Our developing team consists of 1 programmer and 2 artists. We've been active for over 4 years, and we're based in Tampere, Finland. After publishing our first game, "My Summer Jobs: Dialling for Dreams!" we started to work on a horror game, "False Hope".
In False Hope you play as a young couple trapped in an abandoned shopping mall, a cursed place where mannequins come to life. By solving puzzles and fighting mannequins you're able to uncover the mall's dark secrets.
We came to the conclusion that horror games are the way to go since they seemed to be quite popular on Steam. We also had done a couple of horror games in the past, since there was a shared interest in them. Originally our intention was for a game to take place in catacombs, but later we realized that an abandoned mall as an environment could make it more interesting. Inspired by the PS1-era horror games, we decided to go with low-poly graphics.
Since the scope of the game grew from what we intended at the beginning, there have been a few challenges that we've had to overcome. For example, originally the game was meant to be first person only, but adding a third-person view would expand how the player sees the environment and the main character.
We chose Unity as our game engine since we've always used it and the workflow was familiar to all developers.
It's fairly easy to make things work, but when it comes to expanding, that's a different story. Through 2 years of development, the combat mechanic has caused few problems that remain to be solved. It was heavily inspired by Resident Evil Gaiden's timing-based battle system. Originally our combat was meant to be rhythm-based, but it caused quite a bit of confusion among testers, so we decided to go in a different direction. The biggest challenge is how to make the combat feel interesting and rewarding enough for a player to choose fighting over running away. Working with a nonexistent budget always has its challenges. For example, we don't have any resources to get voice acting in our game even though it would bring so much life to characters and the story of the game. When you work with a small team, everyone has to learn new skills and leave their comfort zone from time to time. There isn't always time to go through a discussion on what's best in any given situation, since everyone's always busy working on something.
Trust the process. Making a game is a marathon, not a sprint. Start with a smaller project, say a game that you can make in a week. Focus on making the gameplay intriguing and rewarding.
No feature is perfect at first. Go through all the possibilities of a selected feature, and build it in a way that it can be fairly easily altered or expanded.
Learn how to use version control, like GIT or GitHub. Even if you work on a project alone, it can save you in a situation where your project or files get lost or corrupted. It's also a good way for you to keep track of your progress. If you work on a team, make sure that everyone is willing to use version control and help them understand why it's useful.
If you're planning on publishing your game on Steam, it's best to start generating wishlists from early on. Build your game in a way that you can get some sort of marketable material out of it as quickly as possible. You should also give some updates on your developing journey from time to time on different social media platforms. You never know if one of those posts goes viral one day. It's also recommended to take part in all kinds of game-related events. There you can meet new people, grow your network, and show your project to others.
Game making is a fun hobby but a tough job. You have to keep on believing in your project and push it through, no matter what.
Studio Semitorus❤️
