- Dev Blog: Combat Reanimation - 5 December 2018
As stated in the very previous entry of this blog, The Inquisition is always listening, the major issue of the demo we released is the stillness of the combat. In particular, many have complained about the lack of animations. But what does animate actually mean? Coming from the Latin word for soul, anima, to animate is literally bringing something to life. https://media.giphy.com/media/2wwJpbHZeSQ5G/giphy-downsized-large.gif For the Sine Requie: SnakeEyes art style we decided to look at the Italian 800' and 900' paintings. With the aid of talented illustrators Giuseppe Di Girolamo and Salvo Lo Iacono, we created those beautiful detailed characters and backgrounds. Unfortunately, it is really difficult to move figures made in our art style. However, animating something has more to do with giving it the appearance of life than to just move it. We, therefore, decided to make some research,…
- Dev Blog: The Inquisition is always listening - 28 November 2018
“...quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens possit diruere.” Dear brothers and sisters, As loyal servants of the Inquisition, we passed these silent months listening. We released the one hour demo for free on different platforms, reaching many players that gave us interesting feedbacks. We are now using those great ideas to polish Sine Requie: Snake Eyes. We collected feedbacks on three channels: comments on forums and social networks playthrough videos on YouTube and Twitch articles on blogs and magazines The audience generally welcomed the title warmly: most of the feedback was positive, as players, in general, seemed to appreciate both story and gameplay. However, analyzing the data we could still find a few issues: the user interface of a few game features is difficult to understand some dialogues are too long and convoluted, giving players the feeling to be trapped in an infinite…
- Dev Blog: If you're here, give me a sign - 5 October 2018
Greetings Hunters! The Inquisition reports have been missing for a long time, but fear not: our faith in the project is still as strong as before! In this dev-blog, we will discuss the future of Sine Requie: Snake Eyes. As you may have noticed, our development schedule had slowed down, and we are planning to release SR: SE in 2019 first months. Truth to be told, this delay is due to the failed Kickstarter: we refused to cut anything from our most loved title. Therefore, we focused on other projects to sustain the studio and maintain the game quality up to our standards. We are still working on the first video-game adaptation of the brutal Italian tabletop RPG, and, in the next few months, we will resume with our regular updates to show the exciting work done. The Snake Eyes are not yet closed and the Inquisition has work to do! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/image…
- Dev Blog: Difficulty - 2 May 2018
In order to cater to the needs of different players, Sine Requie Snake Eyes features four different difficulty levels, each coming with added horror and despair. "Story Mode" is for players who simply want to enjoy story and exploration without (too many) worries: the game will give you plenty of time for each chapter and your group will find plenty of resources. The "There is No Mercy" difficulty level will slightly reduce time and resources, while playing at the the two highest difficulties ("Only Blind Rage" and "Death at Last") will mean that a single mistake might cause a dreaded Game Over. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31383284%2F94fac4fae7faa00fe804f615ba5883cef39b7f82.png Difficulty is about more than just time and resources, however: the save system will be affected as well. Up to "There is No Mercy" difficulty you will be able to reload your…
- Dev Blog: Choose your own impending Doom - 24 April 2018
https://i.giphy.com/media/uPVXqxJaE2xaw/giphy.webp Greetings, Inquisitors! This Devblog will give you some insight into Sine Requie Snake Eyes' different game modes: indeed, the game allows you to face the dangers of Sine Requie by way of two different game mechanics, both appropriately merciless: Collegamento del sito web Race against the Clock Episodes https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31383284%2F1f44a48c043c34e31d71ba8e03f5fad2ff6e9d8a.png In Race against the Clock, your inquisitorial team has a finite number of turns in which to complete the main mission: you will have the option to do things quickly and save some time, or get deeply involved in the current situation. You will be the one managing your time. The Episodes mode breaks the game into different chapters, each of them with its own limited turns. If your team fails to solve the chapter within…
- Dev Blog: Smoke and Mirrors - 18 April 2018
Greetings, Inquisitors! At the end of our past dev-blog, we were left with the question: "Are videogames doomed to linear and unchanging stories?" Today we'll tell you about the tricks and stratagems we employed to give as much freedom as possible to Sine Requie Snake Eyes' players. Normally, each state within a story represents a constant: a static element which can be visited by a player provided they make the right choices. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31383284%2F907e2aac646adce3da6b3f73de2688c2cea9e92a.jpg Let's take a traditional printed gamebook: each choice leads to a numbered paragraph, and each of these paragraphs is in fact a state-constant. When it comes to videogames, however, we can make use of variables that will allow us to increase the number of possible outcomes without having to generate an unwieldy number of states in our graph. htt…
- Dev Blog: Graphs, Trees and Ineluctable Fate - 12 April 2018
