The release of Martha Is Dead is getting closer and closer, and with it also coincides the 6th anniversary of the release of ‘The Town of Light’! (TTOL).
Yes... it's been 6 years, and the amazing thing is, TTOL continues to reap its small success. The game continues to do well on Steam, player reviews keep coming and I keep getting excited, I admit it. This was our dream.
But Martha Is Dead and TTOL have much more in common than just both releasing at a similar time, (24th and 26th Feb, respectively), they differ by two days.
Many aspects of Martha Is Dead are also present in TTOL, so we thought we'd take a quick run down of their links and similarities for fans of The Town Of Light, and maybe introduce it to some people who have never played it before!
The Setting
The Tuscan countryside is the setting for both of these games. In TTOL we were in Volterra, in the Maremma (an area of Tuscany), with MID we are in the northern area of Chianti Classico, near Florence. We like to work with a territory that we can touch with our hands. There is no better, more detailed a reference document! And then you also need to close your eyes and breathe the air of a place to fully understand it. Once an environment has become part of you, then you have the right sensibility to describe it without fear of being wrong or inconsistent.
I thought about setting the next game in a nice warm seaside place, at least we’d have to stay there for a couple of years to immerse the team at the right level. I will discuss that with Wired Productions (our publisher) ;-) Cape Verde? Sao Miguel? you choose, we go!
The period
A precise historical context is the second great reference manual. Again, you can move with more confidence in a real historical context and then there are many stories that enrich your awareness of the context and sometimes even end up in the game. This happens in both TTOL and MID, by the way the period chosen is very close, it was 1938 in TTOL and 1944 in MID. 6 years difference, what a coincidence! I just discovered this myself while I'm writing, 6 years is also the distance between the two game releases!
The Narrative Approach
Is very different. TTOL was a story being told, in MID we live the events while they happen. Nevertheless, the methodology used to create the protagonist remains the same: a real character. I have to have the feeling that I really know them, and to achieve this, the number of details studied, pinned down, written or just thought about are enormous, many of which are not present in the game, of course, but essential to give Giulia and Renée the credibility they absolutely need to enable the player to develop empathy with them.
Sometimes I hear music that relaxes me, tracks from the soundtrack of MID, Ludovico Einaudi, but also some singer that I particularly love, like “Coco Rosie”, “Michelle Gurevich” or... K.òla to mention a not famous talented one I would love to work with ("Finna Fyrir Þér" is super).
But back to us, with music and eyes closed, I imagine clips of the protagonist's life, moments of an ordinary day. How she behaves in everyday life is the essential starting point. If you don't know how a person behaves in routine, you can't say you know her/him! This was a great teaching of my father who was a history buff and suffered from seeing his son (me) getting poor results at school (to be kind) in the very subject that represented his passion. He told me: "If you want to understand history you have to understand how people lived in everyday life" and he gave me a collection of books entitled: "Everyday life in the Middle Ages", "Everyday life at the court of Luigi XIV" etc.etc. I have loved history ever since.
I kept getting bad grades because I would forget dates and names, but I knew what was going on at the time. I knew that peasants in the Middle Ages were completely illiterate and it was clear how this ignorance could be used by those who were more educated. And that was one of the main basis of how the feudal system worked. Little matter what was the name of that lord and on what date he died. But I'm going bit off-topic, excuse me.
Returning to Giulia and Renée, I can say that I have a very different relationship with them. I like more Giulia, I love more Renée! Giulia is a very open-minded girl compared to the years in which she lives, thanks to a family that is half Italian and half German, she speaks two languages, she lives in a very culturally evolved environment. Renée was born in misery, she didn't have any opportunities, sadness always dominated her. Giulia is one who acts, maybe in a paradoxical way, but she acts (I can’t add more), Renée huddled in a corner and closed the doors with the rest of the world. You can talk with Giulia about everything in front of a good beer (she doesn’t love wine), she likes also to argue, Renée needs only your caresses and your reassurances. Two fragile girls, two completely different ways of defending themselves.
In Game
The ties between TTOL and MID go beyond that. There is something tangible just inside the two games that connect them. I'd like to tell you what, but I think it's much more interesting for you to find out by yourself. In TTOL there are traces of MID and in MID there are traces of TTOL. And in the next title in all likelihood, while changing times and places, there will be traces of both! It's something I want in every way because for us, our games are not disconnected products, they are our journey.
