it a lot of thought. The article is really aimed at Web 2.0 stuff, where a slow and careful roll-out mimimizes bugs. This is contrasted with a Hollywood launch where everything happens on one day and the movie (or game) is forgotten six months later. The more I think about it, the more the "slow roll out" fits this game.

I've always seen this game as more like regular software, and not so much like other games. it will have regular updates, and all previous versions are included in the latest version. And it's always been planned as open-ended, to grow and evolve forever. Also, I'm learning as I go and have virtually no budget, so 'slow and careful roll out' makes a lot of sense.

Another issue is Dreamhost. I use Dreamhost because they offer insane bandwidth at low cost. But in the real world 'insane bandwidth and low cost' means high chance of problems. What if the site is down on the week of the launch? Add the real world bugs to be expected (that the aforementioned site describes so well) and I would be crazy to push for a BIG launch. I had planned for a press release and to tell every web site and blog I can find, but I've changed my mind.

So this is what will happen:

• The countdown clock will stay up, because it's useful.
• I will tell everyone who has signed the 'let me know' form, and of course change the web site so anyone can get the game if they want.
• But I will NOT announce the game to anyone else. No press release, no announcement to game sites, no copies sent to blogs, none of that. If people find it on their own, great. Anyone can buy it on December 15th (or download the free demo) but I won't be shouting about it. There are enough people already interested to keep me busy with feedback.
• The BIG launch will be version 2, next June, when the second story is ready, and the game is launched as 'Enter The Story.'

yesterday I created the music code, and spent several hours trying to find just the right music for Javert's suicide. My budget is limited, and licensing costs for existing music are normally one hundred dollars per track (for unlimited mechanical reproduction rights, e.g. in a game). I need around fifty tracks, and my total music budget is about two hundred dollars (all of which is now spent) so you can see I need to be creative! Actually, finding affordable or free licensed music is not hard, but finding TOP QUALITY licensed music is. So I usually end up finding the closest thing possible, then adapting the dialog so the music seems perfect.

For example, I wanted a dramatic climax for Javert's death - a screaming crescendo of voices. I couldn't find one despite hours of searching. But I did find some very powerful music that lacked a single climax. So I'll be re-writing exactly what Javert says so it fits the music: more thoughtful, less hit-them-over-the-head-with-noise. Which is probably a good thing in the long run. The whole point of this game, of this whole project, is to be more thoughtful than other games. A screaming crescendo is really another form of violence - it's designed to take bypass your conscious interpretation and go straight for the primitive brainstem response. I'll leave that for other games. This game delivers its kicks to the cerebral cortex, not the spinal cord. :)

Still working on the music...

That's the hardest music pretty much in the bag: for the demo and the intro. Those are the things people first hear, so they have to be right. Tomorrow I'll start on the other music.

OK, change of plan regarding today's video: it won't happen. Sorry. My cheap video editors simply aren't good enough. I need to overlay numerous videos, so need a non-linear editor (most cheap editors are linear). And the four non-linear editors I've tried either don't do what I need, or crash constantly. It's a pity. I have all the source materials, and if I had a good editor I could have put them together and uploaded the video this morning. But I don't have the money for a good editor, and this mini-project isn't important enough to waste any more time on. So today it's back to working on the real game.

I had expected to have a new "about the game" video ready today, but spent half of yesterday building a gerbil house instead. That's what happens when you have a family! The gerbils are gradually taking over my daughters' room. I hate seeing animals in small cages (and by small I mean what other people consider normal). So now they each have two large connected spaces, with plenty of opportunity ro burrow and make their own houses.
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Oh yeah, this was about Les Miserables, wasn't it. :) I'll have that video online late tonight. And since I've started on the music I may as well finish it. I had scheduled the music for AFTER the game is being tested, but it makes more sense to do it first.
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So the new schedule is:
* Now til 10 September: add the music
* 10 Sep-20 Sep: finish clues
* 20 Sep -10 Oct: test everything myself
* 10th October: send for outside testing, and continue to work on it myself.

Yesterday's music took longer than expected, but I'm very pleased with the result. And I always expect things to take longer than expected if you know what I mean. I was just looking for one music track - for the sewer scenes. These are the scenes that will be used in the demo, so it has to be right. I wanted a real orchestra (or better still, real voices) to give it a quality feel. And my budget is VERY limited, so it took all day, and I had to change a few things to fit, but it's sounding good.
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In other news, today I'm making an overview video of the whole Enter The Story project, so everyone can see the whole vision from start to finish.

It looks like I have a pretty good idea of what music will be ready for the final game, so today I'll start organizing it properly: making final decisions about the opening music (probably not the track on the teaser video!) and so on. I had planned to do this in October, but I like to get "unknown" stuff out of the way in case something unexpected crops up.

Working on music today. I won't be adding it for a couple of months, but need to plan ahead in case anything new needs to be commissioned.

Still adding clues. Also yesterday I wrote the press release. Won't be needing it until October (for monthly magazines) or December (for dailies) but I started thinking about it, so thought 'may as well write it.' Most of the time was spent thinking up a newsworthy angle.

