Hi everyone!
Welcome to our first Devlog for I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow.
We know it's been a little while since you last heard from us. For that, we are really sorry. Balancing development, all the events we have been exhibiting at, and our uni work has been a challenge. We have a lot of exciting stuff to show you, so we hope you are ready!
Events
Firstly, we just wanted to cover all the events we have been to. At the end of March, we showed off I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow at our first major event - Insomnia! This was a crazy experience for us, showing off the game to so many people. All the feedback we got was amazing, and overall the event was a huge success!
Recently, we also showed off IBBT at WASD in London. Over the 3 days the event lasted, we spoke to hundreds of people, handing out nearly 2,000 stickers and leaflets! While we would love to have some time to recover, we have more events to come soon! Mainly, Steam Next Fest in June - Keep an eye out for more in that in the coming weeks :))
A lens to an alternate reality
One of the first things we did this month was plan out the whole game. Yes, every single level! It was a long meeting with plenty of coffee, cool ideas, and heated debates (the professional term for arguing!) In this discussion, Technical Director Archie Crampton brought up something we had talked about months ago.
Before I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow, we had a very different game idea in mind, titled ‘Project CATH’. We were going to make a cyberpunk inspired skateboarding game… I wonder how different things would be now if we had stayed with that idea! In order to pay homage to what could have been, we decided to create a small snippet for the player to play on the child's handheld console. Its fast gameplay is really a change of pace. Check out how cool some of the art looks!
Change of scenery
Obviously, the main focus for us with I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow is to make a heartfelt narrative. To this end, we have started to further develop the 3D side of the game.
One aspect we found from the demo that really resonated with players was the back and forth dialog between the child and Fred the Frog. To expand on this, I have started working closely with our lead 3D artist, Oliver Wheeler, to create a dynamic hospital garden for the player to explore. In those segments, players will be guided along the path, whilst having a discussion with the child's nurse. It is always important to get fresh air every now and then (the biggest challenge for game devs)!
Out with the old, in with the new!
It's a very scary thing to release your work out into the world. When we decided we wanted to release a demo on Steam, we knew it was going to have its pros and cons. It was definitely a great help for the Kickstarter, giving potential backers an easy way to experience what we had in mind. However, it also meant that certain elements of the demo were not representative of what we wanted the finished product to look like.
To that end, we decided certain things needed a little… glow up! Most importantly were the tilemaps. Just look at the difference!
The power of Music!
Our composer, Snosm, is actually a childhood friend of our creative director Thomas Hunt! Snosm has been making music for as long as Tom can remember. Now, with I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow, Snosm’s music is reaching a whole new audience!
To celebrate how amazing his music is, we have created a dedicated space to listen to Snosm’s music in game. Just press on the ‘StrollGuy’ in the 3D room, and you can listen to all the tracks in the game!
InkForge…Assemble!
We have expanded the ‘I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow’ Team!
Making ‘I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow’ the best it can possibly be is no small task. With a core team of 5, we knew it would be a challenge to bring our creative ideas to life. That’s why we decided to grow our close-knit team, allowing for even more creativity and innovation, which will help us bring ‘I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow’ even closer to what we know it can be!
Our first new addition is Indy Salisbury, an incredibly talented 3D artist with a real aptitude for character design. They will be joining our wonderful Oliver Wheeler Wheeler in bringing the hospital to life, immersing the player even further into the world around Robyn!
Helping out more generally will be Sophie Savva. With a keen eye for QA, social media, as well as more specific in engine components such as environment design, with Sophie's knowledge of physical production design for film, she will have a massive impact on the games virtual production design!
Next, joining us will be Seren Collier, a 2D artist with a broad range of skills. They will be primarily focusing on the development of a storybook which will be accessible within the 3D room itself. Keep an eye out for more on this in the following weeks!
Alongside Seren is Kaja Maryniewska, another amazing 2D artist. While we aren't ready to talk about what they will be working on yet, we are sure it's going to be great :))
Finally, we have another 2D artist - Nel Spence! They are going to be developing something really special for the Hospital, so stay tuned for that!
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our first Devlog. This is my first time ever writing one, so I hope it was what you were hoping for!
We will aim to update everyone more regularly from now on. We are still incredibly thankful for all your support, whether you were a Kickstarter backer, someone from one of the events we exhibited at, or anyone else, we really appreciate you!
Now back to it! Remember to keep an eye out for Steam Next fest… I have heard there may be a new demo in the works!