Some things start with a happy little accident. That was actually the case with the idea behind Futurust, escpecially it's artstyle. I was reading Fables for Robots by Stanislaw Lem (great book by the way) when I knocked over my coffee mug. The beverage spilled all over the book, resulting in black stains, which added a bit of watery flavor to the primarily black and white illustrations.



That's why I decided to use hand drawn watercoloured illustrations in Futurust. After I stopped mourning my coffee, I mean. I find this artstyle complements perfectly the industrial setting full of steampunk gadgets and gizmos. It adds a subtle charm to the metallic, aging scenery teeming with rust.



Also - fun fact! ...I use coffee instead of water when filling in my drawings. I wanted to make the most of the accidental spill, and I discovered that coffee adds a bit of shadowy depth to the colors and helps to imitate rust, which is great. And it also smells nice when the paintings dry, so it's a win-win situation.



As for the designs, my inspiration comes... straight from my job. I work in heavy industry, so I have a lot of opportunities to snoop around for cool looking things involving machinery, cables and all the fun stuff. I'm also in love with the polish kids’ show “Mami Fatale”. The team behind it - Grupa Smacznego - explores, through their artstyle, themes of industrial development coexisting with nature.



That's all for today! I hope you've enjoyed this little insider look at the origins of Futurust's artstyle. If you like it, please add Futurust to your Steam wishlist to be up to date with all the important announcements! 

Enjoy your coffee, as I enjoy painting with mine!

Once upon a time there was a peaceful village. Then, one day, the peace turned into dreadful silence as the terrible fate struck the villagers. A mysterious illness made all residents fall asleep except for a little boy. The young fellow ventures forth into the darkness to meet Lady Death who is said to possess powers than can cure the village.

Are you willing to help him survive? Check the new gameplay trailer to see what dangers await on your journey. 

If you find this interesting, please add Dream Alone to your Steam wishlist to be up to date with upcoming announcements about the game!

Written by Dominik Gąska for Fat Dog Games



For Paweł Brągoszewski, a co-founder of WarSaw Games and one of the creators of Dream Alone, working in the gaming industry was a lifelong dream. And yet it would take him over a decade, a failed attempt and the perfect mixture of luck and persistence to realize it.

Dream big

Seeing WarSaw Games as a studio of first-timers may be a surprise when you look back at Paweł’s history. “It was around 2006, while working at Polish video games magazine GameStar, that I got to know Jacek Komuda and Maciek Jurewicz, two established screenwriters who had worked on a well-known Polish mod for Neverwinter Nights and the first Witcher game,” Paweł tells me. He quickly takes a few steps back to add that what had eventually come of their involvement with the first Witcher is unknown to him. What is important is that the experience and know-how was already there.
Along with this know-how, was a bold vision. “It’s a funny tale, actually, because we got Painkiller’s engine from Adrian Chmielarz to toy around with to our hearts’ content. Jacek just reached out to him and Adrian gave us the thing on a CD, saying something along the lines of: sure guys, do whatever, we’ll figure out the licensing terms when you start selling it,” Paweł reminisces, laughing. The idea was to come up with a strong concept, a flashy demo and present it to publishers with hopes of getting the funding.
The game called Lost Adventures was supposed to be a first person shooter in a diesel-punk setting. The elevator pitch? Tomb Raider meets The Mummy movie series. Underground ruins, scary enemies and fun action to top it off. You wouldn’t expect anything less from the game based on the Painkiller’s engine. Apparently, that wasn’t enough.
“We worked on Lost Adventures for over six months and we were very happy with the demo, but I think finding a publisher for an indie Polish project was nearly impossible at that time,” Paweł says. And so the dream would have to be shelved for a long while.



Dream small
After this head-on collision with reality Paweł started working as a mobile apps developer. But the dream of making a video game stayed with him. It was then when Paweł met Tomek Róziecki, another experienced programmer who shared his love of the medium. Unsurprisingly, the two started using their daytime job experience to try and break into the mobile gaming market.
“Back then we treated working on iOS games more like a fun after hours activity,” Paweł explains. “It was all small stuff, really. The App Store was just starting to get traction back then and we didn’t even think about making any kind of money. We just wanted to see how all of this worked. Seeing people having fun with our creations was all the compensation we needed.”
But what a different mobile games market it was! Paweł estimates that his games from that time reached around 600-800 thousand users without him even trying very hard. Back then just being on the App Store would get the developers exposure unlike anything they could hope for today. Reaching those kinds of numbers now with Dream Alone would make the game’s creators extremely happy.



