PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hi! We're Think Picture Studios - specifically, I'm Ben, the writer. We're a three person dev team that also consists of Luke, our animator and artist, and Thomas who composes the music and designs the sound. We're pretty new to all this but we have taken our time and made a demo we're really proud of.
TELL US ABOUT HOME: A STORY OF LIGHT.
Well the three of us have been friends for a long time. And a lot of our core memories, some of the happiest, have revolved around games. Luke and Thomas one night all bleary eyed from too much screen time waxed lyrical about the idea of actually making a game, starting with the vibe - candlelit, warm, a setting where an interesting story could be told. That led them on to the invention of the bulb and ideas rolled out easily from there. I came on a bit later down the line when they needed some help to shore up the details and flesh out the story and characters.
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
The journey has been short and long in that, our ambitions early on were bigger than we felt capable of pulling off. So we delayed working on the project for years until we felt we could make the game we wanted to make with the quality we wanted it to exhibit.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
We ended up using the Visionaire engine, not only because it's so intuitive for adventure games, but because of the extremely supportive Discord community and creators around it. Whenever we had a problem, we knew where to turn for help!
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
So many, it's hard to count. To be honest, it was probably dealing with scope creep, and letting go of perfectionism. Each of us wants to make the PERFECT version of this game, but we've had to learn that perfect is 1. Not real and 2. A road to ruin. We're still making something we beleive in in terms of quality and build, but we now understand much better where to put out energies and efforts, rather than, say, adding JUST ONE MORE FRAME of animation to an already dense scene.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
I don't know how much you want to listen to us but, if we'd give any single bit of advice it'd be: just make stuff. Create. Fail. Learn. Keep going. You won't know whether you can do something until you're doing it.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
Play the demo! Wishlist the game! Pre-register to our Kickstarter! Sign up to our mailing list!! Lots of requests... but also, adventure games aren't just a nostalgic endeavour, they're an interesting vehicle for entertainment, story and message. We beleive in that whole heartedly and there's so many great projects out there. Support your indie game scene!
-Ben
❤️