Mental Illness
Lastly, but the most important thing, is the interest in investigating the human mind, in digging into those folds that we try to hide, but that, in some way, are part of all of us as human beings. It's a theme that, although in a different way, deeply characterizes both titles and, more generally, our path. No one should think they are immune to psychological issues. I believe that everything is in us, potentially, and this is the real reason why "madness" (a very bad and misleading term) has this very strong appeal on all of us. We just have to be strong enough and also lucky enough to let many of those "folds" remain closed. There are those who are not lucky enough or strong enough, unfortunately.
These are our protagonists!
So there you have it, a super quick list of some of the links - literal or otherwise between Martha Is Dead and The Town Of Light!
For more information on Martha Is Dead, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam, join our Discord and follow our socials!
You can discover some of these links for yourself on Feb 24th!
Hello again! In this weeks dev blog we're sharing some of the information surrounding the dark mystery of the tarot and the representation of tarot cards in the game!
There are many elements in play with Martha's story, from the tragic murder and following investigation and the oppressive presence of war, to the mysticism around dark arts and age old folklore, with the shattering impact this all has on the family and those around them.
Before we dive into the cards themselves, let's have a little history lesson on the origin of tarot, and why it fits with Marthas authentic Italian themes.
The History of Tarot
Tarot decks were invented in Italy in the 1430s by adding to the existing four-suited pack a fifth suit of 21 specially illustrated cards called trionfi (“triumphs”) and an odd card called il matto (“the fool”). these early tarot cards—tarocchi cards, in Italian—had suits, trump cards, and even pips.
The widespread use of tarot cards for divination only took off in the late 1700s, when Frenchman Jean-Baptise Alliette published the first definitive guide to tarot card reading. Pseudonymed Etteilla, he wrote a guide to using the cards and released his own deck alongside it. He gave meaning to each of the cards, incorporating beliefs about astronomy and the four elements. He claimed to have borrowed heavily from the Book of Thoth, an Egyptian text supposedly written by Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom.
The Tarot Cards In Martha
Fancy your hand at being a Tarot reader? As you progress through the game the player will come across the Tarot cards and be able to use them once per in game day. The player will choose 3 of them at random each day and then a set reading based on the results is given, hinting to things that have happened in the past, that may happen in the future, or potentially even evoking spirits and communicating with them.
Each card has two different meanings, depending on how the image appears when the card is turned over: upright or reversed.
In the first case the card normally has a positive meaning, in the second case a negative one (in some cases, which will be specified, the opposite is true).
The meaning of each card is also profoundly influenced by the other cards that accompany it. For this reason the interpretation of the tarot is neither easy, immediate nor unambiguous. Let us analyse each card with its possible and contrasting meanings.
The Fool
It represents an individual who is about to face something new.
Positive
It encourages one to face life lightly, without fearing what will come and without giving weight to the judgement of others.
Negative
Indicates insecurity and depression, a preamble to bad results.
The Magician
Represents energy.
Positive
Indicates an important encounter in love or friendship and the ability to get what you want.
Negative
The end of a relationship, difficulties in friendships or work. Indicates deception, seduction leading to mistakes.
The High Priestess
Represents feminine knowledge, endowed with great spiritual power.
Positive
Indicates a female person who will help with the wisdom of her advice.
Negative
Announces clashes with the males. May indicate a period when one faces life passively, suffering problems rather than facing them.
The Empress
It represents love and prosperity.
Positive
Successful completion of an undertaking, happiness and stability. Could indicate a close engagement or marriage. Represents a practical, strong, successful person.
Negative
Betrayal and gossip. Could represent the approaching end of a relationship. Represents a superficial and unreliable person as they lack feelings.
The Emperor
Represents a man of power, material power as opposed to the The High Priestess.
Positive
Great experience, ability to control oneself and influence others.
Negative
Powerful, selfishness.
The Hierophant
Represents spiritual strength.
Positive
Ability to teach others, may indicate that the person is protected by a higher good.
Negative
Inability to take responsibility.
The Lovers
Represent a contrast between good and evil, between vices and virtues. It normally concerns the emotional and love sphere.
Positive
Heralds an active and satisfying social life as well as a positive love life.
Negative
Dangerous temptations lead to negative consequences in the emotional and sentimental sphere. Consequences that can only be resolved through suffering.
The Chariot
Represents the victory that can be achieved through self-discipline and commitment.
Positive
Success is on the way, you can overcome some difficult moments.
Negative
Difficulty in getting what you want, failure. Difficulty in making decisions and loss of control
Strength
Represents two opposing forces.
Positive
Ability to master one's instincts, self-control. Problems will be solved with determination.
Negative
Dominance of insecurity and brutal force. Aggression and violence undermine relationships with others.
