Gamedec rewarded multiple times! Let's sum up 2020 events :)
The last three months were full of various activities and events. Team Gamedec presented different information, announced multiple things, and tried to be as close to our community as possible in many forms.
But, the summertime (and for us - the event period) has ended, and it's time to summarize all the activities that have happened recently.
Indie Arena Booth / Gamescom / Devcom
Most of the events went Online (Gamescom Online, PAX Online etc), and we had to adapt. We prepared many different activities, including creating a virtual booth at the Indie Arena Booth (a virtual hub where you could watch our videos and streams or go directly to the steam website and download a free demo). https://youtu.be/IntBHaYdaTM
We were also honored to be a part of the Devcom, where we won the 🏆 1st place at the Devcom Indie Awards 2020!
Furthermore, we were nominated for the Best RPG at Gamescom's main gala, but unfortunately, we didn't manage to win. Congrats to Cyberpunk 2077 though! Great game, we cannot wait to play it in November!
During the Gamescom Livestreams, our Executive Producer - Łukasz Hacura has shown the first glimpses of the entirely new virtualium – Knight's Code – you can re-watch it here, in the Link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU9_-TA5_ns&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1VbC8sG73gBoqO8fX2_yXcOLYk205cNa4r80tqWtB4_QwjI6TxjWpYw9g At the IGN Live x Gamescom, we announced a Nintendo Switch version of Gamedec, coming in 2021! Our team could not be more excited to share that information with you. Whether you've been waiting to play, missed the Kickstarter Campaign, or just waited for any console version announcements – this is something BIG for us. This means that more people won't miss the chance to become a Gamedec and solve crimes committed in virtual worlds - this time - on the go, wherever you be, whenever you want! Can you imagine the possibility of playing Gamedec on Nintendo's most popular handheld?
Watch the brand new trailer with the announcement below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fNz_xs7V-I&feature=emb_title
PAX Online 2020
PAX Online was another chance to grab the free demo of Gamedec and share the feedback about our game. Additionally, we were proud to announce that we were selected as an Indie Game to be shown on the PAX Online Showcase. Only 20 titles made it to the finals from over 350 entries.
Gamedec was also shown as a part of #IndiesUncovered at #EGX by, the one and only, Rock Paper Shotgun! https://youtu.be/ZyHteHDAmSw We sat down with devs from other Polish Indie Game studios on a special stream where we played not only ours but also other productions from Poland that appeared at this event.
Sonkwo Online
Sonkwo was the perfect opportunity for us to show Gamedec to our Chinese community to get them familiar with the game. They also had a chance to participate and try the demo version within their own platform.
Our PR & Marketing Manager – Jakub Kwinta, gave an interview, which you can watch below. https://youtu.be/T_NRW68DsEw?t=1742
Digital Dragons 2020
Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, our beloved #DigitalDragons event went digital this year. There was a special featuring site on Steam to promote all the games selected as a part of Indie Showcase, as well as a special survey to fill for the community vote award.
With great pleasure, we won the Indie Showcase Awards, reaching the 🏆 1st place in the Best Indie Game category!
TGS Online 2020
As predicted, the Tokyo Game Show went digital, just like the rest of the events before. They prepared activities such as personalized website booths, many live streams about games presented at the event, and another Steam Feature Site.
You can check how our Booth website looked like here.
Thanks to the hidden talent of our amazing PR Specialist, Krzysztof, we were able to prepare a special video with a Japanese commentary! You can watch it on the link below. https://youtu.be/2mv-5UQWhNE?t=32460 Remember, Today there will be another chance to play the Gamedec Demo, alongside many other great games at the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition! For the next couple of days [7-13.10] you’ll be able to download it, play, and share your feedback with us!
If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
Free Demo of Gamedec @ Steam Game Festival
Gamedec is a non-combat, isometric, cyberpunk-themed RPG, where your decisions really matter - you are the sum of your choices.
Play as a game detective, who solves cases in both virtual and real worlds. In this demo, you're summoned by a desperate father trying to save his son trapped inside one of the adult-only Virtualia.
Our public demo will be back online for the duration of the Steam Game Festival. If you missed your opportunity or just want to replay the experience with a different approach, feel free to download the demo within the 7-13 October. The demo should be available from 9 P.M. CEST.
Dev Diary - Art Design: From a concept to a character
Have you ever wondered what the character concept creation process looks like?
