New map for part 1 of the final chapter!

This week I was working on the map that connects all the rooms in the final episode of the game (at least in part 1, since parts 2 and 3 don't use a map). Although I always consider this task to be fundamental at the beginning of development, as I try to get into the writing of the narrative and dialogs, this time most of the rooms were already finished and placed in the game when I started thinking about their geographical location. The reason for this decision is that I was still unclear to me  how the characters would travel between the southern part of the city (chapters 1 and 2) and the northern part (chapter 3), or if they would do so more than once throughout the game.

After the (recently made) decision not to make this story another one that ends up being a hoax, dream, drug-induced coma, etc., and this way return to its beginnings as an entirely science fiction story with touches of humor, these doubts disappeared.

There will be no travel between zones for the charcaters!

This new decision led to certain changes in the general map of the city, moving the docks to the northern part (update for maps in chapters 1 and 2 still pending) in order to give our heroes a reason to actually go there in the first place and also exaggerating the distances between both parts so that trip back is unthinkable. 

This way, I can refresh the setting and give the player a much-needed sense of progress.

Speaking of the map, it should be noted that, as I mentioned earlier in X, all of these places that the player has visited in chapters 1 and 2 and will visit during the first part of chapter 3 actually exist or have existed in my hometown (with the exception of the comic book store where it all begins) and have only been slightly modified in terms of their geographical location and layout (some are or were much larger or smaller in size and/or number of rooms than the originals) to facilitate the development of the story. 

This last point makes it extremely difficult to put together the layout of a map, and if I had to start over, I would do it 100% top-down (Thimbleweed Park style) instead of the slight tilt it currently has.

Although I think it turned out pretty well! 😎

And returning to the subject of the story, going back to the origins allows me to think again about interesting puzzles that return to the dynamic of discovering a great conspiracy (as in chapter 1). I always thought of this story as a mix between Armada (a book by Ernest Cline) and Space Balls (a 1987 movie), or what Space Quest would be like if it were made by LucasFilms Games instead of Sierra On-line.

Anyway, the map is ready and the rooms are starting to connect with each other...

Til next post!

Tiba

The Truck Conundrum.

When I began developing the third chapter of Stellar Mess, I wanna do it in a different location than the one I used for the first and second chapters. Anyone following the story will know that, although Diego and company have found the princess (her coordinates), they have not yet rescued her and therefore remain in the same city where it all began. 

Speaking of “the city where it all began,” I'll take the liberty of assuming that the reader remembers the first text of the first chapter, which indicated that these events take place in 1991 somewhere in Patagonia, Argentina. Well, for those who haven't yet put two and two together, that “place in Patagonia, Argentina” is based on my hometown, so you can imagine that I know its geographical layout very well. 

Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut, Argentina) is divided by important geographical features, including Cerro Chenque (which means “cemetery” or “grave” in the Tehuelche language of the original inhabitants), which splits the city into two areas, north and south, with the southern area being the setting for the first two chapters.

Analyzing this and considering the amount of liberties I took when designing the map of the southern part of the city, I decided to move the third and final chapter to the northern part, also modifying it just enough to enhance the game's narrative.

Once I had decided this, the writing progressed steadily until I realized that I needed a starting point that would also serve as a connection between both parts of the city. Focusing my mind on how things looked here in 1991, I decided that this point would be a certain monument featuring a truck from a well-known oil company in the area after a serious traffic accident (completely wrecked). The monument was placed there in 1961 by the city's Rotary Club affiliate to raise awareness among drivers about the dangers of traffic accidents in that section of the road.

Everything seemed to be taking shape, but another problem arose, a doubt in fact, about the color of the truck. The (extremely scarce) photographic record of it only showed the last iterations it had gone through (white and yellow) until its removal after a large landslide in 2003 that took part of the road and ended up ruining the monument (even more).

As I usually do when something like this happens,  I turned to my friends to only to realize that we couldn't agree among ourselves either. After some discussion on the matter, an idea struck me... 

Noting that some of us remembered it as green, red, yellow, white, or even sometimes more than one color, and considering that this change occurred very often (perhaps to justify some expense that exceeded the city's budget), I decided that every time our characters go to this place, the truck will be painted a random color taken from among the colors mentioned above.

Anyway,

If you've made it this far, I imagine you're wondering why I'm telling you all these details, and the answer is because I not only want to leave a record of how important this game is to me on a personal and nostalgic level, but also because I want to share the way in which I have made some decisions that, when playing the video game, may not be entirely clear to those who did not live in Comodoro Rivadavia in said years.

I hope you enjoyed this possibly unnecessary information😝 

Til next post!