Dream together
It wasn’t before the third WarSaw Games co-founder, Paweł Flanc, joined the team that their dreams of creating a full-blown PC game resurfaced. Tomek knew him as a music producer as he had worked with him on two hip-hop albums in the past. Flanc had also been doing graphic design as his main line of work for years. It seemed like he was the perfect person to bring to the table and just what the team needed - artistic sensibilities.
The three of them started bouncing ideas off of each other around November of 2016. It started, as it usually does, with a bunch of pub meet ups and beer-fueled conversations. “It was all pretty chilled at the start. We all knew we wanted to create something game related. Nothing big, just to dip our toes in the water and see how we do,” Paweł recalls with a smile. “And if we could find someone to invest a few zlotys to keep us motivated to finish the thing, then all the better.”
A few moths later the full vision of the game had formed, followed quickly by its first playable version. Before the summer of 2017, the team signed the publishing deal with Fat Dog Games. After over a decade of trying, everything would happen in the space of around 8 months.
“The actual work, when we stopped talking about the vision and changing things up, began at the end of April. It’s all still very fresh,” Paweł says. Now he realizes how crazy this process sounds to someone on the outside.



Dream Alone
Part of the team’s success in creating the game so fast comes from them their logical choice of genre. Choosing a puzzle platformer may seem like an obvious route to take on the surface, but in reality it allowed the developers to express themselves and come up with some crazy, innovative ideas whilst staying in a predictable, familiar framework. The same goes for the plot and setting. The Burtonesque graphical style and the light horror atmosphere instantly capture the audience’s imagination, while leaving plenty of space for oohs and aahs.
“One of our base concepts is that of alternate realities. Every once in a while the player will get a power up that allows them to switch between two versions of the same level. The music will change, the graphics will change, but most importantly - the level’s layout may also change a bit, allowing the player to pass where previously the road was blocked,” Paweł explains.
Of course this is only one example, and with the game release set for early 2018 you can forgive the team for not wanting to spoil the surprise too much. It’s their dream project after all.

As a professional investigator, you can't rely on your personal experiences alone while documenting the paranormal activities occuring in Green Creek. Folks are leery when it comes to ghost sightings since they can't see the proof with their own eyes. It's quite understandable, considering the otherwordly character of the events you're trying to report.

But hey - it's the 21st century and technology is on your side! Thank heavens you were prudent enough to equip yourself with some useful gadgets that will help document abnormal and unusual activity. Taking pictures or recording videos is a necessity if you don't want to be called a fraud by all the sceptics. However, cameras are not the only useful tools in your backpack!

There are some instances where you really don't want to meet the apparition face to face. Some of the ghosts are really wicked, nasty and aggressive. Those are the moments when the tripod proves useful. You mount the camera, press the button and leave it for the night. The motion detection shutter will catch anything in view and you won't risk your life taking the picture. 
Oh, and have you ever thought about recording the Ouija board? You haven’t? No worries, next time just set up your tripod with the video camera on it. It will make an excellent proof of the otherworldly presence.

And always, always remember to carry your trusty recorder. You never know when the ghosts might decide to whisper some sweet nothings straight to your ears. Sweet, as in dead scary.

Brave enough to know more about Apparition? Add our game to your Steam wishlist to stay up to date with any important announcements.

Green Creek holds many deep, dark secrets. Our goal in Apparition is to bear witness and document any abnormal, paranormal or ghostly activities. We enter the haunted forest armed with an Ouija board – the forbidden, mystical tool which is said to enable one to speak with the dead. 

Let's think about it as a wooden phone reaching out and connecting us to the deceased and otherworldly. 



The Ouija board lets us ask about whatever we're trying to figure out at the moment. For example, if we're feeling lost, we can ask the dead, "Where am I?" If the particular spirit we have contacted doesn't come up with a satisfying answer, we can always say "Goodbye" and try to contact another. Perhaps the next one will prove himself more helpful in our investigation.



But beware! Communicating with the dead can be extremely dangerous. Ghosts are volatile entities and depending on our answers, ghosts can change their attitude towards you, which will have direct impact on the paranormal activities occuring around us. The more spirits get angry, the more spectral apparitions we‘ll see, and the anger intensifies other weird happenings as well.


Getting attacked by an invisible force after using the board

Annoying the spirits can become a useful tactic from a researcher's point of view, but for starters let's try to remember to always greet them with politeness.


Do you like this idea? Great! Please add Apparition to your Steam wishlist, so you can stay up to date with any announcements about our game!

It started like a typical morning. You woke up, didn't have time to eat breakfast and went to work, which you hate from the bottom of your heart – the usual stuff. Next, the boss was rude as expected, the co-workers dumb, and the only reedeming factor on the horizon was the usual bro meeting with Frank - with a lot of beer to forget about your lousy day. He came to your place at 7pm as usual, you killed a few bottles and had a laugh.

