Hey everyone, Adam from Robust Games here. We’re excited to be kicking off another Loco Motive development blog!
Development Update
Before we get into it, we’ve had a few questions about when Loco Motive will be releasing.
Are we still set for Summer 2022? Isn’t it August already?
So, we've made the decision to delay Loco Motive to 2023. There are a number of factors behind this decision, but ultimately we believe this extra development time will allow us to deliver the game we want to make and allow Loco Motive to reach its fullest potential.
The excitement surrounding Loco Motive since its reveal in December has been really inspiring, and we appreciate your support so far.
We hope you’ll stay aboard just a little longer!
The Music Of Loco Motive
Our composer, Paul Zimmermann is here to talk about his approach to the music of Loco Motive, and the adaptive system we’ve built around the game as you move between carriages:
"My goal with every project is to find a sound that feels authentic to the game and its characters.
The soundtrack for Loco Motive is turning out to be this fun blend of different styles and periods in music, from big-band swing to 60s spy music and the occasional French-inspired waltz.
We have quite the varied cast of characters, so it felt natural to try and reflect that in the music."
"From a technical standpoint it was important for us to implement the music into the game in a way that it reacts to the gameplay and locations, opposed to having static looping tracks.
As players roam around the train trying to solve puzzles, the music follows along and changes seamlessly between carriages and characters."
In order to achieve this, I’m writing and then exporting the music in small chunks that allow for fast transitions, meaning, a certain melody-note might be carried over into the next location, or a groove transitions smoothly. Our thinking here is that if players don’t notice it, then we’ve actually achieved what we set out to do!"
Check out this behind-the-scenes look of how the music system behaves and sounds so far:
We'll have much more music to share as development continues, this is just a taste of what's to come!
AdventureX - The Narrative Games Convention
We’re super excited to announce that Loco Motive has been selected to showcase at AdventureX this year!
AdventureX brings together a wide range of narrative-driven indie games, and is the UK's only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming. It's a celebration of creativity, indie development and interactive storytelling, and we’re thrilled to have our game amongst narrative titans.
The first wave of tickets sold out in just under 20 minutes, so if you’re one of those lucky few, we’ll hopefully see you there!
Character Spotlight - Diana Osterhagen
It’s time for our third character spotlight! This time we’re taking a look at our final playable character, the secretive Diana Osterhagen.
Diana is a British operative who's spent the last few months undercover in order to get close to the Unterwald family.
Tasked with gaining intelligence on potential ‘undeclared assets’, she finds herself aboard the Reuss Express in the arms of Kaspar Bergmann - who just so happens to be the treasurer of Lady Unterwald's wealthy estate.
Diana is soon swept up in something far more unsettling than undeclared income or tax liabilities, and must use her problem-solving abilities and highly developed interpersonal skills to get out of hot water.
That’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go, but in the meantime you can follow us for updates on Twitter or join the community in our brand new Discord channel.