Loco Motive
Watch us play Loco Motive!
If you're in London this weekend come see us at Adventure X, where you can play Loco Motive and chat with the developers :)
Hope to see you there!
Autumn Development Update
Development Update
In Loco Motive you play the intertwined stories of three characters aboard the train on one fateful evening. We’ve made huge progress since our last updates, adding lighting, more dialogue, puzzles and little environment touches. At this point, we’re very close to finalising Arthur’s telling of events!
Check out these latest shots of the game in action!
AdventureX - The Narrative Games Convention
We've been busy making the preparations for exhibiting at AdventureX (5th - 6th November, London), where attendees will be able to get their hands on Loco Motive for the first time!
AdventureX brings together a wide range of narrative-driven indie games and is the UK's only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming. It's a celebration of creativity, indie development and interactive storytelling, so we’re happy to be in such good company!
There are still some tickets available, if you’d like to attend!
Film Noir Mode
We thought it would be fun to let players have the true film noir experience, so you'll be able to play through Loco Motive in black & white via an option in the settings.
Character Spotlight - Lady Unterwald
It’s time for another character spotlight! This time we’re taking a look at Lady Unterwald.
Lady Unterwald is the eccentric heiress of the Wald-Bahn Rail Company and the head of the Unterwald empire.
On the verge of a landmark speech aboard her flagship train, Lady Unterwald has gathered the family together to finally reveal her successor, but not before making some last-minute amendments to her will.
What follows next will set the wheels in motion for an adventure that’s truly off the rails!
That’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go, but in the meantime, you can follow us for updates on Twitter or join the official Robust Games Discord.
Release Update, Exhibitions & Musical Deep Dive!
Development Update
Before we get into it, we’ve had a few questions about when Loco Motive will be releasing.
Are we still set for Summer 2022? Isn’t it August already?
So, we've made the decision to delay Loco Motive to 2023. There are a number of factors behind this decision, but ultimately we believe this extra development time will allow us to deliver the game we want to make and allow Loco Motive to reach its fullest potential.
The excitement surrounding Loco Motive since its reveal in December has been really inspiring, and we appreciate your support so far.
We hope you’ll stay aboard just a little longer!
The Music Of Loco Motive
Our composer, Paul Zimmermann is here to talk about his approach to the music of Loco Motive, and the adaptive system we’ve built around the game as you move between carriages:
"My goal with every project is to find a sound that feels authentic to the game and its characters.
The soundtrack for Loco Motive is turning out to be this fun blend of different styles and periods in music, from big-band swing to 60s spy music and the occasional French-inspired waltz.
We have quite the varied cast of characters, so it felt natural to try and reflect that in the music."
"From a technical standpoint it was important for us to implement the music into the game in a way that it reacts to the gameplay and locations, opposed to having static looping tracks.
As players roam around the train trying to solve puzzles, the music follows along and changes seamlessly between carriages and characters."
In order to achieve this, I’m writing and then exporting the music in small chunks that allow for fast transitions, meaning, a certain melody-note might be carried over into the next location, or a groove transitions smoothly. Our thinking here is that if players don’t notice it, then we’ve actually achieved what we set out to do!"
Check out this behind-the-scenes look of how the music system behaves and sounds so far:
We'll have much more music to share as development continues, this is just a taste of what's to come!
AdventureX - The Narrative Games Convention
We’re super excited to announce that Loco Motive has been selected to showcase at AdventureX this year!
AdventureX brings together a wide range of narrative-driven indie games, and is the UK's only convention dedicated to narrative-driven gaming. It's a celebration of creativity, indie development and interactive storytelling, and we’re thrilled to have our game amongst narrative titans.
The first wave of tickets sold out in just under 20 minutes, so if you’re one of those lucky few, we’ll hopefully see you there!
Character Spotlight - Diana Osterhagen
It’s time for our third character spotlight! This time we’re taking a look at our final playable character, the secretive Diana Osterhagen.
Diana is a British operative who's spent the last few months undercover in order to get close to the Unterwald family.
Tasked with gaining intelligence on potential ‘undeclared assets’, she finds herself aboard the Reuss Express in the arms of Kaspar Bergmann - who just so happens to be the treasurer of Lady Unterwald's wealthy estate.
Diana is soon swept up in something far more unsettling than undeclared income or tax liabilities, and must use her problem-solving abilities and highly developed interpersonal skills to get out of hot water.
That’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go, but in the meantime you can follow us for updates on Twitter or join the community in our brand new Discord channel.
UI Deep Dive, Discord & Character Spotlight
We promised a deep dive into the UI/UX of the game in our last blog, so award-winning UI Designer Edd Coates was kind enough to volunteer some time to run through his process.
UI Deep Dive
Hi everyone! My name’s Edd Coates and I’m the UI/UX Designer on Loco Motive!
I wanted to talk a little about my design process, as well as give you a small peek at what you can expect to see when the game launches this year.
Growing up with games such as Monkey Island, Sam & Max and The Dig, I've always been a massive fan of point and click games, which is why I was so excited to be working on Loco Motive.
I had three goals:
- Make the interface feel like an extension of the world and its characters.
- The game should feel as comfortable with a gamepad as it would with a mouse.
