Dev Blog

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted un update, so I would like to write about what we’ve been up to since the release of chapter 2, and also a little bit about chapter 3 and how it’s been going.

So, chapter 2 was released on September 18, 2016, and the following weeks were dedicated to reading comments, bug fixing and small improvements. After that, I presented my game at a few conferences, including “Game In” festival and “Casual Connect” in Tel Aviv, which also took some work, plus, brought on more fixes and improvements that came up while watching people playing the game.

After that, I took some time off for some very needed rest. The last 4 months of development were very intense, and the release was super stressful. It took a while until I felt as if I could start working on the next chapter.

Then, when I felt a little bit more ready, I took out my notebook and started, slowly, to write down some ideas for the chapter. I do have a skeleton of the plot for each chapter, but I had to dive in and write down dialogues, puzzles, and to expend the details and histories of the characters. It takes a while until ideas start to flow more naturally, but I think the thing that was slowing me down the most was the question of which engine I should use for my next chapter. Chapters 1 and 2 were developed with Flash, and I really like this program, it’s comfortable and I know it very well, but I was starting to understand that, for many reasons, I might have to switch to another engine. I didn’t know which one, and I was dreading having to learn a new program and a new programming language, so this question pretty much paralyzed me for some time.

It was especially hard for me since I am not a programmer. I am a game artist by profession, and my programming skills are quite basic. I enjoy programming, and I am getting better with time, but I am missing a lot of knowledge when it comes to deciding which engine would be ideal for me and for my game. So I had to consult a lot of programmers, who gave me different answers, and eventually I decided on Unity, because it has a big community, and I understood it was a relatively comfortable engine with the capability of exporting to different platforms.

So I started to learn Unity for the past few weeks, and I really like the engine so far. I have a programmer friend who is teaching me not only how to use the program, but also how to build the engine for the game in the most efficient way (certainly more efficient than the way I was building it), so I’m sure that it will help me implement the content faster, when the engine is done.

So, I am optimistic, thought I can’t say yet exactly how long it will take until the chapter is done and released.

Thank you for your patience, and here’s a little teaser from the beginning of chapter 3, which is going to be a flashback to a few weeks before the events of the game started, when llehctiM was found by geM and Stella at the abandoned asylum:

Thank you for reading!

Stav

 

 

 

Hello everyone,

Since some of you have requested a walkthrough, I made one, hope it helps.

 

The Splitting: chapter 2 – Walkthrough

After the opening scene, head up for the local pub.

At the pub entrance, pick up a blanket from the trunk of the car.

Enter the pub. Collect the key from the wall, on the upper left side of the screen.

If you enter the toilets, Daniel will say that there are too many people there, and he can’t go through the mirror like that.

Enter the dissolved kitchen (remember, we are in the mirror world). Pick up a piece of goo from the old pot, and a rusty fork from the table.

Use the key to open the door to the storeroom. Enter the storeroom. You don’t have to anything there yet, just stand there for a second, then get out.

In the pub will appear a water can on one of the table. Press “pick up”, and Daniel will accidentally spill the water on the reflection sitting there. The reflection will then get cold, asking to turn off the air conditioner. Daniel will then learn that feeling can pass from reflections to their real selves.

Go to the storeroom again, and then pass through the mirror into the real storeroom, and put the fork in the vent.

Then go to the pub again, and cover the wet reflection with a blanket. He will then ask for the air conditioner to be turned on again. The fork stuck in there will make a noise and the bartender will decide to call a technician.

Go to the storeroom, and press “pick up” on the technician reflection’s tool box. Daniel will take a wrench from there.

Go through the mirror to the real storeroom and open the pipe using the wrench. Then put the goo in the pipe, clogging it.

Go to the toilets (in the mirror world). They are empty now. Pass through the mirror to the real toilets, where Daniel will see (and smell) the flood that he caused. Now you can proceed to the real bus stop and catch the bus from there.