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31383284%2F8f076e5c4826d26dc885b4e674393dd5f2793216.jpg Greetings, Inquisitors! We return with our dev-blog series on managing choices and consequences within Sine Requie: Snake Eyes's story. This time, let's talk about the structure of an interactive story. Think of choices and consequences within a narration as if they were geometric shapes: consequences are circles (a bit like graph nodes, for those of you familar with math), connected by actions that can be represented through line segments (also called "arcs"). https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31383284%2F89d234fab2ab853a51aebf532587a8fc7ee3ac5a.jpg If we extend this structure to an entire zone, many will probably imagine this with a shape not unlike that of a tree: each consequence can lead to countless choices, which in turn bring us t…
- Dev Blog: Map Genesis - 4 April 2018
Good day to you, Inquisitors! This week our Dev-blog will not tackle the second part of our "Choices and Consequences" post, but rather engage in a little digression concerning the creation of game maps! These days we are working on the map for one of the main locations in "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes": the city of Florence, where our true adventure will begin. We asked our programmer (which we suspect of being an heretic - take his statements with a grain of salt!), to explain the details of his witchcraft in an understandable way! "Creating a map is a step-by-step process. First of all we decide on the actual layout of the area (this step was easy, since Florence is described in the book Sine Requie: Sanctum Imperium). Then we create all the locations that the inquisitorial team will be able to visit and explore, and each of them has a unique marker assigned to it. Finally, we create a ne…
- Dev Blog: Map Genesis - 4 April 2018
Good day to you, Inquisitors! This week our Dev-blog will not tackle the second part of our "Choices and Consequences" post, but rather engage in a little digression concerning the creation of game maps! These days we are working on the map for one of the main locations in "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes": the city of Florence, where our true adventure will begin. We asked our programmer (which we suspect of being an heretic - take his statements with a grain of salt!), to explain the details of his witchcraft in an understandable way! "Creating a map is a step-by-step process. First of all we decide on the actual layout of the area (this step was easy, since Florence is described in the book Sine Requie: Sanctum Imperium). Then we create all the locations that the inquisitorial team will be able to visit and explore, and each of them has a unique marker assigned to it. Finally, we create a ne…
- Dev Blog: Choices and Consequences - 28 March 2018
Greetings, Inquisitors! In our past dev-blog we introduced a new subject: the way we handled consequences stemming from player choices within Sine Requie Snake Eyes's story. Not all narrative games are the same: indeed, while many titles reinforce the dramatic tension of a choice, such as Life is Strange (Dontnod) or Bioshock Infinite (Irrational), others prefer to focus on the long-term consequences of a choice. The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt Red) presents the player with options that will reveal unexpected plot twists in the overarching story; that's why there's no "right choice" but a series of equally interesting paths. Sine Requie Snake Eyes is similar to The Witcher 3 in its approach, heavily shifting the focus on consequences. You won't always be able to know which course of action is the best, or at least the less wicked. This choice was made to strengthen the horrific tones of the g…
- Dev Blog: Choices and Consequences - 28 March 2018
Greetings, Inquisitors! In our past dev-blog we introduced a new subject: the way we handled consequences stemming from player choices within Sine Requie Snake Eyes's story. Not all narrative games are the same: indeed, while many titles reinforce the dramatic tension of a choice, such as Life is Strange (Dontnod) or Bioshock Infinite (Irrational), others prefer to focus on the long-term consequences of a choice. The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt Red) presents the player with options that will reveal unexpected plot twists in the overarching story; that's why there's no "right choice" but a series of equally interesting paths. Sine Requie Snake Eyes is similar to The Witcher 3 in its approach, heavily shifting the focus on consequences. You won't always be able to know which course of action is the best, or at least the less wicked. This choice was made to strengthen the horrific tones of the g…
- Dev Blog: Magic Realism - 21 March 2018
Greetings Inquisitors, this will be the first in a series of Dev-Blogs aimed at discussing how we managed the choices-and-consequences aspect within "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes"'s story. This series will be named "Mistakes in Interactive Narration". The main element all Sine Requie books have in common is "fantarealism": an unlikely or fantastic tale is described in a vivid, believable way. While this horror game includes many fantastic elements (it is, after all, set within an alternate timeline starting from when the Dead awakened during D-Day) it does keep a heavy coat of realism in order to make its unsettling tales all the more tangible. In order to stay true to the games' core concepts, in "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes" we chose to use mechanics that reduce the boundary between gameplay and story. Our goal is to closely tie together the narration of events and setting elements with the ac…
- Dev Blog: Magic Realism - 21 March 2018