- Provide an intuitive gameplay experience that will feel both familiar to fans of the genre, while welcoming to new ones.
First of all, the interface was wireframed in greyscale. This was to ensure that the contrast and usability was spot on before adding colour and texture.
Art Deco patterns were sprinkled throughout the menus as a reference to the game’s 1930s setting. I was able to get really creative with these, some early designs even incorporated elements from the train such as the spokes!
We decided to go with a clean, vector-based art style for the UI (rather than pixel art) to give it some modern flair and ensure that it stands out from the rest of the game.
Traditional verb bars are replaced with a single context button and an inventory menu that can be recalled as needed. This streamlined user experience has you focused less on the nitty-gritty of navigating menus, and more on enjoying the world of Loco Motive.
We had relatively few challenges on the UX side, with many examples of well-refined Point and Click games to draw inspiration from.
We looked to titles such as Broken Age and Sam & Max Save The World as they had already solved many of the problems associated with making a point-and-click title playable with a gamepad.
This is just a small taste of what to expect from the interface of Loco Motive! I’m looking forward to you all seeing the UI in action when the game launches later this year.
Character Spotlight - Herman Merman
It’s time for our second character spotlight! Next up is the self-declared detective extraordinaire, Herman Merman!
Herman Merman is a crime novelist who dreams of solving real cases. Always one to project himself as an infamous detective, he's never actually had a real case.
Herman’s latest novel is not going down so well with the publishing house, and with waning sales and a new star on the horizon - Herman needs to up his game!
When he receives an unexpected call from Lady Unterwald seeking his employment aboard the Reuss Express, Herman jumps at the opportunity to hone his skills in the field.
Ever the optimist, even when his employer meets her untimely end - Herman believes he's destined to solve this case.
There's just one problem, however. He hasn't got a clue!
That’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go, but in the meantime you can follow us for updates on Twitter or join the community in our brand new Discord channel.
Come aboard and say hello!
Spring Development Update, UI Reveal & Character Spotlight
Development Update
Before we get into our first character spotlight, we wanted to chat a little about how development is going since our announcement a few months back.
The story has been written, the puzzles have been designed and mapped out. A large portion of the game is fully playable, we’re currently working hard on cramming in gorgeous pixel art, plenty of beautifully animated hijinks, and the snappiest of snappy dialogue!
Shiny New UI
We brought award winning UI Artist, Edd Coates onto the team. Edd has knocked it out of the park with a contemporary high resolution interface that blends in seamlessly with traditional pixel art.
By taking inspiration from other fantastic point and click titles, we have designed an interface that is both elegant and intuitive to use. For those of you looking forward to playing this on the Switch, we took an enormous amount of care to ensure that the game is just as fun to play in docked/gamepad mode as it is with a mouse or touch screen.
Combined with the fantastic user experience, Edd has opted to go with an Art Deco theme that’s reminiscent of 20s to 30s architecture. This will adorn the many screens and menus that you’ll be seeing in-game, to give it that classic ‘Gatsby vibe’ and really ground the UI in the world of Loco Motive.
We’ve also got some lovely new screenshots to share, see below!
Character Spotlight - Arthur A. Ackerman
The characters are at the heart of Loco Motive – a cast of exciting and energetic characters who each have their own distinct personalities and motivations. Here’s a look at the first of our characters.
Arthur Ackerman is an otherwise straight-laced lawyer, someone who perhaps is defined as 'by the books'. Employed by Lady Unterwald to handle some last minute amendments to her will, she encourages him to have a good time while he's aboard her flagship train, the Reuss Express.
Arthur's idea of a good time involves looking at paperwork, but he soon becomes embroiled in the mysterious murder of his employer. Stuck aboard the Reuss Express and with his life potentially on the line, Arthur is on an adventure - whether he likes it or not!
That’s all for now! We’ll be sharing more progress as we go on our Twitter and you can find us hanging out in the Chucklefish Discord - come say hi!
Until next time!
- Adam
Introducing Loco Motive!
To add a little steam to our engine, we’ve collaborated with Chucklefish to help publish Loco Motive, and aim to release in Summer 2022 on PC and Nintendo Switch.
Here's the trailer we just dropped as part of Nintendo's Indie World Showcase - check it out:
[previewyoutube="EFahJJOdMzI;full"]
Whassit about?
Set aboard a lavish 1930’s express train, Loco Motive follows three larger-than-life characters: a trusty lawyer⚖, an amateur detective🕵🏽♂️ and a suave super secret agent🍸, as they gather clues to solve the ominous murder of Lady Unterwald and prove their innocence.
Features
- Inspired by comedy point-and-click adventures of the past
- Solve item-based puzzles, that are satisfying without being frustrating
- Meet a cast of intriguing and suspicious characters, all fully voiced!
- Choose from two control options - take direct character control, or opt for a classic point and click experience
- Beautifully detailed pixel art animation
- Need a little nudge in the right direction? Telephone for assistance with an in-game hint call-line!
- With music from composer Paul Zimmerman (Space Haven, Cave Blazers)
How can I find out more?
Give us a follow on Twitter and check out our website for the latest information on Loco Motive development. You should also check out Chucklefish on Twitter, they’re pretty cool. We’d also appreciate it if you could wishlist Loco Motive, it really helps us!
Until next time!