The Hermit
Represents wisdom and thoughtfulness
Positive
Invites reflection, patience and making decisions on one's own. Indicates capacity for reflection and prudence.
Negative
Indicates regression or loss. It may represent an inability to make decisions for oneself, but also a situation of excessive isolation.
Wheels of Fortune
Represents destiny
Positive
Luck is on us side. There will be positive changes.
Negative
Fate is adverse and will put us to the test. There may be negative changes.
Justice
Represents balance and the consequences of actions.
Positive
We can get what we deserve, be successful. Indicates an impartial, honest and moral person.
Negative
Our actions will not take us where we want to go. Major quarrels and possible relationship breakdowns.
The Hanged Man
It represents sacrifice and its acceptance. Very ambiguous card.
Positive
There are important changes in sight. It indicates rebirth to a new life.
Negative
Many doubts are the preamble to difficult times. May represent unrequited love.
Death
It represents the inevitable end, destruction and subsequent regeneration.
Positive
We end something that will bring something better. We overcome something that was not right. It is necessary to destroy something in order to build something better.
Negative
Something ends that leaves a great void and brings suffering, despair. You go through a difficult period to overcome.
Temperance
Represents harmony.
Positive
Harmony and balance help to avoid mistakes and accompany us towards serenity.
Negative
We lack the right balance and harmony to face life's challenges.
The Devil
Represents the vices that imprison the human being.
Positive (if drawn upside down)
Negative values are mitigated. May represent the ability to be master of one's own destiny and to influence others. Magnetic force.
Negative (if drawn upright)
Laziness, fear of responsibility, weakness. Announces external, but also internal obstacles that are the incarnations of our fears.
The Tower
Represents a sudden and shocking change.
Positive
For the strong ones, there is an opportunity to overturn the destiny, to be able to pursue great goals.
Negative
A mental breakdown or physical accident from which it is very difficult to recover. Psychological distress and physical suffering.
The Star
It represents the ideals to which we must aspire.
Positive
Favourable events and possibilities that must be grasped and that will bring us happiness.
Negative
Bad luck, contrary fate and difficulty in pursuing our goals.
The Moon
It represents illusion and night. A light that does not make you see things clearly.
Positive (if drawn backwards)
One needs to see things beyond their outward appearance. Represents a naive, dreamy and creative person.
Negative (if drawn upright)
Reality is only apparently serene, but hides much negativity. It indicates a materialistic and false person who moves in the shadows without ever showing his true nature.
The Sun
It represents victory, success and, in general, joyful events in life.
Positive
The undertakings we are carrying out and our projects will be successful. May indicate deep regeneration and happiness.
Negative
The rays of the sun are dazzling reality and creating illusions. We are also in the dark in our relationships with others. Deep misunderstandings will not have positive consequences.
Judgement
It represents consciousness and the possibility of a new beginning.
Positive
Positive and unexpected surprises. Indicates a patient and eccentric person.
Negative
The impossibility of changing what we don't like makes us suffer and leads to great disappointment.
The World
It represents joy, beauty and prosperity.
Positive
Success, positive conclusion of a project or path.
Negative
Failure to complete a project or path that we thought was within our reach.
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For more information on Martha Is Dead, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam, join our Discord and follow our socials!
We can't wait to see what the cards hold for you on Feb 24th...
If you've seen the Wired Productions socials this week, you'll know that we've been playing with some Steam Decks sent to us directly from Valve!
Naturally Gary (CM at Wired) decided that he HAD to spend some time playing with it and recorded a nifty little video showing it off - if you've been looking for a super quick TL;DR hands on - we've got you covered - as well as little sneak peak of Martha running on the device (pre-optimisation of course!)
[previewyoutube="qwKFgWIk7sk;full"]
Okay that looks pretty good right? And now you've seen it, you want one!
Well we are feeling pretty generous - and to celebrate the launch of 'Martha Is Dead' next week - we're going to take one of our shiny new decks and GIVE IT AWAY to one lucky winner!
We know, too kind.
To enter, simply hit the link below and you'll be whisked away to our Gleam competition where you can enter between now and launch for a chance to win a Steam Deck of your very own - It's that easy.
We are SO excited to be speeding towards launch on Feb 24th - and can't wait to share lots more exciting blog and video content before then to keep you up to speed with what to expect!
Once again thank you for all your support until now! And please be sure to wishlist the game! If you already have, then show a friend and get them to as well! It means more than you know!
Hello again! We hope you all had a wonderful festive break! We're back with part 2 of our dive into the diary of Luca Dalcó during the development of the Martha Is Dead release date trailer!
Last time we left off at a crucial moment as the project was being moved between platforms and the MetaHuman tech was beginning to find its feet...