Been wondering how to capture videos of the game being played (in November when it's really finished). The playable demo will be short (for bandwidth reasons) so I'll be relying on videos (placed on YouTube) to show most of the actual content. My computer isn't fast enough to capture 30 fps smoothly or edit long video clips - the old teaser video was made by slowing the game right down and editing dozens of parts together, and it took AGES to make because my video editor crashes all the time. I'll probably see if I can borrow a decent video camera from somebody, and just point it at the screen. And issue an appeal for one of the regulars here with a fast computer (or TV output) to record some vids, in return for a free game. It would be good if the videos were made by actual players - it gives a much better idea of the real game than me just carefully editing the best bits.

Spent yesterday rearranging some dialog. This game has a very simple control system: left click to look at a person, right click to get a person to look at something. I still have to get used to this, and I designed it! At first look, it doesn't allow inventories and conversation trees. But in fact it allows infinitely bigger inventories and infinitely more complex conversation trees: the inventory is the whole world, and you can talk about absolutely anything. For example, until yesterday I had over a hundred mini-conversations for clicking on Peri, but I realized that it made more sense to split them between nearby objects. So if you click on 'heaven' then Peri talks about heaven, if you click on 'earth' then Peri talks about earth, and so on. It just needs a different approach to designing.

I removed the 'float up to heaven' section a few weeks ago, but decided to put it back (and make some behind the scenes improvements). I've also been revising the whole Peri/Hugo dialog, and learning more about the Vietnam connection. Now to carry on with the clues!

Hello to the fine people from Adventurespiele - they just put a page about the game on their web site!
In other news, I added a manifesto to the Enter The Story web site, and thought you might like to see it:

I should maybe explain item 9, that I won't worry about polish. What I mean is, I won't waste any more time going over the same dialog again and again, or redrawing some little animation to make it a tiny bit better. I'll make sure the game works, and then I'll move on to the next story and the next.

This is a completely new concept in gaming. Fast, exciting, rough and ready, always new, always expanding. A new story added every six months, serious issues, the world's most important stories and ideas, the nature of reality. I don't have time to stand around and polish the silverware. I intend to break new ground, and so there might be some dirt on my shoes.

Like I said, this is a new concept: to put the fun back into games. For years now people have got so used to polished games that they forget that this polish comes at a price: it takes so long to make a game that the price is high, sequels are slow, and nobody takes risks. But look at YouTube, look at South Park, look at pulp magazines, or look at pioneers in ANY industry: rough and ready, cheap and cheerful, a willingness to take risks, that's where the cutting edge is for ideas.

New today: box shots! Not actual boxes of course (I made them in Photoshop Elements), but box shots nonetheless. :)

A few weeks ago I revised the heaven part of the game: Victor Hugo now appears in person. This was in order to simplify the game and bring it more in line with other books that adapt or abridge classics (they often have a section "about the author"). However, I still want him to interact directly with the game in some way. So imagine my pleasure when I learned more about his table turning activities while in Jersey, writing Les Miserables. (In fact, this was how he finally decided on the title 'Les Miserables'). My idea was to have Victor Hugo sitting in heaven passing on messages to our hero, Peri. Well according to the Caodaists this is exactly what he does! Ah, serendipity!

I mentioned yesterday that I spent some time updating another of my web sites (Zak-site.com), and I'm very pleased with the result. I haven't updated it for months, because I've been concentrating on Les Miserables, so it was well overdue. Zak McKracken is the game that inspired me to want to make my own games. Most people see Zak as just another comedy, but of you look closer it's much more than that. The things that are unique about Zak are the things that David Fox (its creator) cared about, the things that really inspire me: so many amazing ideas, unity of all life, a huge universe, time and space, realism (real people, real locations), non-violence, and a different sense of humor. I could go on and on, and indeed I do, given half a chance. As I've mentioned before, one of the later stories in Enter The Story will be based on computer games, and will include tons of references to Zak. But for now I'd better get back to Les Miserables :)

Finished the cutscenes, started the clues (actually starting tomorrow), and worked on two other websites that are related to EnterTheStory (but not in a way that will be obvious yet). Busy day today!

Probably won't have time to post later today (I'm posting from the local swimming pool!) so just checking in :). Yesterday I added the final sequence to the game. After about ten different versions I think it finally says what I want it to say.

Today I finished the backbone of the game: the 117 cutscenes! Tomorrow I'll go over the last few events again, adding better dialog, then Friday I start on the clues. Everything is on schedule!

By the way, have you noticed that when 'Valjean' is spoken in French, the 'l' and 'n' are almost silent. Very interesting. VERY interesting. But I'm not saying why. :) :)

This week is suddenly becoming very busy for me, away from the game. Extra hours at work, camping, babysitting, etc. It won't affect August's schedule overall, but blog entries until Friday may be a little short!

About the demo. I've been doing some thinking, experiments and calculations. The original plan was to have the full game up to the fire, which forms a natural break. That would give plenty of material on which to judge the game. However, I follow the book, so the real action isn't at the start. And you don't get to control an actual character until Valjean is freed from prison. Far more important is file size. The size of the full game is not too critical, since it will pay for itself, but the free demo is a different kettle of fish.