   

You arrive at the asylum. Daniel needs to find llehctiM, who’s inside the abandoned building in the mirror world. Go up and the right. between the two buildings you’ll find a stone. pick it up. Go further right, until you reach the edge of the abandoned building (the grey one with the vines on it). There you’ll find a window with no planks on it. Use the stone to break the window, then enter.

   

Now you’ve reached “the maze”. On the bed you’ll find a map. Take it – it will fill itself with information as you go along. In the first room, open the closet and enter through the mirror. When you arrive at the mirror room, close the closet door. It will dissolve the room, and an opening will appear in the top wall.

   

Now you’ll arrive to a room with a revolving mirror. rotate it to restore the room, then open the dresser and pick up a key. Use it to open the top door. In this room, there’s a small table with a tablecloth and a vase on it. Pick up the tablecloth, and Daniel will accidentally break the vase (so clumsy!). Use the tablecloth to cover the mirror. The room will dissolve, and the locked dresser on the top right will lose a door, allowing you to pick up the silver key inside. When you take the tablecloth back and restore the room, Daniel will discover that the tablecloth and the vase are back to the way they were before he broke it. Looks like when you uncover a mirror, the room resets to the way it is in the real world.

Go back to the room with the revolving mirror. Rotate the mirror again and dissolve the room. An opening will appear on the right, and you’ll arrive at a corridor. Go to the door on the bottom right, and use the silver key to open it.

You’ll arrive at a janitor’s room. There are shelves with cleaning fluid on them. Pick it up. Cover the mirror and go through the opening on the top. There is a mirror there, covered with mould, which you need to clean up in order to pass through. Go back down and pick up the tablecloth again. You’ll notice the cleaning fluid came back. Use the pocket knife you have in your inventory to cut a piece of the tablecloth, then combine the small piece with the cleaning fluid. Cover the mirror again, then go back to the room with the mouldy mirror and clean the mirror with the cloth piece, but you’ll find out that there isn’t enough fluid to clean the whole mirror. You’ll have to do back down, restore the room, take the duplicated fluid and then do this process again. Now the mirror is clean and you can pass through.

   

You’ll arrive to the real room, and in the corridor you’ll find an old, heavy book. Pick it up. Go up and then enter the room to the left. There is a wardrobe there with a bench next to it. On the closet appears to be some sort of handle, but you can’t reach it. Place the book on the bench, but you’ll see it’s not enough to climb and reach the top of the wardrobe.

 

Now this part is a little tricky. You need to pass through the wardrobe mirror to the mirror room, then “reset” the room (close and open the wardrobe), in order to duplicate the book. Now you can pick up the book here and place it on the real bench again. Now when you reset the mirror room there will be 2 books on the bench. You need to repeat the process once more, since 3 books are enough to climb and reach the top of the wardrobe. The handle will open the green door on the left. In the mirror room, it will open the green door on the right.

Now, go to the mirror room with the wardrobe and pass through the green door. You’ll arrive to a dissolved office with a broken dresser. Pick up the gold key from there. If you try to open the real office door with it, Daniel will tell you this is the mirror key. You need to create the real key, using the mirror one you have.

   

Put the mirror key on the key hanger in the real room. When you go to the mirror room and reset it (by closing and opening the wardrobe), the key will duplicate, and appear as the real key on the mirror key hanger. Now you can open the real office door.

After coming out of the office, you will arrive at a big, empty hall. Congratulations, you finished the maze part!

   

Go through the mirror, and there you’ll meet llehctiM, who will introduce you to geM, and her community. They will talk about Dorian, a mysterious guy who’s supposed to arrive later and help llehctiM find Mitchell. After geM leaves, go to the to top door on the right, where you’ll find llehctiM. Ask him about Dorian, and he’ll tell you he’s an ex detective. Go back to the main hall, then up to the corridor. visit the 6 guest rooms:

Upper corridor:

1) The room on the left is locked.

2)the room on the right has a suitcase in it. Look at the suitcase and Daniel will pick up fingerprint powder from there. He will suspect this suitcase belongs to Dorian, but he can’t prove it.