...
3 hours later
The AWS server does not work, we’re still working remotely and as a consequence, PANIC setting in again.
Ok, not a great problem. It was just full!
Time to purchase an additional 50Gb and pull 10Gb again of metahuman stuff, then time to download it, but obviously there is something wrong and we need to pull again and download it again. In these moments I miss the local server, the good and faithful Synology within the local ethernet.
Ok, here we are. I’m loading it all, but there is a plug-in (I’m not allowed to say which, unfortunately) that is driving me crazy, giving me errors on Perforce.
Another 30 minutes and its in the trash bin.
Compiling Shaders is horrible, also with 24 threads and 12 physical cores @4.2Ghz it takes sooooo much time. This is the “waiting” style of work sometimes. I want to write a book: “Zen in the art of waiting for your f****** PC”
…20 minutes later, more or less but here it is eventually.
The scene and the sequencer :
The only animation is the body movement. Hand and face animation will arrive… I hope.
Hmmm, they look like two chickens! The neck appears too long, but it’s a problem with the camera and light. The light doesn’t give any contrast to the shoulders so they appear as an extension to the neck and the camera is in a very wide angle, deforming them and making it worse. Dresses will arrive too, they need to be calculated on the animation and, as a consequence, they need animations.
It is a puzzle. Getting it all back seems impossible. A note: Within all of this chaos, in the discord group, we are continuing to joke amongst ourselves.
Thank goodness!
Anyway while the guys are struggling with dresses, animation and other stuff, let’s take a look at the camera and lights too!
I would like to have less light on the horizontal borders. It can be obtained in post processing, but look how powerful the lights of Unreal are!?
Just some touches and here we are.
This is a good starting point for me. The eyebrows are horrible. They are the most problematic part.
And there’s clearly a problem with the hair. Haha! ….
But now everything seems to work! A last touch for the light and today is over!
Has it been a good day for the trailer?
Yes, I think so. Everything works so far and this is the most important thing! Now I must collapse and see you tomorrow morning. … No… I can’t help but tweak the lights more and more. It will be like this all the way until Friday evening… damn!
DAY 5 - Wednesday, November 17
We are still waiting for the facial animations…
I’m working on the audio and on the break scene, but nothing good is on the way yet. As you can guess I’m carrying on with the lighting and also with post processing stuff. We forgot to activate RTX… yes, it is true, not something to be proud of, but it happened!
As soon as you activate RTX there is always something wrong. This is natural and needs tweaking.
After fixing the problems you can start pushing on the RTX feature and the visual result is way better! It’s good to have this step now as it gives us some more enthusiasm - there was a moment where it was fading away, not for the work itself, but out of tiredness.
Now we are here:
Lights with soft shadows and Global illumination did a great great job. The tear is also, bit by bit, looking better.
I wanted to obtain an intimate situation, but not a pleasant one and I think I’m not far from that. The central light that fades around the border gives me a sense of intimity. The main cold color with a green component helps to make the scene cold and lacking reassurance.
There are now 5 spot lights. Two counterpose back lights and three front lights. One would have been enough with GI, but they are needed to use colors.
This is not final, but a good step beyond.Another problem has now emerged. We miss detail!
Let’s check with a “microscope” :)
Martha is okay, Giulia is missing the details on her lips. Materials and textures for Metahuman exported models are quite complicated.
There is still something wrong with the eyelashes. They work fine without RTX, but with RTX on we have this problem:
The opacity is ok… even if Giulia seems a bit hairy :D
mmm… ok, see you as soon as we fix these! ….
At this point I no longer had the time and energy to write it all down. But you get the idea for sure! The pressure grew even more and fatigue started to set in. Regardless, I still hope you got some good insight into our thoughts and the approach needed to creating such trailers. Thanks for reading!
Well we best let Luca get his rest, turns out making trailers is WAY more complicated and exhausting than most give credit for! Though I think we can agree, it was very much worth the effort! You can give the trailer one more watch here!
[previewyoutube="KWRYUz29mK0;full"]
For more information on Martha Is Dead, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam, join our Discord and follow our socials! We'll no doubt have a couple new trailers for you VERY soon - hopefully not as tiring as this one for Luca!
Hello folks, and welcome to the next part of our Martha Is Dead blog series! This time we'll be diving into the personal diary of Luca Dalcó who is sharing his notes from over the course of creating the recent release date trailer for Martha Is Dead, and getting to grips with the exciting new Metahuman technology that was also seen in the Matrix Awakens tech demo for Unreal 5! (If you haven't seen the trailer yet - you can see it here!)
