Status Update:

Having finished the Halloween Edition of Into the Dark , still working on Antinomy and Into the Ice: Nazis of Neuschwabenland, still asking for your support in the ongoing Kickstarter Campaign.

However, there will be a new full game by Homegrown Games in 2015: Father´s Island, a very unusual Open-World visual novel, will be released this year!

Story:

"I am John Richards, and I am innocent. I spent the last years in the Providence state prison for a crime I hadn´t committed. Armed robbery and assault, Christmas eve 2009, a convenience store just outside the town where I used to live. Hell, I was a highschool teacher then, and yeah, I didn´t earn much, but robbery? No fucking way. I spent the night 80 miles away in my cabin, my private retreat for holidays, working on exams and exercices for my pupils. Alone. A pretty bad Alibi, especially as they had me on tape. Not only my face, clearly visible, hard to mistake for another ones, they had also my DNA all over the place. My lawyer couldn´t argue with that, but I refused the deal they offered, and instead of 18 months and a chance for probation after 12, I got the full package of justice served. No hearing, no probation, no easy way out. I was innocent, but now, 5 years later, I have the attitude of an inmate and the will of a convict. I will find out who framed me, and whoever it was, will pay for it. And I got a damn good lead.
Two weeks before my release, an old catholic priest showed up in the prison, asking to talk to me. He was full of regrets and pitty, telling me that he knew I was innocent - but that his story was too weird to have convinced the jury. Long story cut short, some 25 years ago a dying maniac had confessed incredible sins to him. Didn´t take me long to figure out he was talking about my father. The priest revealed to me the location of an island not far from the New England coastline, and told me to go there to seek the truth. Challenge accepted, no school would hire me as teacher anyway..."

Screenshots:







Gameplay

This game is something very unusual for us, as it features no Zombies, no Nazis, no hookers and no trash elements. It is more a sort of a twist on a sub-genre containing titles like Dear Esther or Gone Home. The peaceful (?) exploration of a location, in our case a quite huge island, combined with the morbid, dark, gritty and subversive elements Homegrown Games is infamous for.
Interacting with objects / locations trigger "flashbacks" with movies and pictures from the Island 25 years ago.

Dev Status:

Island ready, populated with stock, purchased and model pack entities, some custom scripts and first custom entities. New entities are created, voice overs recorded, Lua scripts written as we speak.



Features:

3.8 square kilometres of densely populated Open World to roam (yeah, tricking around here)
120+ Flashback / examination scenes, items and encounters
3-5 hours of gameplay
40+ buildings to explore
100+ usable objects
Immersive soundtrack & ambience soundpainting

Factsheet:

Release: December 2015
Platform: Windows PC
estimated price tag: $ 3.99 - $ 4.99 (depending on average gameplay time during testing)
Engine: GameGuru + custom modifications
Free Demo!

looks great ertlov, nice work.

I love the exploratory visual novel format. Reminds me of Dear Esther.

that looks really nice!!

Great atmosphere Ertlov

Thank you very much!

Right now, we are indeed playing around a lot with music, ambience sounds, colour grading fog and especially also walking speed and pacing to get the right mood to carry the game-play experience. Soon we will invite the first users from here to test it via Steam Beta to get more feedback on that.

Attached one of the screens from the last test session

Looks well put together, colors and lighting are good. Should be a solid piece

Ertlov, I have a major concern regarding your Kickstarter for Antinomy. In your campaign you state the following:

"The release timing and scope of Mac and Linux, Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game will depend on the amount of money raised by Kickstarter past the original sum."

How does this scope depend only on the money raised? If you are using Game Guru, how do you plan to port to platforms that Game Guru doesn't support?

EDIT: Disregard. I see your steam page says you are moving to Unreal 4. Great choice. And congrats on the greenlight.

Need I even ask to sign up for beta?

The move was already performed in summer, Antinomy is entirely on Unreal 4 now. However, this is technically not our project, we are just co-developers.



Nope, you are on the list ^^

Coming closer...

Looks great. Re I was toying with using ren'py as a visual novel 'wrapper' that then let you execute GameGure levels from within its interactive visual novel presentation ... using the same assets. I guess with the new sprite and mouse control release we will all be able to add a bit more of this sort of thing in anyway, though not sure if that's what the vision is here exactly.

Cheers.

Here we got a first, HEAVY W.I.P. interior shot from a secret school building on the island.

However, it clearly shows WHY we need shadows casted from own light sources ^^

We have them now and they look sweet!
Can't wait to see more.

In realtime, too?!?!

Looking good Ertlov, can't wait to see more.

As I have recovered from my injuries AND the Hitman Beta is finally wrapped up (you can play it on PS4 already if you preordered, the steam pc beta starts on friday, dont miss it!), I had finally some time to get back to Fathers Island.

The first thing to do is to make the terrain more realistic without importing custom mountains (you know, those huge highpoly entities tear down FPS like hell). I got really sick from the rounded hills and / or the surreal shapes, as it didn t fit the mood in FI, so we gave it a shot using the slope tool to create erosion doown the hills / mountains.


Looks promising, but still some work to do.

Wow those are looking great! If you do want even more edges at the top I would suggest adding some angular stone models with a similar texture. .