The demo size would be about 36 MB, as near as I can calculate. If just 30 people download it, that's a gigabyte of bandwidth. If a thousand people download the demo, that's 30 gigabytes of bandwidth. I'm not expecting huge sales, but Les Miserables is a well known book, so it's quite possible that some medium size blog or website might mention it, so a thousand people might be curious. Heck, this is the Internet, numbers might be far more, though I'm expecting probably a few hundred. Either way, it's a serious problem, budget wise. (You would not believe how tight my budget is, even if I told you)

I had planned to use one of the free game demo sites, but I'm changing my mind. No site is going to provide huge bandwidth for free without problems. (OK, YouTube is a special case.) I figure that any free site is going to hassle users with registration, or ads, or endless clicking, or slow downloads, or all four. I don't want that.

So here's what I'm thinking: The demo will be just the sewer section of the game. It's relatively short, but long enough to contain several small tasks. It's right at the center of the story so it gives a good feel for what the game is about. (Better than starting at the beginning when the story is young.) I'd also upload more than one playthrough to YouTube, so you can see the range of scenes, crowds, animations, characters, etc. Plus I'd add more screenshots, reviews by other people, etc. Anyone who sees the YouTube videos, reads some short reviews and downloads the demo will have a very good idea of what to expect in the full game.

Crucially, the sewer section has straightforward puzzles (combine A then combine B), and is entirely self contained. Nice and compact. The new short demo should come in at just 6 megabytes. Possibly even less. Which means I can host it directly from my own web site without any hassle. It will be available shortly before December 15th, when the full game is released.

Still working away...

Progress update: The game has 115 events. By tonight I should have coded 95 of them. They should all be done by Wednesday, then I'll start on the clues. Those should all be done by the end of the month (ten events a day on a good day). The game wil then be "complete." However, it's bound to be buggy, and everything will need adjusting and changing, so that's September taken care of. Then it goes for proper beta testing. Now back to work!

Quick quiz: as you know, the next story after Les Miserables will be Dante's Divine Comedy. And as you also know, all the stories will be linked. So how many times do you think that Victor Hugo's Les Miserables refers to the poet Dante? Never? Once? Twice? Not even close. Would you believe... fourteen times? I just checked (with a search on an electronic copy of Les Miserables). 14 times! Clearly Victor Hugo was a fan of Dante as well.

Completely changing the subject, Steven Grant wrote an excellent column about how to start as a graphic novelist. Anyone who's visited the EnterTheStory web site will know that I originally planned this game as a comic, but changed to the game format for reasons of cost, market, and flexibility. But still the easiest way to understand what I'm trying to do is think of Classics Illustrated, where all the stories take place in the same world, with a sci-fi back story, and it's interactive. Anyway, it's been hard to get feedback on the long term plan because, obviously, nobody esle has seen what it will look like. Even I have not seen what it will look like, as the plan naturally evolves and changes a little as it becomes reality. The test versions I sometimes release do not give a good idea of the ultimate goal, so they can be misleading. Anyway, Steven Grant's excellent column sums up the conclusion I reached over the last month: the most useful attribute for a new novelist is orneriness. The best way to get a completely new concept off the ground is to just do it, and not care what others think.

Tomorrow: a progress update.

About the special offer: this game was always planned as a game with HUNDREDS of stories. That's the whole point. I want everyone to see the game as a world of stories, and not just one story. That's important to me. So anyone who buys the first release of the game (Les Miserables) can have the next two stories FREE when they're ready. A new story will be released every six months, and they'll all fit together to make the world's biggest adventure game.

I've designed the game so that new stories can be added very quickly (once I get past the learning stage!) Eventually, aftera couple of years, I'd like to release a small story every TWO months. It should be possible, but let's just see how it goes.

Yesterday I promised more details about the release schedule, and here it is:

• August 31st: all cutscenes and clues complete
• September: I spend the whole month going through making sure it works, and akign improvements along the way.
• September 30th: send the game for beta testing (it should have everthing except sound and the final polish)
• October: the month is spent making improvements suggested by beta testers. Also add music.
• November: this month is "free" because, let's face it, unexpected delays always turn up!
• December 1st: send out finished release candidate for testing: last chance to find any bugs. Also make the demo version: I calculate that the demo will be a 37 MB download, and the full version about twice that.
• December 15th: full release, start work on Dante

Tomorrow: more details about the special offer. If you received today's newsletter you'll know the one I mean!

Oh, and I've updated LesMisGame.com and EnterTheStory.com as well. And also reserved two more blog names for when I start on the second story.

December 15th 2008

That's the official release date! If the date looks familiar that's because it's exactly one year after the original release date set back in 2006, before the new graphics, new game engine and reacting-to-feedback added four months each to the schedule. This date will not slip. How can I be sure? Because the game is already nearly finished! The basic game will be complete by August 31st 2008

So why not upload it then? Because you don't want a basic game that hasn't been tested. You want a good game that works. That leaves three and a half months for improving, testing and polishing. More details on Thursday!

Good news! Things are starting to go well. Very well. Back on track now. I won't blog tomorrow, but by Tuesday I hope to have a firm, final date for the release, plus other news.