Making our debut in the Future Games Show!
News Tower is participating in the Future Games Show 2023.
The Future Games Show is one of the industry’s flagship gaming showcases and is rapidly building a reputation as one of the best ways to discover new games!
We are very thrilled and proud to feature our game there among other exciting titles!
We felt this was the perfect time for us to give you an update on how the game has been evolving, what we have been working on and developing since 2021!
MEET, in this interview:
- Jan-Maarten - Creative Director
- Maxime - Game Designer
- Iris - Illustrator & Graphic Designer
- Louis - Brand Manager
Stay tuned to meet the rest of the team in a later episode!! :D
What inspired you to create a game set in this specific time period?
Jan-Maarten
-
In 2018 I came upon an article about the New York Times newspaper production in 1941. It had a series of pictures showing every department from Newsroom to Printroom.
Filled with awesome analog machines and oozing with a sense of nostalgic craft.
Coming from an art school background I always had an affinity for letterpressing and movable type.
I have always been a big history enthusiast and when a Newspaper Tycoon first came to mind, the 1930s seemed like a perfect fit. It’s a really interesting decade because it was in constant uproar by a global economic and political crisis that ultimately led to the second world war.
Prohibition, Famous Mobsters, Hollywood Golden Years, the rise of Jazz, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl... It felt that for a tycoon game, where stories are the main resource, this decade would never be short of providing Interesting material.
And New York City just felt like a natural central point to base the News Tower in.
What's the most challenging aspect of developing a tycoon?
Jan-Maarten
-
A Tycoon game consists of hundreds of little systems coming together. This means that it took a really long time to create somewhat of a working prototype. That made it really hard to judge if we were working on something great or not. For lots of game devs it's always tricky to know if you are making the right choices but for a tycoon game, for a long time you're just in the dark. Having a core idea that everybody is enthusiastic and feels good about really helps to keep things going. Nowadays it's just really hard to change any system when it's connected and depending on so many other elements. Just accept that half of the time the project doesn’t run and you're in for lots of rewrites. It's a marathon but a fulfilling one at it.
Maxime
-
The most complicated design aspect of a tycoon is the risk of accumulating too many mechanics to give life to an autonomous and coherent "ecosystem". This genre-specific systemic density can turn into an overflow of information, phases or resources. Because of this density, the balancing work is much more demanding than in any other game genre.
Tell us about a unique or innovative gameplay mechanic that you've included in the game!
Jan-Maarten
-
It's always tricky to say what's innovative about your own project. But we do feel that we're
adding new interesting elements to an established Tycoon landscape.
News Tower has very rounded play phases: Report, Process and Print. Which makes it ideal for shorter 15/30 min play sessions to more casually go through the game if that fits your playstyle. Where the Process Phase is the more known tycoon element of building and managing and there is lots of that. Report and Print bring new unique mechanics to the genre.
Reporting
Choosing what stories to report on and assigning the right reporters alters the news item resource composition. Do you go for Hot-topics and gain lots of new readers or abide by some influential outside party's hidden agenda. We want the player to feel like their choices matter and really put them in the publisher seat.
Newspaper Print Composition
Players can arrange their Newspaper to their own liking. This visual element really brings the newspaper to life and shows the choices a player made earlier. For instance, when you've sent a photographer to the news location, that article will show a photo. The headlines also reflect the story paths you chose.
FREE PRO TIPS HERE ⬇
Make sure you leave room for one of those juicy ads. Because staying profitable is one of those golden Tycoon rules that everybody understands.
What are the key elements you considered when creating a compelling Key Art for News Tower?
Iris
-
The Key Art needs to reflect the game ambiance and to be attractive at the same time.
Here, the New York's 1930s period and the journalism theme are the main focus.
The architecture, with the skyline, the roof water reservoir, the iconic Empire State Building or the characters wearing old-fashioned clothes and using old technologies, are all elements who are here to give you a narrative context and suggest the gameplay thematics.
⬇ Here you can see a before/after of the Key Art, highlighting the many changes ⬇
Can you walk me through the step-by-step process of creating a Key Art for News Tower?
Iris
-
First, the development team gave me a brief with some suggestions about the graphic content and the atmosphere. With their notes, I've made some quick sketches trying different compositions, character types and logo placement.
Then, we started to identify what is important to keep, which size the elements should be to deliver a clear message. They selected one drawing and from there I made a new version using the game graphic style and color palette.
I draw everything in Illustrator. We started to move elements again, as colors changed all the image balance. A key art needs to be understandable no matter the size, even in a really small format. To achieve this, we simplified some elements. For exemple, initially, the tower was open, showing the environment in which most of the game happens. We realizes that closing it allows you to focus more on the environment as a whole, not being frustrated by the little details you struggle to see.
When we were sastisfied, the final step started. The entire game visuals are made with vectors. To create something that fits the game and at the same time brings an element of surprise and newness, I've used vectorial art as a background for a digital painting with warmer organic lights and textures you won't find in game.
What role does the Key Art play in the marketing strategy?
Iris
-
It's a really important part, the creator's vision of the game needs to be highlighted in the key art. In a way, it's a quick static trailer, giving you the desire to see and know more about the game.
Louis
-
We have been working for a while on the new visual identity of News Tower. With the production progressing every day, it was time to update the key art of the game.
The key art is an essential visual for a game - especially for indies! When a game appears on the home page or in your searches, this is the first visual you’ll see. It must show major elements of the game and be recognizable for players!
We felt that some elements were missing for the player to dive properly into our game atmosphere and universe. The tower was already there, but how would a business run without a team? As the 30s news are the game core, it was important for us to accentuate the immersive side of the key art and to add the setting of your future (old) newspaper business: New York!
A touch of the Empire State Building, a bit of old-fashioned clothes and a lot of journalism... and you get this new key art!
I spare you technical marketing terms and the looonnnnggg description of the process to find the perfect result… but don’t worry our graphic designer came out unscathed!