   

Lower Corridor:

1) The upper room on the left is your room. llehctiM’s bag is in there. There’s nothing you need from this room.

 

2) The upper room on the right is geM’s room. talk to her and learn about this place.

3) The lower room on the left is Stella’s room. talk to her about herself and her research. you’ll learn she arrived to this place following a case that she was never able to solve. Take the recorder from the shelves in her room.

4) The lower room on the right is an empty room, take the hanger inside the small wardrobe.

Now go out of the building. When you are at the entrance, look at the blood stain. Then go left. You’ll find a redhead man sitting on a bench. Talk to him. You’ll find his name is miJ and he wants you to help him free his twin, Jim. Keep talking to him until he asks for help and leaves the screen. Then go to the asylum in the mirror world (the pink building), and you’ll meet miJ there. He’ll give you a small key. Use it to open the closet. The room will restore itself when you do.

    

You’ll need to get the access card to the staff room. If you just take the receptionist’s reflection’s access card you won’t be able to leave the room, because it can potentially hurt the reflection. So you’ll need to take the card, and then reset the room (by closing and opening the closet), and the the card will be duplicated, and you’ll be able to leave the room with it.

In order to go up to the lobby, you’ll need to buzz yourself in using the phone near the receptionist’s reflection (it’s only available when the room is not dissolved). You’ll arrive at the asylum lobby. go to the top door on the left, and use the access card on the card reader. Now you’ll enter the mirror staff room.

There are 2 nurses in the staff room. You need to get them both out so you can pass through the mirror and find Jim. Take the sandwich from the one on the right. It will make her leave the room and go to take a snack from the vending machine. Take the broom from the shelves on the top left. Take a glass of water from the water cooler.

When you go to the reception you will hear the reflections of the receptionist and the nurse talking. They’ll talk about the TV which keeps blacking out, and about the fact they need to lift the fuse back all the time.

Combine the broom with the hanger that you got in the empty guest room. Go to the asylum mirror back room (the one with all the boxes). Use the new device you made on the mirror in order to retrieve the real key from the real back room.

   

When you arrive at the reception again, you’ll hear the reflections talk about a bunch of old files sitting in the back room. If you’ll go there, Daniel will think Stella’s lost patient might be in there  in them, but he must have more information, since there are too many files to go through.

Now, go to the real world reception, then out to the asylum entrance. Turn left and you’ll arrive at the fuse box. Use the key to open it, then use the fingerprint powder in order to discover which fuse is used the most. The TV then will be turned off and the nurse will have to come out and fix it. Now the staff room is empty.

   

Go through the mirror into the real staff room, and then to the real lobby, where you’ll find Jim. He won’t respond to you. You’ll need to go to miJ, recored his voice using Stella’s voice recorder, and then play the recording to Jim. This will make him trust you and he will come with you to the other side. There you’ll meet miJ and they will leave together.

   

After miJ leaves, his room in geM’s community will be open (the left one in the upper corridor). Go inside the room and look at the painting. Make sure you previously talked to Stella about a lost patient she was looking for, who lived in this asylum more than a 100 years ago. He was a painter, and this painting belonged to him. The painting will give you information about the year he painted it, and also his initials.

Now you can go to the asylum back room in the mirror world, and find the file. Then go back and show it to Stella. She’ll get very excited and leave the room. Now you can look at her desk and find a picture of Dorian. Then Stella will come back and ask you to leave the room. When you go out of the room you’ll meet llehctiM, who will get mad at you for insisting on looking for Dorian.

   

Show the picture to the woman in the geM’s community lobby, standing next to the sofa. She’ll say she saw a man who looked like the picture, who was just leaving. He was heading for the bus stop, and maybe you can still catch him.

Go to the bus stop in the shadow world. You’ll find Dorian waiting for the bus. Talk to him, and then llehctiM will show up and convince him to reveal the information about Mitchell. llehctiM will go away, and Dorian will then have to leave, asking you to find geM and tell her about it.