We took our time and asked one of our Artists - Magdalena Krasiejko, to tell us more about the whole process behind character creation, from the concept up to the final model. Of course - Magda is not the only Artist in our Team. There are also other talented people who are working on the characters, including Sebastian, which you can remember from the game promo arts.
Creating characters for Gamedec is a challenging task. After all, a good story is usually based on well-written characters, and in a game strongly focused on its plot, it is crucial. Of course, a character with a specific personality needs individual looks to tell their personality type at first glance - this is when the work of concept artists begins.
The process of creating a character concept art starts when our design team provides their description. Usually, they have a clear image in their heads and try their best to lay in on paper - and our job as artists is to deliver a visual representation of what they had on their minds. Of course, it's easier said than done, and there are some essential things that you should always keep in mind while creating characters for Gamedec. Usually, the description focuses on the characters' looks and includes their story, personality, and life purpose. Even small details about a character's past help a lot, since artists can use it to make the character more authentic by adding personal information, such as scars or tattoos.
After receiving a description and making sure they understand everything correctly, artists can start their work on the concept art. Let me tell you about how it looks like while working on Gamedec. First of all, it's crucial to express a character's personality. While working on concept art on which a 3D model would be created, we focus on their appearance, clothes, hairstyles, and other visual elements. But those elements can, and should, complete the character's personality. Later on, while making a 2D avatar for them, we can draw them in specific poses and with certain expressions, creating the look whole and giving the player a full picture of the character, which completes the way they act speak. Both their appearance and things such as expression and pose should come together, so the player can suspect what kind of person they're approaching, even if they didn't yet say a word.
The designer's description always includes a lot of references and texts about how the character dresses up. But even though they try their best, most of the time, there are simply no accurate references for clothes they have in mind - since the game takes place in a particular world in the future. Our job is to make the designer's vision come true.
So, let's pretend we need to create concept art of a specific character, which lives in a world of Gamedec. What would they look like? You can create a Thor-like suit for your character and call it futuristic clothes, and of course, it will pretty much look legit. But think about how clothes evolved in past centuries. We use different materials, patterns, and shapes, but there are still plenty of styles you can dress up today. Fashion exists and will exist forever, and that's the thing we try to achieve in Gamedec. The clothes of the characters need to look futuristic, but still, express different styles and aspects of fashion. It helps to make the whole world authentic. Even essential garderobe elements like leather jackets can exist in a futuristic world, but with slightly different aspects, such as more geometrical patches or features created with other materials.
It would be best if you still thought about what purpose it would serve, though. It would be way too easy to put some shining lights on a plain old jacket and call it futuristic, right? In the world of Gamedec, we are lucky - there are plenty of elements already created by the author, which can be easily integrated into clothes. For example, devices such as homeostasis sliders, which help you control body temperature. Making it an integral part of character clothes makes them look more futuristic.
Speaking of futuristic, there are several important rules of the Gamedec world we should keep in mind while creating characters. Besides the devices, such as omnic or walktel, which are essential for any person living in Warsaw City, all the clothes are sewn in a certain way, using specific stitches, making them always fit perfectly. Zippers or buttons are usually used as decoration, while biofasteners, which look similar to burs, keep parts of the material together. People are no longer using shoelaces, and all the things made out of paper should be made with different materials - ever cigarettes or newspapers. All those rules make artists think about new, inconvenient ways to design clothes, trying to make them fit the character's personality at the same time.
One of the aspects of creating interesting characters is to think about what they would look like if they had an option to choose it. For example, what kind of accessories they would wear, and how would they personalize their clothes. You can dress up your character in pretty basic garments, but your character becomes authentic when you pay attention to such details. It can be either a symbol of their favorite band on a t-shirt, a specific piercing or even a button in their shirt. Those small things really do make a difference!
All these situations and problems to solve are things concept artists need to face while creating a character for the Warsaw City, the original world of Gamedec. But let's not forget that one of the most critical aspects of the game is the opportunity to visit other virtual worlds. While working on the game, I've had the chance to create characters for both futuristic, cyberpunk worlds and a noir-like world of Twisted & Perverted or straight out of western Harvest Time. You definitely can't tell this job is boring! Jokes aside, this is an excellent opportunity for an artist to learn. While working on Gamedec, I had to look up for many references. I tried to figure out how the fashion looked in the Wild West and how different weapons look.
There are many things you should have in mind, and many details you need to remember to make your character likable, authentic, and as real as possible. After all, in a game based on the story, characters are extremely important. But even though it's challenging and sometimes tricky, it's always an excellent opportunity to develop your skills. And besides that, seeing the character you created - your character - come to life in a game is one of the best feelings ever.