Great idea, a nice task for the weekend

Sweet!! Nice to see more people make decent use of the terrain tool!



-Wolf

Hi Ertlov, good to see you around. Love your work... hope to see more soon.

Hi guys!

Just a few things as a quick-update. As Hitman launches mid of march, I am very busy at the moment, but I hope those of you who got a key for the Hitman Beta on steam enjoyed it

As for Beta, Fathers Island is far from that, but we have scheduled now the first run of testing the game in its principles, this will start on Monday, March 7th.

If you are interested in playtesting it, please write some lines to johannertl@gmx.at, including your GG experience and your system specifications. This version will have 30% of the island finished and the first set of encounters and voice overs included.

As for my other Projects, you might be aware that we launched a new Kickstarter for Antinomy, which has its roots in Game Guru, too.

Please support us, pledge, share the link among your social networks, tell your friends.

It looks very good so far!

Here we go with a short ingame video from yesterdays work:

Hi all,

after nailing down the Kickstarter Campaign for Antinomy, we have returned to Father´s Island and are currently wrapping it up for Beta Testing. Still fighting some GG issues that always cross our path, still polishing and trying ot get the best look out of what we have - and scripting puzzles in LUA.

Yes, puzzles.

We abandoned the strict "Walking SImulator" approach and are about to provide at least some basic items / combinations / lockpick / passphrase puzzles. Still no Zombies inside!

However, we changed the starting position to the mainland, so the first task of the player will be to repair, full and start an old boat on the shore to get to the island where the real fun begins. Our todays screenshots tell already a story, as they are taken in order of exploration.

Your project should have been featured in the latest news instead of that "make a SKYRIM clone" anti-propaganda.

Also great work.



-Wolf

I`ll take that as a compliment.

But most of the WIPs that have been hoovering on top of this board would qualify for that. No Idea why this video was featured...

This is looking great Ertlov! Love the atmosphere and richness of the colors.

@Wolf, agreed. That video of "Skyrim Clone" was clickbait.

I agree 100%.



I agree again 100%.

I,m not being clever or anything,.......I just know good stuff when I see it.

Thanks!

Nice ambiance in that screen shot attachment.

I would just like to say I never did much with FPSC Classic myself, but I am well aware
of what you did and the games you made in it, despite it's obvious limitations and bugs,
I think you pushed FPSC Classic to it's limits, and I think you will do that again in GG,...
so I am always interested in seeing what you do,....so, all I can say is,....keep going sir.

PS,..what's the latest news about Antinomy ?, are you still working on it ?.

Yes!

Actually, all the Homegrown Team is working on Antinomy now, while I am finishing Father´s Island on my own.

Great. Still in Unreal Engine. ?



Any conflicts in the studio about that. lol.

oh, yes:





Actually, no. People are rather glad I am only supervising the Unreal 4 work, my skills trhere arent as good as theirs.

Its so pretty!!

Finally got transparency, reflection and refraction for the glass in the school´s doors right. Now let´s tackle the windows

Getting there!

I'm still up for beta when you're ready, and if you need some custom stuff as well.

With a major hindering issue fixed, we are now moving with huge steps towards our first steam-based Beta testing.



This tree is a good metaphore for the bug that blocked our way. But now it is gone

When moving towards the school structure...



...you will actually meet your Father, after whom the game and the island were named.
But you will not meet him as character (as he is long gone), but instead...



as a memory, a ghost from the past, haunting you as FMV overlayed VIDEO cutscene throughout the island.
Yes, we set a green screen up in our Homegrown Games office for that.

And, finally, our building´s windows and doors...



have received glass. Sometimes security glass, sometimes "milk glass", but all of that with proper coloring filters and proper behaviour regarding reflection and reflection:



And now you can compare this screenshot with exactly the same scene above and tell me the difference:

Lemme see if I can cover it-
*higher bloom or different lighting color
*removal of the entrance rug
*changed the left hand door
*added a wastebasket
* and most important of all, utilizing the new ambient lighting for corner shadows that Lee is implementing in the new release.

Correct!

However, I have to remove the flying rat, too

latest progress:

Is there anywhere to sign up for public beta testing? Or is it an internal beta?

I really like the feel of this. The initial music with the piano playing sets a great tone for the atmosphere.

Occasionally we send out internal builds to some of the forum members here to ask for feedback, but the Betas are still internal.

Day 5 of implementing the puzzles, hints and documents. Still a way to go.

...you're a handsome fellow Johan!

I like the constant progress on this... and of course that really well made technojunk in the video. Is that from Into the Ice ?

I for one will play this upon release.



-Wolf

Actually, some parts are still from Into the Dark. Some from the Industrial pack, some from Into the Ice.

But you are right, I have to make several passes to replace "non-fitting" assets with those working better within the world, visually speaking.

Today: The constant struggle of trying to fit the interiors light / coloring to the outdoor look of the game, without baking. Turns out my level is far too big for meaningful lightmap baking.
Ah, and some experiments with the flashlight. This one didn't turn out that well.

you kinda look like johnny knoxville on the passport pic!

And even more insane!

Totally on my wavelength Ertlov some brilliant stuff loving the atmos on those screenies i'll be watching and if you need a hand just shout