Dev Blog

Hello everyone, and happy new year!

I wanted to give you an update to let you know where we are in the development, since I really wanted to release the chapter by now, but unfortunately, it’s gonna take longer than that.

First, we are very sorry that we couldn’t get to the point of release just yet. We are working very hard on this chapter, and we really want it to be interesting and good, so we prefer not to rush it.

Game development can get really tricky, we feel like the more this chapter is materialising, the more work is being added. It’s both a good thing – since the world is getting richer in content – and a bad thing – since it adds more work time.

The good news is that recently it became possible to play the chapter from beginning to end (minus a few puzzles that are still missing), so we have a more solid concept of the length, flow and rhythm of the chapter.

Most importantly, I now have a fuller image of the chapter in my head, and a better understanding of what the story needs in terms of puzzles, dialogues and atmosphere.

So I really hope that I can give a new release date very soon. I think that in a few months it will be ready for playtesting, which is very exciting for us.

Another topic I wanted to talk about is Adobe Flash. As you know the format is no longer supported, so the 1st and 2nd chapter are no longer available.

What we decided to do long ago is to rebuild the 1st and 2nd chapters in Unity, so when the 3rd chapter is out, they will all be available to play.

The 2nd chapter has already been built, but we still have to build the 1st chapter. I believe it will take a month, but this will also delay the 3rd chapter’s release, So I’m sorry for that. I’m planning to start working on the 1st chapter when the 3rd chapter enters playtesting, to save time.

Thank you very much for reading!

Have a great year, and we’ll be back with a new update really soon.

Stav & Yakier

Hello everyone,

A quick update. Still working on chapter 3, still hoping to release somewhere around December 2020.

a few days ago I decided to remove a small slice of the chapter, since I decided it is not good enough to be there – from both the story and the puzzle perspective. It took some courage, and I lost a lot of work, but I finally did it, and I feel a lot better about the flow of the chapter now.

There was one good puzzle in there (which I feel was too complicated for this part of the chapter anyway), that I will implement later in the chapter, or in future chapters, since I don’t wanna let it go entirely.

So, for now, About 90% of the art is finished, and 70% of the puzzles, and for now things are going well.

Here are some new cat animations from Yakier:

Thank you for reading!

Stav & Yakier

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since we updated.
We are still working diligently on the 3rd chapter, and it’s going well.
We have about 80% of the art and 50% of the puzzles, and now we mainly focus on implementing content into the game and creating the remaining puzzles.

Puzzles are hard work and they take time, but it’s important to us to spend as much time as we need on the puzzles, and make them fun and challenging, as well as unique to the world and story of the chapter.

Yakier has created some beautiful animations –

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Here are some WIP graphics –

Right now we are aiming for the chapter’s release in December 2020.
We really hope we can make it. The chapter is going really well and we’re optimistic.

Thank you for reading!

Stav & Yakier

Hello everyone,

I’m Yakier, the animator who’s working on “The Splitting: Chapter 3” for the past couple months.

Recently I’ve been working on a new animation for the adorable cat who lives at the asylum.

The original running loop is cute and minimalistic, it fits well with the rest of the motion in chapter 2 – 

However, as the cat is tasked with additional roles in the upcoming chapter, his animation needed to be more lively and dynamic. I turned it into this –

This is the final result –

After studying references (basically watching cat videos for a while), I realised the original sprite had done most of the work – the leg motion already matched that of a real cat on the run.

The main thing I had to do was to add weight – make it seem like the cat is pushing himself up and forward with each step. I achieved it by simply taking each frame and splitting the picture into 2 segments, then shifting their position a pixel or two at the time, to match the motion the legs dictated.

I treated the head as a segment of its own and used it to enhance the natural wave motion that cats are creating in their run. Technically speaking, The head is the first segment to rise (by a single pixel) when the hind legs kick, this creates an offset in the animation that leads the entire wave motion.

The tail was actually the only thing drawn from scratch. It was drawn by hand at the end of the process – being a reaction to the body’s motion, a very essential flair in animation.

Still only 5 frames long, a few minor adjustments can breath a few extra lives into the cat.

When the cat runs upwards and downwards is where things get trickier, but that may be the subject to another post.

Thank you all for reading!

Yakier

Hello Everyone,

A little update from our production of The Splitting: Chapter 3 –

For the past two months we’ve been working from home, due to the CoronaVirus threat. Apart from the stress of the entire situation, working from home was even fun at first, but after a few weeks we started missing the world outside.

Recently the situation here started to show some improvement, and some of the restrictions became looser. We can now go to work in a limited capacity, so we decided to start getting out of the house. We went back to working from a co-working space for game developers, and we’re feeling much more productive.

I (Stav) have made some real progress in the development of the plot and puzzles for this chapter, and it is almost done. I have also implemented a lot of content into the game, and made some new graphics, with only a few more rooms left to design.

Yakier has made some amazing new animations, which most of them I consider to be spoilers so I will post only one of them.

We plan on having a meeting in a few days, in order to determine an approximate release date for the chapter. A formal release date will be soon to follow.

Here are some new art and animations.

Well, this is it for now. Hope to post another update real soon.

Thank you for reading!

Stav

Hello Everyone,

I know it’s been too long since I last updated. I will start updating more frequently from now on.

First of all, These are scary times, and I hope you all stay safe and well.

Secondly – an update on the state of the 3rd chapter. Yes, it’s been too long since I have started working on it, there had been some setbacks, but in the past few months I’m working pretty intensively on it, and I am quite optimistic. I really hope that in a few weeks we’ll have a release date, and maybe in a few months the chapter will be ready.

So, a few exciting updates:

We have a new member on our team – Yakier Bunker.

He is an artist and animator, and since he joined two weeks ago, he managed to add some awesome animations, but also to significantly raise my motivation. It had been very hard working alone on the game, with no one to share development with, and working in a team has really given life to this process. I have someone to consult with, get feedback from, and brag to when I solve serious bugs.

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Also, I recently discovered that “The Splitting” has a page on TV Tropes!
It’s super exciting for me, to see someone took the time to play the game and analyse it, and put it into word. Plus, I discovered some tropes I didn’t know were in there 🙂

Lastly – some new graphics I’ve been working on lately –

I also invite you to follow us at Facebook and Twitter, where you can get more updates.

Thank you for reading!

Stav