And now Frank is lying in a pool of blood in your living room, which is quite a concern. Sure, it was an accident - he just slipped on an empty bottle, cracked his head on the table and passed away instantly. It probably didn't hurt him too much - he was drunk as a lord. Sadly, no one will care it wasn't a murder, and you heard through the wall a few minutes ago that your neighbors called the police because the party was a bit too loud for their taste.



You need to hide the body ASAP. 

Body of Evidence may be recognized as an unusal "cat & mouse" game with a gory twist. It is a brutal puzzle game of sorts. In every scenario the player has to hide one or multiple bodies before the time runs out. When the countdown reaches zero, the investigator searches the crime scene for signs of foul play. Even a small bloodstain can put you in jail, so you have to be very thorough in cleaning up the mess.




There are multiple hiding spots on every level and it's up to you to figure out the best way to disguise the body. Pretending that he's sleeping may not be the greatest idea, so putting him under the bed or packing him in the wardrobe sounds a bit better. Maybe there's a lake near the crime scene or some conveniently placed acid barrel? Knowing your environment is the key to outsmarting the investigator.



Oh, and one more thing. You need to remember that moving bodies from one place to another isn't as easy as it seems. They're heavy and quite cumbersome. Also, the ones still bleeding make an awful mess while dragging them around. It's like trying to find a place for a really large and heavy ragdoll, if you know what I mean.



Ok, so now that you know a bit about advanced hiding mechanics, let's take care of poor Frank...


If you find this interesting, please add Body of Evidence to your Steam wishlist to be up to date with upcoming announcements about the game! 

Written by Michał Piwowarczyk for Fat Dog Games



There is a studio in Cracow, Poland, which is currently contemplating how to best hide a dead body in a gym and how much time it should take. Meet Empyrean.

Empyrean, a development team comprised of 17 people, is working on a game in which you conceal evidence of brutal crimes; you can experience the thrill of nearly getting caught while mopping up blood from the floor.
“We wanted to do something different this time - something not that serious, but still grounded in reality,” says Kris Krej, CEO of Empyrean. “People tend to get passionate about games. When we were developing football management MMO 90 Minute Fever, we had tens of players who spent more than 5000 hours in-game each. This time we wanted to try something different – a story driven game."
Overall, Empyrean seems to be walking a well-worn path for game developers. First, you learn the ropes by doing various projects for clients. Then, you start working on an idea that you really want to do, like Body of Evidence.
Body of Evidence is a first person game where players take on the role of a hired guy who tidies up rooms and other spaces as the bodies get cold after the dust settles. The game informs you of how much time you’ve got left before some undesirables show up at the door and start asking the wrong questions. From then on it’s just you, your wits and the environment which must be transformed from a crime scene to a clean, guilt-free place.



The anatomy of a crime (scene)
The idea for a crime scene game came to Krej naturally. “My dad is a policeman,” he says, “He couldn’t talk about his work, but for my sister and I, it sent our imaginations racing. BoE is a bit different from traditional crime solving, but it does stem from an interest in forensics - this, and naturally, the overabundance of crime motifs in popular culture.” And that's where the company’s collaborative approach kicks in. 
“The game is inspired by TV series like Dexter and characters like Mr. Wolf from Pulp Fiction. Each developer introduces something of their own into the mix. We gather in a single room and throw ideas around until something sticks. Then we pick the best concepts,” says Krej. Popular culture, with its decades of ready crime investigation material is an obvious point of reference for creating the game’s concept, but the team wants to venture deeper. There are plans for levels to be more directly inspired by the development team’s favorite shows and movies.
“You will be able to spot elements from Quentin Tarantino works like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, but we also feature motifs from American Psycho and John Wick. We are aiming at every 4th level having a strong wink-wink moment.”



Follow the blood
Once the theme for the level is set, the team starts to think about how to adapt it to the game mechanics, develops a leitmotif and prepares mission goals. The collaborative approach to the design also helps with this phase.
The levels differ in complexity and difficulty. Some of them consist of a single room with one body which needs to be dumped somewhere in 3 minutes with a bit of blood spatter on the wall which needs to be cleaned up, while other levels are much more complex. For example, there is a lake house where you have to follow a trail of blood to find the corpse lying under a tree.
“We have this idea to include a level where every developer can implement their own idea,” says Maciej Knot, the company’s marketing manager. “The lake house will be a trippy level. Its function will be to introduce an element of insanity to the story. There is a standard, sane way to finish the game, but depending on your choices on certain levels the story will branch out into a more psychotic version.”
The team's inspiration list is extensive, including such obvious choices like Mrs. Kaplan from The Blacklist or George Clooney’s “fixer” character in Michael Clayton, but also more obscure references, such as the 155th episode of Seinfield.