We'll be breaking the diary down into two posts, so keep your eyes peeled next week for the conclusion! But for now, onto the diary of Luca!
[previewyoutube="KWRYUz29mK0;full"]
How many cooks?!
Making a trailer is something important, but I feel that my perception of it goes beyond the real importance of the trailers themselves. I love to conceive and realize trailers, but this feeling isn’t shared by the rest of the LKA team and I perfectly understand why!
Making a trailer is very time-consuming, the time required for their creation is often taken from the highly valuable development schedule and they can end up being completely time-wasting. If I was to quote from one team member who repeats this like a mantra:
“Who is right, who is wrong?” “Nobody.” “Again it depends on your point of view.”
Marketing teams look at trailers as one the most important assets in their arsenal, maybe sometimes even more important than the game itself. With small teams, the developers must spend time to make them which leads to less time to develop the actual game - and if you still have ample time to continue development it’s like stealing food from a hungry dog! … You risk your hand!
Someone out of stress, pessimism and time constraints would say that trailers are useless and may even damage the game. But what’s my point of view?
As I said, I like making trailers and I think that some of the best trailers come directly from the development team. Especially for a game like Martha Is Dead. It's best to conceive a trailer between the hidden folds of the narrative, this is something which requires my creativity and time as I am the author of the story in the first place - it is part of my head and only in my head.
Ok, the creative part is defined.
We could make everybody happy and myself happy to conceive the trailer, by booking another company who creates it. This would certainly make the LKA team happy.
But that is not easy.
Another company can put its hand into the project by creating sequences which need extensive work and preparation. But this is way too expensive in my mind. We already have our hands on the game and we can create the required assets in a fraction of the time it would take them. Marketing people are often concerned about our excessive creative impulses that don’t always take into account their needs. This problem is never solved.
Keeping the scales balanced is almost impossible and could result in a weak trailer both commercially and artistically. So which way do you tip the scale?
Fortunately Wired (our publisher) really appreciates the artistic aspect and believes, like us, that it’s important to communicate it with this game.
The team still curses at the thought of making a trailer, but that is always the case!
Would you think that the team is bad-tempered? …
I don’t think so, they are just aware of what making a trailer means for them! They know time is always too strict and they know that I will have some ideas during the process… we’ve worked together for almost 10 years!
Take a look at the following diary I tried to write while we were making the previous release date announcement trailer with MetaHuman tech - I think you’ll understand!
I’d like to start it with an epic sentence by our Creative Producer, Achim. The deadline was already so strict and the potential result was not clear and tough to estimate, we were only just starting the work with the new tech. In a conversation with Achim, I said that in Italy, other than saying good luck, we have a very popular superstitious gesture when it comes to talking about luck and unluck.
When I thanked him for something, he remembered that, he obviously had a laugh and wrote: "You guys are working your butts off and we are only touching balls." …might even be a good title for this blog. (Editor - Yes, but also no)
Diary
Time was strict and we needed to make the trailer using Metahuman, and not a normal character of Metahuman. We had to find a way to modify a standard metahuman character to make it look like our main character; Giulia, and her sister Martha.
It was not easy. We were still searching for a smart solution when work had already begun on the trailer.
DAY 1 - Friday, November 12
It seems that our initial problems are solved and we’re now able to modify the model in order to make it look like Giulia. Martha needs further modifications to her mouth and ears. Lorenzo No sent some screenshots and for the first time, the model looks familiar to me… I think we are heading in the right direction.
In the meantime, Lorenzo Co and Antonio are working together to start the animations. Lorenzo Ca is trying to make Martha cry… just a little. I would like a single tear to appear in one eye, stay there for a while, almost trying to go back but then fall down, if the visuals are good enough we’ll go for a more close-up framing, otherwise, we’ll stay with the established framing we already have.
If no problems occur… I think we can do Scene 2 (without speaking) and Scene 11 with voice, I then must find something to put in between, before and after to reach one minute or so.
I don’t have a final idea yet but I feel that it would be nice to use something with Giulia’s voice, this way we can give the impression of greater use of the character, we may also not see her in a few scenes.
Tomorrow I’ll figure out “what that is”.
As for the hair, we are forced to use one of the few Metahumans options. Modifying it is taking too long. No time for that. We have three possible options (note: the model shown below is not the modified one):
This one is not good. Too puffy! The style doesn’t match the character nor the epoch!
This one is better, but there is something wrong too polished, too ‘good girl’ for Giulia. Giulia is not like that, she’s more savage!
This is the best one in my opinion. It’s timeless and matches well with the character and her raw nature. Moreover, it looks similar to the hairstyle used for the key artwork.