Greetings Inquisitors, this will be the first in a series of Dev-Blogs aimed at discussing how we managed the choices-and-consequences aspect within "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes"'s story. This series will be named "Mistakes in Interactive Narration". The main element all Sine Requie books have in common is "fantarealism": an unlikely or fantastic tale is described in a vivid, believable way. While this horror game includes many fantastic elements (it is, after all, set within an alternate timeline starting from when the Dead awakened during D-Day) it does keep a heavy coat of realism in order to make its unsettling tales all the more tangible. In order to stay true to the games' core concepts, in "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes" we chose to use mechanics that reduce the boundary between gameplay and story. Our goal is to closely tie together the narration of events and setting elements with the ac…
- Dev Blog: Combat Fix - 14 March 2018
After listening to the community's opinions and considering all the suggestions we received both online and during conventions, we have worked on some updates and fixes for the combat system, which will soon be implemented within Sine Requie: Snake Eyes's demo. It will now be possible for you to skip combat animations through a simple left-click, allowing battles to flow faster. Needless to say, by doing so you won't be able to enjoy the good times when a Dead chews off bits of your flesh, but hey, getting to the part where these demons-on-earth wipe the entire group will now take WAY less time. Happy now? https://media.giphy.com/media/2jQrsIG8iOflRZU4O3/giphy.gif
- Dev Blog: Combat Fix - 14 March 2018
After listening to the community's opinions and considering all the suggestions we received both online and during conventions, we have worked on some updates and fixes for the combat system, which will soon be implemented within Sine Requie: Snake Eyes's demo. It will now be possible for you to skip combat animations through a simple left-click, allowing battles to flow faster. Needless to say, by doing so you won't be able to enjoy the good times when a Dead chews off bits of your flesh, but hey, getting to the part where these demons-on-earth wipe the entire group will now take WAY less time. Happy now? https://media.giphy.com/media/2jQrsIG8iOflRZU4O3/giphy.gif
- Dev Blog: Cinema & spaghetti - 7 March 2018
Movies, just like paintings, were quite the source of inspiration for Sine Requie: Snake Eyes. Many plot elements and characters have been influenced by Italian horror movies from the 70s, such as Dario Argento's "Profondo Rosso" and "Suspiria" along with Pupi Avati's "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono", on which the map for Sant'Ezechiele was based (this is the village visited during the demo). The picture below shows the character Don Avati alongside the priest from "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono" played by Eugene Walter. The game's soundtrack was inspired by legendary master Ennio Morricone, especially the tense duels from "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" which you can find in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/embed/aJCSNIl2Pls And here's the music from Sine Requie Snake Eyes https://soundcloud.com/luca-bellini-839032297/faces-of-evil
- Dev Blog: Cinema & spaghetti - 7 March 2018
Movies, just like paintings, were quite the source of inspiration for Sine Requie: Snake Eyes. Many plot elements and characters have been influenced by Italian horror movies from the 70s, such as Dario Argento's "Profondo Rosso" and "Suspiria" along with Pupi Avati's "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono", on which the map for Sant'Ezechiele was based (this is the village visited during the demo). The picture below shows the character Don Avati alongside the priest from "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono" played by Eugene Walter. The game's soundtrack was inspired by legendary master Ennio Morricone, especially the tense duels from "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" which you can find in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/embed/aJCSNIl2Pls And here's the music from Sine Requie Snake Eyes https://soundcloud.com/luca-bellini-839032297/faces-of-evil
- Dev Blog: Chapter End Summary - 28 February 2018
One of the demo's next updates will feature the Chapter End Summary, which we are currently working on! The Summary will list all the main choices you made over the course of the chapter, including the consequences of your actions, so that you may easily understand how your adventure has progressed. Additionally, the Summary might include some clues concerning the paths you didn't think were available, prompting you to play again and do your best as Inquisitors.
- Dev Blog: Chapter End Summary - 28 February 2018
One of the demo's next updates will feature the Chapter End Summary, which we are currently working on! The Summary will list all the main choices you made over the course of the chapter, including the consequences of your actions, so that you may easily understand how your adventure has progressed. Additionally, the Summary might include some clues concerning the paths you didn't think were available, prompting you to play again and do your best as Inquisitors.
- Dev Blog: Madness and Levels - 21 February 2018
In "Sine Requie: Snake Eyes" you'll have to pay close attention to the Mental Sanity of your characters given how stress, shocking experiences and the horror of the Dead will put their resolve to the test. When Mental Sanity drops to zero, the character will be considered exhausted when it comes to combat and recovery, and they will risk gaining a negative trait which will hinder them from that point on, imposing a penalty on certain tests and adding new dialogue options. The more frequently Mental Sanity drops to zero, the more likely it will be for the character to suffer those negative traits, so keep an eye on that and make sure to bring some Luxuries with you in order to regain Sanity! https://media.giphy.com/media/F0z8airgeHCeG5zVrY/giphy.gif
