It’s been a while since the last update, but Discarnate’s development has come to an end. Beta deliverables are due in only a few days, and the only things left in the backlog are aspirations.
Despite the damage done to our development cycle by the pandemic and remote development, Rats with Hats adapted super well. Morale definitely took a huge hit, but we bounced back in the best way: one that delivers the promised product, as described, on time.
I didn’t get to work in the build as much as I liked due to technical constraints, but I did pick up some skills in VR that I never would have gotten otherwise. While the content was ultimately cut before it could get off the ground, movement UI for teleporting in Steam VR is surprisingly simple and fun to play with.
I mostly worked on documentation, which was plenty fun in its own right. I wrote all the dialogue present in the final build, and our Dialogue document was my living space:
Dialogue from Discarnate’s first level.
The pandemic made it difficult to record everything we needed, and time did make us cut our introductory scene, but it lives on in my documentation for future development:
Cut opening scene for Discarnate
The character existed as numbers before the early Content Team meetings. Once we started settling the narrative into the game, we needed a better source of reference; in comes the Narrative Bible, which I put together and maintained throughout the project.
Narrative Bible snippet
While most of this is behind-the-scenes content, there’s one thing of mine that made it into the final build: a little poem to guide the player in their potion-brewing, (and for me to close out this post):
First, a pair to match our Priestess's green eyes Through yellow teeth did they tell their lies A bottle each for sky and sea As the violets do grow happily
So remember, reader:
Do it for her.
Thomas Rebeck 