We are going to work over the weekend… I promised my team a 3 day break after this :( I will be joining them of course!
I'm still not optimistic out of superstition and also out of character.
Let’s see… I don't know what else to say here, but in Italy as mentioned before, we say - in addition to fingers crossed, let's touch our balls! So all of you please… touch your balls! - For good luck!
DAY 2 - Sunday, November 14
It rained heavily yesterday evening and the temperature has dropped… from spring to winter in a single day. It’s better this way really, as we won’t suffer so much having to stay in front of a screen for 16 hours. ;)
Antonio is working on the draft animation. A draft because he is working on a different model which he will then bring onto the final model when the animation has been reviewed and corrected. We’re trying to set everything right, but the feeling is to have a too short blanket :(
The model is going on. Lorenzo No is working to make the model as similar as possible to Giulia and also on Martha’s mouth and ears. We guess it will be finished today.
Lorenzo Ca is working with Houdini on the tear, but he is just defining the way it will work because he needs the final model in order to produce the final effect.
Unfortunately, Lorenco Co (yes, we have 3 Lorenzos!) is not with us due to personal problems and this is quite an issue because he is the one who takes care of rigging, adjustment and everything else needed to have the model in UE, ready to be animated and rendered. So right now we must wait for tomorrow to see if everything will be fine, in the meantime - Still something to reshape a bit!
At least the model is now beginning to match the original human model (her name is Livia) almost perfectly! Time to add a few extra details (and remove others!)
DAY 3 - Monday, November 15
Monday has started. A new Channel on Discord was created a couple of hours ago, you already need more than a minute to scroll through all of the messages. The modified model is making its trip from Maya to UE. We received very bad news - The main animator will be off until Wednesday. PANIC! Francesco is already animating the hands and he will also do the facial animation, at least to create a draft with which we can set up the scene. I’m waiting for a UE scene with the models in it, to work out the framing, lighting and to start testing some close-ups. The atmosphere is tense.
Right now Lorenzo Co is pushing the SK of Martha and Giulia in the project, it will take a bit. It is the moment of truth...
Okay folks we're gonna leave that one there for now! We'll have part two up for you NEXT YEAR! (Editor - Don't be dramatic, it's only a week away)
For more information on Martha Is Dead, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam, join our Discord and follow our socials!
Tis the season to save money! Fa-la-la-la-la la-la-lala!
The Steam winter sale has just begun and you can save up to 84% on a range of our publishers eclectic indie titles! Which ones we hear you ask? Try this for a stocking filler or two!
58% off Avicii Invector and savings on the Tim and Magma track packs
That's a LOT of Moolah saved, what are you gonna do with it all? We'd suggest buying more indie games - but what do we know!
You can start saving RIGHT NOW by heading over to the Wireds Steam page and pick yourself up something nice, you've earned it (And hey, maybe wishlist an upcoming game or two along the way whilst you're at it)
Happy Holidays from everyone here at LKA and Wired!
LKA Lift the lid on Techniques Used to Bring Martha Is Dead to Life
Innovation and Unreal Engine take ’indie’ gaming to new heights, learn more about the work that goes in to crafting a masterpiece with our brand new teaser for Martha Is Dead, and an interview with LKA Games Creative Director Luca Dalcó!
Watch the feature “Crafting a Masterpiece”: [previewyoutube="i1-s31iSLIU;full"]
The term powered by Unreal engine, is more than just a marketing saying – the innovation the team at Unreal help developers unlock is unimageable, as seen through the recent Matrix tech demo. They also give us the chance to push further on game quality giving us economical support on development. We’ve utilised features but also have managed to place LKA at the cutting edge of new tools, being early adopters of the MetaHuman technology, which we’re excited to continue to reveal more on”. - Luca Dalcó
The interview covers a whole range of subjects surrounding the game - from the usage of next generation Unreal technology, mechanics such as photography, as well as the legacy of The Town Of Light and using the Tuscan setting as a vehicle for storytelling
Built in Unreal® Engine 4, Martha Is Dead combines real-world locations, working in links to historical events during the latter stages of World War II, superstition, folklore, and deep psychological distress. The game opens in the depths of the Italian countryside as Allied and Axis forces turn the nation into a pincered playground.
Martha Is Dead will also be getting a physical release on PlayStation and a soundtrack on triple vinyl.
Martha is Dead is our second project. It has many more horror overtones than its predecessor, The Town of Light, even though that game also presented some very disturbing situations.
The use of disturbing images and situations is a topic often discussed in the media. "Why do you use these kinds of images?" This is one of the questions that I have to answer most frequently.
