Crafting Somewhere VIII news

from the diary of the protagonist

Kayamgadh 1953

It rained. And Kayamgadh was created.

The city was born of nothingness and it’s existence was not wondered at. The people of Kayamgadh were born with it, they emerged from the rain, onto the washed streets of a city that was always there. They were born without a history and they had no wonder in them at the marvel of their existence or at the existence of their marvelous city.

They felt a simple pleasure when the rain blurred their faces, and when it blurred the outlines of their streets. But they never wondered.

In their books Kayamgadh was pictured unchanging, an unmoving bastion. And in their temples and murals Kayamgadh was always there, never to be wondered at. Their stories never told of the birth of Kayamgadh, and their poets never wondered at the beauty of their being.

In the multitude that lived and toiled within the walls of Kayamgadh there was a contentment. A faith in the perpetuity of their city. They knew that to think about the birth of Kayamgadh would be to question it’s eternal form. So they continued to stare through the rain, and marveled at nothing. Wondered at nothing.

And when the rain stopped they did not remember Kayamgadh in the rains, they could not recall the overflowing fountains, and the paper boats in the gutter. They could not remember the gust of moist wind and the desperate streaks of water on their window panes.

They would remember nothing.

And every time they looked upon their fair city, it was with the faith that only this was Kayamgadh. Unchanging. Born the very moment they would look upon it.

Somewhere is not an absolute story. It is an exploration of how the unchanging truth of Kayamgadh tears the reality of the people who are searching for it. It explores the painful process of disillusionment whilst looking through the lens of it’s most ardent believers.

Kayamgadh does not exist, but there are stories about it. Kayamgadh cannot be reached but people will travel and will try and reach Kayamgadh. Kayamgadh offers no answer, but people will turn to it for salvation. And nobody can return from Kayamgadh because they were never there, but people will claim and even believe that they have been to Kayamgadh. And in doing so they will create a city of their own, a city that would truly be a city of storytellers. An untruth, yes. But no less real to the believer, than the actual city. The one that does not exist.

Gubble ( our current build ) is an exploration of these themes. But most of all it is an exploration of the act of creating an illusion. A magic trick. And exploration of how the storyteller might realise the myth, he most firmly believes in. and how one might create out of absolute nothingness, something marvelous. Like the city of Kayamgadh.

Images in this post are from a single room. A chamber within the Sarai ( resthouse ) where the game is set. This room forms a fulcrum around which the player navigates the smaller personal spaces of the individual characters.

There have been several additions to the programing of ai, addition to the core stealth mechanics and an increase in the complexity of behaviors that individual characters are capable of. These are invisible changes, that are best explained while playing or perhaps through a comprehensive video. I will upload one such demonstration in the next update.

We have also been experimenting with textures. Here there is a deliberate shift from the bold flat pallet previously explored in fictions to a broadly painted but somewhat detailed imagery. We are still getting used to the process so the screens are very much a work in progress.

We are also implementing a simple interface that would allow the player to look into cupboards, storage spaces and read books or letters.

Also a brief announcement !

We are looking for an animator who could help with crafting, rigging and animating the characters for the game. We have been working with a rather simple humanoid so far, and a set of rudimentry animations. But we now really need at least three or four of the game characters turned into finely crafted, simple and distinct animated-people.

If you are interested in working with us get in touch at : oleomingus(a)gmail.com

And finally if you like our work follow us on our Tumblog or Twitter and help us spread the word.