If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
Tokyo Game Show is live!
Tokyo Game Show needs no introduction! This year, it's an online experience where we have our dedicated website and our free demo is free to download, again!
If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
Backer's Build Survey Feedback Report
Backer's Build Survey
It took us a while, but we're finally coming back to you with the Beta-test survey results. With the publication of Backer's Build, we gave you the option to express your opinion on the very first publicly available, playable version of Gamedec.
We've given you the opportunity to describe your favorite gameplay elements, rate your experience, and summarize things that you think should be improved. This is the feedback that will allow us to deliver a game that will translate into a valuable experience for you. In the file, you will also find additional information from the analytics that we obtained using various tools to find out how diverse were, i.a. Your decisions, the choice of profession, or the length of the game itself.
Let’s summarize the publication in numbers. From the data we’ve gathered between 3rd – 16th August, over 1500 players played the Backers Build. The average session time was around 1 hour long, and the total retention score reached 14%. It’s great to see that some of you decided to check the other path during the playthrough, by choosing other aspects or making different decisions.
From all the gathered data, the open type of questions has the highest value for us. We really appreciate your time to enlist all the pros and cons during your experience with the Gamedec. The answers were totally anonymous, but we selected some of the answers to better understand the whole picture and the motivation, why the specific keywords were bolded.
The Digital Dragons event went online this year, and many studios from around the world are participating in special Indie Showcase on Steam and GOG! Over 150 indie games from all over the world have entered the competition. There are many games included in the showcase, and all of us have a chance to win the Community Vote prize!
Show your support and vote for Gamedec! Thank you!
If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
Live-Stream: Kickstarter Recap
Are you about to start a Kickstarter campaign? Join our #PRtalk, where we deconstruct Gamedec's Kickstarter piece by piece.
Why we went for the Kickstarter? How did the research & preparations go? How did we manage the very first few days of the campaign and how did we keep our crowdfunding on the radar for over a month?
Prepare questions, tune in tomorrow, on the 15th of September 2020 at 3 P.M. CEST, and prepare to be enlighted :)
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
PAX Online 2020 has already started! Download Gamedec Free Demo!
PAX Online 2020 has already started!
To celebrate the event (or two events to be exact, because PAX joined forces with EGX), download the free demo and share your feedback on our discord! The demo will be available only during the event, so make sure you'll download it and make your first steps as a Gamedec between 12th and 20th September.
More details about the whole event can be found on PAX Online x EGX Digital page: https://www.paxegx.com/games/gamedec
What is included in the Gamedec Demo?
The demo you will play will bring you to the Gamedec's apartment located in High City. Take a look at the Realium, interact with the Bliss - your virtual companion, and look after new cases to solve. There is a message from Geoffrey Haggis in your inbox. You should meet him and uncover the mystery of what is happening to his son, Fredo Haggis.
Even if the demo has limited access to the Twisted & Perverted virtual world, during the interactions in the available locations, you may take a different course, depending on the decisions you make. Gamedec, like classic tabletop RPGs, gives you the freedom to approach situations from multiple angles rather than forcing a single solution.
Remember, this is still a work-in-progress
Due to the "work-in-progress" nature of this build, you may encounter some issues. If this happens, we would appreciate it if you would alert us to these issues via the Steam discussion forum or directly on our Discord channel.
PAX Online - Indie Showcase
Additionally, we are proud to announce once again that we are selected Indie game for the PAX Online Showcase. Only 20 titles made it to the finals from over 350 entries. Make sure that you will check as many demos as possible. There are a lot of great games, that, of course, goes beyond the RPG genre. https://www.paxegx.com/pax-indie-showcase
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun! #TeamGamedec
September is not slowing us down - Gamedec on various events
Hi there!
The past week had a blast. In case you missed it, during Gamescom, we announced the Nintendo Switch version of Gamedec! (Read it Here!) But there is no time to celebrate - we're bringing our game to many world-wide events this month. Since the pandemic changed the way we proceed with the events a little, we can showcase our game in many ways. There are events for the Chinese community, Japanese, English-speaking countries, and more!
Below you'll find the list of the events we are currently participating in:
Try Gamedec demo version during PAX Online!