Before I go any further, changing my point of view for once, I will answer this question once again:
The use we make of disturbed situations and images is functional to the narrative of the game. They are not images used for the sake of creating a shock, but to accompany the narrative. The protagonist is going through terrible experiences and in order to communicate her emotions we create these situations and images in an attempt to convey to the player some of the discomfort that the protagonist is experiencing at that moment.
This is nothing new. Cinema has been using this language for years and has given birth to true masterpieces through it. But video games are something else, there is less tolerance and more attention.
Is this fair? Is it not fair? I can't say exactly. I personally believe that asking and understanding why violence and disturbing scenes are used is never wrong. If the author can't give an answer, maybe something is wrong!
Having said that, however, no one ever asks what the people who make these scenes suffer. Perhaps people think that those who work on this kind of production are a bit sadistic and are inclined to enjoy seeing, or rather, to make, the most horrendous and disgusting things. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least in our case!
Personally, I'm fond of horror language that is aimed at describing inner suffering... and it's quite obvious since I'm the one writing the script. But the others? The ones who create the mangled, amputated models, who create the bloody, putrescent and disgusting textures, who animate the whole thing giving it life, who create the mechanics to interact with this disgusting material? Are they all fans of this genre? Do they seek out the latest and greatest horror film in their private lives?
Obviously not.
They are modellers, animators and programmers first and foremost. Within LKA, apart from me, only a couple of guys are used to following the horror genre and they are the ones who least work on the "horrors" of Martha is Dead. And the others? The others don't watch horror movies because... yeah, because they're scary. Imagine having to work all day on horror!
Actually, it's very different to see a finished scene once in its context than to see it born and grow for weeks, months. Somehow you lose sensitivity.
And here comes one of the great difficulties in developing a video game. Maintaining sensitivity and judgement towards what we see every day, for years. Sometimes it's necessary for me to step away from the game for a while. I continue to work on the game of course, but without playing it! Maybe I make a trailer, or go on a live shoot, or maybe I write a blog! After a few days there is a reset, even if only partial, and you can have a clearer view of what you see.
Finding the balance is difficult.
One must not become a victim of what the team is doing, perhaps noticing every little thing that only we will ever notice (who said 3D artists?) while perhaps losing sensitivity to the whole. This is one of the most challenging roles of art direction, and it is something you cannot expect from someone who is immersed full time in the creation of assets, animations and effects. You need a bit of detachment from the technical and production issues in order to maintain an objective overview. Critical, but not hyper-critical, careful, but not unnecessarily maniacal, and above all not linked to the specific problem of the moment, but to how everything works as a whole.
Dev Blog : FX in Martha Is Dead – Part 4 – Fluids
Hello again folks, it's time for our final blog entry looking at the work behind some of the VFX in Martha Is Dead!
This week we are keeping it with fluids again, but thankfully - a little less morbid than just blood.
We'll be talking about the systems in place to help generate the important weather effects, and how to get that fluid in the dark room sloshing around *Just right*
Settle yourself down and get the kettle on, enjoy!
For the previous examples I had started from Emitters, but as different example, for the development tanks seen within the Photography Darkroom I had to start with containers already full of liquid. I took the model of the photograph (That the player produces from the camera) which was a simple plane, created the thickness to make it collide well with Houdini's particles and attached its animation to it.
By exporting everything as alembic, it kept the cache and I therefore limited myself to "soaking" the model of the photograph in the liquid. Here too, like the gushing of the blood the effect was exaggerated. The model in the photo plunged into the liquid that created full on tsunamis rather than generating small settling waves (To imagine the scene just think of putting fruit in the blender but forgetting to put the lid on. Fruit goes everywhere!). With some adjustments to the parameters it improved a lot.
For this animation I made two caches, one of the sheet that enters the water, the other of the sheet that comes out. To do this, it was necessary to create a frame in which the two animations were perfectly identical to be able to swap them at the right moment.
All the dynamic exports made in Houdini are extremely optimized alembics so performance isn’t impacted.
For my very last example, let’s talk about rain! This is an effect that always works very well but is not particularly difficult to achieve, but I couldn't make simple rain of water, we wanted it with blood!
The procedure of creating rain is very simple: a system is created that allows the spawn of particles in a well-defined area (shape and size to your liking). You move the spawn pretty high and make it product lot of particles - more or less depending on the size of your emitter (And GPU requirements). A gravity knot is attached to it and we adjust the shape, size and colour of the drops and that's it, it's raining!
