The year started with the trailer. Suddenly, you’re accused of committing a crime and now you’re prohibited to leave town. People hate you. You start to wander around trying to ask questions, using your mic, but no one wants to talk with you, until the giant Policeman lifts you up in the sky. Videoversion: [previewyoutube=BDrG_uNLJ3o;full][/previewyoutube] So, let me take a few minutes and explain how we got here. Let's take a step back. We’ve been thinking for a long while on how to turn the idea of a giant Policeman into an interesting game. We’ve explored a lot of options, from the city on a Giant’s back to the roadmovie, where you have to escape while the giant escorts you to the police station. But, by far, the most interesting one was a colossal giant that sits in the middle of the city, watching your every move. Naturally, with this concept, we wanted to focus on stealth. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/9229535ab3d52ef4ba2bf366be4edf4788a9ecb2.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/ba9c137bac89b6f4d97b0b4179251c1158c5b139.jpg[/img] The player had to sneak in the streets, hiding behind houses from the giant’s gaze and from his giant hand. But in reality, it turned out to be less fascinating than just talking and having a simple eye contact. But how do we make an interesting gameplay out of communication if we’re not writers and we don’t want to make a text based game? [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/1f58282360845b26845e41a37d50c6a08d1a1f86.jpg[/img] To find an answer, we decided to redesign the basic dialogue tree that we’re used to seeing in games and look into using free communication via microphone, as in the game - Phasmophobia. This kept the focus of the game on exactly the very contact that we wanted to capture, adding an incredibly uncomfortable feeling of real physical interaction with a person. And the very peculiarity of the method will save us from the messy text that we’re inevitably going to write. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/e8cf3197fbd565da3eb63aa48722fca36c29caa5.jpg[/img] The reception was a blast With a new vector on our hands, we started to experiment. What if you could flatter a policeman? What if, on the contrary, you do something he doesn’t like, break the law, steal, climb the car, cross the road where you shouldn't? It started to become more like a proper gameplay mechanic, a mood system that works sort of like a tamagotchi. Maybe the rain will upset him or the thunderstorm will make him panic? Angering him - makes him angry, but if you make up for it somehow with a present, he’ll be more forgiving. It started to turn into something like a dating simulator, where instead of a romantic relationship, you could go to jail. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/599fd359df575cd18282aa4038fc19ad1a3afac1.jpg[/img] Having decided on the direction of the gameplay, we started to improve the overall quality of the visuals. Starting with a Lawman. We used an insane tool just released at the time - Metahuman. Unfortunately, there is a limit on the type of face that you can create with it, so as a forced compromise, we had to search for a new look for the Giant. Alongside with his face, we have renewed his shirt, it even moves in the wind! Pants and shoes we’ve left as is for now, as in most cases they are not visible. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/1155c887b77f43c0cd486287292d4c704d10ea06.jpg[/img] For the new appearance, we began to experiment with more detailed animations, behaviour and emotions of the Lawbringer. Parallel to the visuals, we’ve developed the train system. This is a vital part of the game and’re going to be used for all trains, trolleybuses and cable cars that we’ve planned. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/c2de4187a9afee95577ba6fb69db6905ef60341a.jpg[/img] Summing up the results of all the work done, we recorded a small video, together with which we announced the opening of the Patreon… To be completely honest - yes, we’ve expected this to blow up. For us it was an innovation - never before we could afford such a quality. But… not everything always goes according to plan. New policeman’s appearance wasn’t liked by everyone. Turned out that a lot of unexpected problems arose in transition to a more realistic look. While working on the project for a long time - a veil can cover your eyes. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/9d669795e200942f8bda4fe95f3cc3cd1230fa10.jpg[/img] Luckily, we’re believers of an open development process, so thanks to our audience feedback we can instantly see our mistakes. (join our Discord - we’re waiting for your feedback!) By making The Giant more alive and emotional - we’re making him more human and less creepy. It’s a very interesting observation and in future iterations we’re planning to go back to this old feeling, but already in new, more elaborated and more high quality form. After setting it aside to rest from the giant, we decided to work on townies. We want the town to feel empty, lonely but still inhabited by people, so we could see life only behind closed doors, windows and in the cars. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/18b9b1cddf92f9b01306d3cbe29c8b933df8e1be.jpg[/img] Regarding locations and props - the work never stopped. It is a very long process and step by step we’re getting closer, filling necessary gaps. Lately we were researching the idea of the giant pushing the ground underneath him so the city ends up on a slope. It’s a little bit of an abstract concept, but visuals seem promising and interesting to try. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/5eada57268bf7b93983a69732aca5365eced788f.jpg[/img] We understand that not everyone will be willing to play our game with mic, and we’re not even speaking about limitations in the recognition language. So we’ve developed an alternative system of free communication. The player can use suggested phrases from the context menu, alongside with the ability to pour out his soul writing his own phrases. So here we are now: migrating to the Unreal Engine 5. It’s not quick, but eventually we’ll have to move on to it, and the sooner we do it, the better. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/9b13f20451023fd99f610b15b5889bc29a495374.jpg[/img] Despite all the difficulties, this year began with a success and ended up with one! Our game has won the most awards at the Unreal Engine Dev Contest. Feels great to have some acknowledgement in our work. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38322664/23a13104b5667dc4e648ec47fce966384bbd1c03.jpg[/img] Aaand, that's it, thank you for watching, if you are interested in a longer format like this, we’re planning to release devlogs in the future. You can also look at our Patreon, we’ve already posted a bunch of videos, where we talk more in depth about technical difficulties, design, art and modeling. Let’s make Militsioner together. And we also regularly post our updates on social media: https://www.patreon.com/tallboys https://www.tallboysgames.com/ https://www.twitter.com/mytallboys https://www.facebook.com/mytallboys https://www.instagram.com/mytallboys https://www.vk.com/tallboys https://www.tiktok.com/@tallboys https://www.discord.gg/7gP2hCW