Giving it back
Krej knows that such a collaborative approach requires one key, indispensable element. Fresh blood, which brings fresh perspectives. This is why he and his studio actively participate in educating a new generation of game developers. This involves not only helping with hackathons or publishing content packages on asset stores, but also direct contact through participation in higher education courses like the 'Computer Game Technology' course at the AGH University of Science and Technology or '3D Object Modeling' and 'Sound Engineering Basics' at the College of Economics and Computer Science in Cracow.
“Students sometimes change courses and sign up 2 or 3 months after the semester begins as mid-term exams are getting nearer,” Krej says, “so they are taking a big risk with learning a new subject just before the dreaded examination period begins. But they want to follow their dreams and this is a business for passionate people.”
Krej, however, knows that there is a downside to all of this. The gaming development sector is, after all, less stable or profitable than other IT industries. He turns to Maciej Knot, his marketing manager. “You could work at Mercedes, couldn’t you, Maciej?” he asks. They both laugh.
“We all have something to say and this is why we are making games”, says Krej.

Did you know that Body of Evidence is chock full of movie references, especially those with quite a lot of blood on screen? Examples? Here you go.

Fight Club

One of the levels we are most proud of is inspired by the movie and the book Fight Club. You will meet two familiar characters in our place. Well, if you know the original, you know that they are not really two characters... 

Dialogues and animations are really decent on this level, and we have a new element of mechanics here as well. It's a nod to Fight Club fans. Don’t miss the cabinet with soap for easier clean up ;)


 

Pulp Fiction

On this level the house from The Jimmy Situation scene in Pulp Fiction was recreated. The house’s layout, the characters and even the neighborhood are similar to their movie counterparts - but the plot is different.

You can talk with three characters here. Each of them provides you with a piece of information necessary to pass the level. This level is still in progress, we will be adding new elements for a really polished environment.



Want to know more about Body of Evidence? Add it to your Steam wish list and wait for the upcoming announcements!

"Everything we do has a result. But that which is right and prudent does not always lead to good, nor the contrary to what is bad." This quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a great starting point for better understanding the many diverse morality systems in Sand is the Soul. It's not only a matter of choosing one of a few colored endings or killing one NPC or the other. Each of your actions literally has its consequences and whether the outcome of your choices is good or bad, you decide on your own.

Sand is the Soul offers players complete freedom to venture wherever and do whatever they want.. There are no tutorials or hand holding. There's only the player, the game and the full immersion provided by the choices which will reflect his own personality. The morality of the decision is yours to judge. Nothing is universally good or evil.

Do bear in mind that what we have called a "karma" system has a significant impact on the gaming experience. Your good or bad deeds result in some NPCs becoming either friendly or hostile. One character will start hunting you while others will aid you on your journey. The safe havens will become battlegrounds and vice versa.



The moral intricacies of Sand is the Soul don't stop there! In some cases your doings can be seen as a crime which can impact your overall crime rate and make the game more difficult. There's also a system called foreknowledge which depicts the player's attitude towards the Nature. Not to mention all the romantic possibilities.



Sand is the Soul is not your average beat 'em up. It's a mix of soulslike mechanics with gameplay influenced by Golden Axe and the classic complexity of moral choices inspired directly by the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. That's why even the smallest action made at the beginning of the journey can have significant implications at the end of the road, driving you into one of the multiple story outcomes.

It's up to you to become a loyal diplomatic messenger or a wanted mass murderer with a thirst for power.

When trying to chat with the hunter, he will only acknowledge the hero with a bow, but after raising karma, he will opens up and grant tips and/or info on the lore.

Due to our high Karma, the Mad Watcher will deliberately mislead us into a trap. It would be the opposite if our karma was low. 



If you like our game, please add Sand is the Soul to your wishlist, to be up to date with all the future announcements.

The Souls-like label needs to die? Gibberish! Fat Dog Games and MGP Studios present Sand is the Soul, a unique mix of 2D side-scrolling beat’em up and action RPG.


When the world around is gloomy and unforgiving (and a little Victorian), a simple job of delivering an important depeche requires mastery of the gun and the sword. As a missionary of diplomatic status you arrive at the frontier between your homeland and the neighboring autonomy of Crosshill. What’s next is up to you. Do what you want, but be aware that your actions will have consequences which will lead you to one of over 20 game endings.


The world of Sand is the Soul is a living system with evolving timeline, characters and social structure. Some changes are present during your next playthroughs in New Game Plus mode.Above all, this is a game for hardcore players. It is unforgiving and demanding. You will be making fatal mistakes. You will be fighting, dying and trying again. It is a love letter to old school genres and game elements like in-game cheats - the better endings you get, the better unlockable cheats you will receive.

Players can already add Sand is The Soul to their Steam wishlists.