Based on our needs however, this wasn’t enough, we had to create a sequencer in which the camera framed from above and reached the ground. In Niagara I added an extra system, that generates very fast splashes on the ground to simulate the small drops that are created when the largest raindrop hits a surface. I created a plane, folded it into a cylinder with a transparent material that made it look like a splash of water at the edge of its parabola, then I animated its scale on the Z axis based on the duration of its life to simulate a wave animation. At the beginning of its spawn the particle measured zero on its Z scale, in the middle of its life it measured one and eventually returned to zero. Animating its opacity, the effect wasn’t bad.
In order to have as few particles as possible on the screen, I made sure that the drops were eliminated as soon as they hit the ground. If I wanted to create the "splash" exactly in the point where the drop falls I could have done it using a "death event ". A "death event" is an event that, once the rain particle was extinguished, it would send the data of its position and the moment in which the event happened to the splash system, allowing it to create the splash in the right place.
In our case this wasn’t necessary because it rains so much that you could not feel how often and where the drops were falling.
And with that, we conclude our dive into the magic that goes on behind the curtain of some of Martha Is Deads VFX!
We hope you've enjoyed learning a little about how some of the stunning visuals in the game are put together, and the team at LKA have most definitely got more than a few more surprises in store for you...
We'll be sharing a new set of blogs with you very soon as we speed towards February 24th - so sit tight!
In the meantime, if you want to catch more Martha content across the internet, then hit the links at the bottom of the blog! And as always, make sure Martha is on your wishlists - and tell your friends!
Hello again folks, we took a little break from our Martha blogs last week in order to make room for our exciting release date announcement, which if you haven't caught up with yet - is now on February 24th!
Check out our teaser trailer announcing it!
[previewyoutube="KWRYUz29mK0;full"]
All caught up? Wonderful - let's dive into the next of our dev blogs! We're continuing to talk about the masterful VFX work included in the game - mainly because there's so many fascinating parts to EVERYTHING from the birds to the flesh flies, and as you're about to learn... It's even in the blood...
(Disclaimer for folks, this blog does contain screenshots of blood and rendered 'wounds' so proceed with caution if squeamish!)
Now we must talk about something I deal with a lot in the field of FX … the more "disgusting" areas - What is a horror without a little blood?
Generally for blood textures, decals are used to apply them where necessary. But our goal for Martha Is Dead, however, was to recreate copious amounts of animated blood! In the early days of development, there were several options I could try but most of them turned out to be unsuccessful. At first we created a plan, made it to match our needs and animated it but it did not render the materials or animation well. Sometimes we can’t use animated textures for how we have optimized the UV of the models, so the best effect we could get was just a cache with Houdini.
When I started working on the blood, It was originally my first experience using Houdini (almost), so I initially had to familiarize myself with it and its many ‘quirks’. After several headaches I managed to export an animated cache of a fountain, it turned out to be an excellent result but not convincing in the form of blood. I was trying to emulate blood gushing from one of the characters mangled body, which has now been seen within the Demo.
It took me a while to find the right parameter setting to be able to create a convincing liquid. The whole system was based on emitters, which simply emits particles at different degrees of viscosity and scale that collide on the characters body. The mesh had already passed a procedure of removing the “laminate mesh” (non-3D mesh composed only by a plane), closing the holes that the model could present. Houdini does not react well to this type of mesh "flaw". In this way the fluid remained liquid but viscous enough to simulate blood. The cache with a material that included the Tither Temporal AA on the channel of the mask, perfectly fused the blood on the body of the victim.
Please see the example below but be warned!
Keeping this one vague to avoid spoilers … A similar task occurred later, in which I had to create more blood that was flow on the belly of a different character. The belly had a very particular deformation animation, deformation that proved to be a headache to create!
In the simulations the blood was splashed from all sides, as if the victim was alive and was butchered by a savage! Instead, the body in which I was focusing on was meant to be dead for days, so the blood had to reflect this. Therefore it had to be more dense and viscous than normal ‘alive’ blood.
The solution I found was to create an animated texture that can be applied to the surface of the belly. A texture that animates the emission of particles and forms the design of the blood flow. I set gravity to a minimum and simulated it with the animation of the texture. To match the blood cache with the belly animation I used a simple latex on Maya. By animating the vertices of the lattice, the simulation was able to follow the deformations of the body. This produce the exact result I was looking for, thick lifeless blood!
Well now you know more than you did an hour ago about designing blood to look ;just right', and yet again a perfect example of the attention to detail in the smallest of things that are going into the game.
If you want to catch more Martha content across the internet, then hit the links at the bottom of the blog! And as always, make sure Martha is on your wishlists - and tell your friends!
