Pyke, you are quite organized. I really don't know why we are getting better results from smaller kickstarters than from the big ones. Isn't the case that age bring wisdom? Well, it is really strange how people with decades of experience on the gamming industry make ridiculous mistakes over and over while indies wipe the floor with them by just being organized and efficient.
PS: Bioshock Infinite is a shitty game, don't learn anything from it.
I've been working in a VERY deadline oriented industry since I was 16, so organising myself just comes naturally. I think that perhaps the more established designers have been so used to working with these huge deadlines (in most cases years) they perhaps find it difficult to transition into a much smaller scale.
As for me, I have had the opposite problem! I'm used to deadlines being measured in days and hours, and to suddenly have this become weeks and months is quite a shock to my system! But Nic and I are trying to set up as many systems in place to help with scheduling - which is probably THE most important part of any game production. We are dealing with completely finite resources - time being the major one. It can and does run out very quickly!
As for Bioshock Infinite, I'm just really impressed with it from a pacing and 'flow' point of view. To be honest I haven't actually played it, so my knowledge of it comes from watching YouTube videos - but the way they handled transitions from 'set piece' to another is really impressive. Also how they interspersed the slow moments with the higher impact ones (although The Last of Us is MUCH more effective in that department).
I agree. You're better off learning story-telling from movies. Alien, Blade Runner. :D
My original story plans for Stasis were basically 3 act film scripts - but I very quickly realised that film pacing does NOT work with games! While film is better at driving a story forward, its because the director has complete control over what the viewer sees and does. I think that trying to emulate this form of pacing completely takes away what makes games so unique as a story telling medium! Unfortunately the need for a 'cinematic experience' just completely erodes what makes games...games. Broken Age tried for that and become too simplistic - and Beyond Two Souls (a much more extreme version of it) actually had to break its own rules (you couldn't kill some characters, but can easily kill others...sometimes you could travel through walls, other times you were stuck - with no reason other than 'its what the story needs) to keep up with that 'cinematic experience'.
That said, I've got a library of scenes that I've copied from my movie collection of certain moments that I just love and I try to emulate those as closely as possible. The scene where Dr Jackson first see's the Stargate is one, the discovery of the Space Jockey in Alien, the Pseudopod sequence in The Abyss...
In terms of pacing for a video game, I would look at Valve games. Especially HL1 and the Portal series. They do a really good job.
And of course, the Lucas Arts adventure games since you're making an adventure game.
Oh yeah-Half Life 1 has an INCREDIBLE story flow! I've got a breakdown of it in my notebooks and constantly refer to it!
The Dig is obviously a HUGE influence on Stasis, so its definitely right up there!
The Resident Evils are pretty much 'required reading' for anyone making any sort of Horror Game. The movies are even my guilty pleasure movies. I know that they have NOTHING to do with the games...but I still love them because they completely embrace just how bad they are. :D
Thanks for that link! Ill definitely give it a read tonight!
pyke sounds a bit australian. packing for perth?
South African here. :D Apparently to Americans we sound very similar...I don't hear it! I can pick out an Aussie accent very easily!