You'll have a chance to play the demo version of Gamedec on Steam, from 12 to 20 September! If you had no option to do that during Gamescom, keep the dates in your calendar! The demo you will play is part of the case, available in the full version for our Kickstarter backers. In this scenario, you are asked by Geoffrey Haggis to come and uncover the mystery of what is happening to his son, Fredo Haggis. Fredo has been inside the virtualium for a long time, and it seems like he is actually in danger. Even if it's just a glimpse of the whole case, you can experience how the investigation can take a different course, depending on your decisions during the playthrough. Gamedec gives you the freedom to approach situations from multiple angles rather than forcing a single solution.
We are also preparing many activities for those events. Expect a special developer-interview during the Sonkwo Online event (Link HERE). This is the perfect opportunity for our Chinese community to get familiar with the game. You can also participate in and try the demo version within the Sonkwo platform.
Also, we’re preparing livestreams during the PAX Online with the dev team on board. We will invite you to participate in those conversations as we would also like to bring our colleagues from other game dev studios for a talk. That’s the spirit of the PAX event, right? 😊 It’s also worth mentioning that Gamedec is the selected Indie title in the PAX Indie Showcase! The game has been picked as one of the 20 titles from over 350 indie games.
Let’s switch the part of our globe and virtually join Digital Dragons that generally take place in Cracow, Poland. During the event, we’ll be “fighting” for the award in two categories - Best Indie Game and Community Vote. Especially in the second category, with your help, Gamedec have the chance to win the prizes. We’ll keep you up to date, how you can support the title during the event.
As for the Tokyo Games Show, we are preparing video content for the Japanese speakers. Since there is still some time left, more details about the event will be provided soon via our social media channels.
It’s a pity that we cannot connect with you in real life and share some high fives on expo floors. Now let’s imagine how the events in the 22nd century will look like. Maybe we will meet all together in a virtual world, resembling Seattle’s Washington State Convention Center from PAX West? 😊
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Nintendo Switch Version Announced!
If you've been attentive and watching this year's virtual edition of Gamescom 2020 and Indie Arena Booth 2020, you might already hear the latest news at IGN Live X Gamescom or at the Daily Show, which looks back on everything revealed today. One of these announcements was about Gamedec, and it's something pretty awesome!
We are really happy to announce that we'll be bringing Gamedec to Nintendo Switch in 2021!
Our team could not be more excited to share that information with you. Whether you've been waiting to play, missed the Kickstarter Campaign, or just waited for any console version announcements – this is something BIG for us. This means that more people won't miss the chance to become a Gamedec and solve crimes committed in virtual worlds - this time - on the go, wherever you be, whenever you want! Can you imagine the possibility of playing the game on Nintendo’s most popular handheld? Watch the brand new trailer with the announcement below.
https://youtu.be/2fNz_xs7V-I
Pretty exciting news, right? Time for some explanation why the first console announcement is the Switch:
In April, in the final days from the Campaign, we announced the last stretch goal, which was the Nintendo Switch version. We didn't make it, because of the timing - it was announced too late to reach out to all the players interested in the handheld version of our game. We received tons of messages and heard you loud and clear – you really want the Switch version of the game. While we listened to the community's feedback and sat down to discuss it further at a later date the idea which came up was this. After all - we've mentioned that the console versions of the game are planned, and since we know that you liked the idea of getting into the world of gamedecverse anywhere you want - we'll make that happen. And don't worry - we'd love to bring the game to other platforms.
There's no specific release date for the Switch version ... yet.
As far as timing goes, we'll provide you with a more specific date; however, It's important to remember that we are a small team, and we want to focus on finishing the game for the PCs - that's why we made the Campaign for. We are currently working on analyzing the feedback we are constantly receiving from you via the Backer Surveys – be sure to fill them up, those are very important to us and it helps us make a better game! Soon we will reveal some of the information we’ve gathered during the last month!
As you may see, we've announced that the NS version will be brought to you later in 2021.
The time for the specific NS release date will come, and we ask you for some patience. Stay tuned!
This also means that you won't be able to change your platform of choice on backerkit since this is only the announcement of the next platform the game will be available on.
Live: The Origins and Lore of Gamedec
Live Stream: The Origins and Lore of Gamedec
Come and join us on our live stream with Marcin S. Przybyłek, the author of the Gamedec book saga, on an adventure through the origins of Gamedec and the lore itself.
Is it hard to transfer the book universe to a video game? What were the difficulties? What he had to learn in order to make it happen?
He will try to answer all of your questions, tagged along by Magdalena Cielecka [producer], and Mateusz Greloch [Community Manager].
The stream will be online on the 30th of August on Steam, YouTube, and Twitch. It will start at 12 p.m. and last for about two hours.