Go up, and you’ll find a gardener’s reflection, trimming the bushes. Go to the real world asylum entrance, and put the tuna sandwich you picked up earlier in the cat bowl. The cat will show up and start eating. Go inside the reception and pick up the blanket he was sitting on.

Go now to the asylum entrance in the mirror world, and put the blanket on the gardener’s reflection. He will start sweating. Now go to the real world entrance, and you’ll see the real gardener is sweating over there too. Offer him a glass of water and he’ll gladly accept, putting down the garden shears. Now you can steal them from his reflection.

Now go to geM’s room. you’ll see it’s locked, and she’s not answering. You need to get to her twin room in the real world, and access her room from there. Go to the abandoned wing main lobby (the empty room with all the chairs), and cut the wire fence using the shears. Now go to geM’s twin room (you can use the map to find it, just press M).

    

In her twin room, open the closet, and go in through the mirror. Look at her desk, and you’ll find out she has a twin who’s a patient in the asylum. Go to the mirror asylum, and enter the patient rooms corridor. There you’ll find geM talking to Meg, her twin, and the ending scene will begin.

* THE END *

    

 

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the game 🙂

Stav

 

Hello everyone,

After a year and a half of hard work, we are very happy and proud to release the 2nd chapter of The Splitting!

You can play it on our website

On Game Jolt

We really hope you enjoy the game 🙂

Stav

 

 

Hi everybody,

So… I know, the chapter hasn’t been released yet, but I’m happy to update that it’s already at the playtesting stage, which means it’s actually very close to being released. It’s very exiting and scary for me, since I’ve been working on this game for the past year and a half, and now it’s coming out to the world.

People playing chapter 2 at the GameIS DevDay 

I believe that it will take 2-3 weeks for me to finish playtesting and fixing all the small and big issues that have come up. In the meantime I’m also working on a new website and on a trailer for the game. I still don’t have a specific release date for the 2nd chapter, but I believe I will soon.

Anyway, thank you for your patience. We’re almost there.

Stav

Hi everyone,

I haven’t posted in a while, so here’s an update for the current state of “The Splitting: Chapter 2” –

Right now the expected release of Chapter 2 is around the end of June. I really wanted it to come out around April / May, but it has been taking longer than I thought, and I’m sorry for that.

Why is it taking longer than expected? It’s mainly because my original schedule was really optimistic. I thought it would take something between 4-5 months, like the first chapter, and it turned out to be about twice as much.

Of course, I knew from the beginning this chapter was going to be bigger, but I thought that since I already had the basic code structure and the graphic style, plus most of the gameplay choices were already made, It was going to save me some time. Well, it did save some time, but not nearly as the work that was added.

It’s not only that Chapter 2 is, like, three times bigger the Chapter 1, and this is the first time for me working on such a (relatively) big game . It’s also because planning chapter 2 meant to also plan ahead and think about the next 3 chapters (There are going to be 5 chapter in total), and how the whole story turns out.

When working on the first chapter I didn’t have a solid skeleton of the plot, just a vague idea of the storyline, the characters and the ending. I basically knew what I needed to know in order to make a first chapter and to plant some clues. The reason for that was that Chapter 1 was sort of a “pilot” for the game, and I didn’t know if there was even gonna be a second one, so I didn’t want to sit and plan 5 of them. But after the first chapter was released, and I decided to continue the game, I knew I didn’t want to move forward before I build the whole story, and it took a while.

Another reason I think this chapter takes more time is that there’s more planning involved. There are some new mechanics which make some of the puzzles more complicated, and I wanted the player to get to know these mechanics very gradually. Also the plot is a bit more complicated. More characters are introduced, and I had to think about their relationship with the main character, as well as with one another.

Mostly, I just want this chapter to be as good as it can be, and I try not to rush it, even though I really want it to be out already. I believe by now the chapter is 90% done, and in about a month of hard work it will be 100% done.

And finally, I wanted to thank the people who showed interest in the 2nd chapter over the past few months, your comments are really what gives me the motivation to keep going. So, thank you.

And here’s a glance at the 2nd chapter 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Stav

Hi everyone,

It’s been 10 months since I’ve published Chapter 1, and I wanted to dedicate a post to the issues I have fixed during this time, after reading people’s comments and watching them play. I am currently working on chapter 2, but still find myself going back to chapter 1 pretty often to improve it.

Since the game was released I have been fixing little issues here and there – small bugs, missing animations – but there is a more serious issue that I have to deal with in the long term – People get stuck. A lot. It happens for two main reasons. The first one is that sometimes the puzzles are too difficult or counter-intuitive for some people, and the second one is that the progression in the game is not always clear, and people kinda get lost. Especially in the beginning.

So, I know It’s not possible for the difficulty level to be perfect for everybody, since people have different skills and different levels of experience with adventure games, but still, I would like my game to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. I didn’t want to make the puzzles easier, but I still wanted many people to succeed, so I decided to add a hint system. t was important to me that it would be integrated within the game world, so I tried the model of  Primordia, a game by  Wadjet Eye Games, which I really love. In that game you are a robot and have a small Sidekick drone who follows you around. You can speak to him whenever you want, and if you address him a few times in a row he will start dropping hints and suggestions that help you progress. I thought something like this could be a good fit, since llehctiM already kinda follows you around anyway (in the mirror world), so I added an “I’m not sure what to do next”option in the dialogue, and when you choose it, llehctiM will give you a hint. That way people who are struggling can consult llehctiM, and people who aren’t can just keep playing without ever asking for help. This system also functions as a reminder, for players who came back to the game after a long time, or maybe weren’t paying attention at some point, and are now not sure what they were supposed to do next.

Primordia

So, I assumed this would solve the problem, but about 2 months ago I was showing my game at a conference, and I got to see people playing the game. This was the first time I saw complete strangers sit down and play my game, and it was a hard experience, since it didn’t go very well for some of them. What I discovered during that time was that many of the players didn’t even get to the point of passing to the mirror world. They would just go out of the bedroom and start wandering around the apartment, and pretty soon get frustrated that nothing is happening and give up. One of the reasons was that passing through the mirror was a 2 stages process – first you can look at it and discover Daniel’s reflection is gone. Then, a “touch” action is added to the action list, allowing you to touch the mirror, and then, after Daniel’s hand passes through it, he will decide to walk in. What actually happened is that the players looked at the mirror once, and then went to look at other things. Only a few of them interacted with the mirror for a second time. I didn’t really anticipate it, since I thought that Daniel’s reflection disappearing would be a good enough reason for people to stay interested in the mirror, but apparently it was not.

So, I ended up uniting these two actions – Now, when you “look at” the mirror, Daniel will look at it, try to touch it, and then walk through it. Everything will happen automatically and you won’t have to interact with the mirror twice.

This only solves a part of the problem, since some people don’t even look at the mirror to begin with, they just go out of the room and start looking around the apartment. A possible solution would be preventing Daniel from leaving his bedroom until he looks in the mirror, but I’m still not sure about it, since I wanted the players to take a look around the real apartment before passing to the mirror one,  so that later they’ll have a point of reference. 

At a second conference, a few weeks later, I brought an improved version of the game, now with the united mirror interactions, but I discovered that even though most people would now get to the point of entering the mirror, they still didn’t always get to the room where they meet llehctiM. Some of them would “miss” the study room and wander to other rooms, and again I had to stand there, watching them getting lost and frustrated. So, I added a hint to aim players at the right direction. Now, when entering the rooms adjacent to the study room, Daniel will say “I think I hear noises from the mirror study room.” to let the player know there’s something important there. I also added reoccurring doorbell rings, that remind the player that Becky is at the door (after the conversation with llehctiM is over).

I think that what I learned is that I can’t take for granted that people would go where I think they would go, and that constant guidance is required. I also learned that there always should be a chance to be reminded of what you’re supposed to do. I hope that the game is better and less frustrating now, but I’m sure there’s still a ton of stuff to be fixed. I’m still working on it, and as always I really appreciate all feedback from players.

Thank you for reading!

Stav