In our previous “Tagalong Trap” post we talked in general about cooperative games, what components make them “true co-op games” where both players perform active and meaningful roles. We also cited examples of how we implemented these components when designing Shadow Puppeteer.
This time, we will go more into depth about specific ways of working when developing co-op games and give examples of how this was done for Shadow Puppeteer.
When creating a story set in a fictional world you have an obligation to craft a world that players can get immersed in. It doesn’t need to resemble anything in reality, but you need to create an illusion of a unified universe through coherent and consistent design.
Today we will share how we worked when creating the Industrial area of Shadow Puppeteer.
Today’s post is by Marianne and Philip and will be about 2D animations in Shadow Puppeteer. Animation is essential in Shadow Puppeteer. Part of the reason why Philip was brought onto the team in the first place was because of his 2D animation skills.
Idea
When we talk about 2D in Shadow Puppeteer we’re almost always talking about the shadows. While real shadows have shapes similar to their objects, we wanted to create weird- looking and unnatural shadows in our world. Since the shadows have come alive we wanted the world to feel unfamiliar and strange.
This is perhaps most evident in the shadow monsters, like the cat.
Today’s topic is about the few but iconic adversaries you’ll encounter in the game, besider the Puppeteer himself.
When we first came up with the concept for Shadow Puppeteer, and the play with light and live shadows we decided that we wanted antagonists that were shadow monsters. We wanted these to be warped creatures based off of real animals that you had to trick rather than fight.
Today we’ll write about the design process for the main villain: The Shadow Puppeteer!
Compared to the development of the Boy where the focus lay primarily on the physical aspects, the development of the Puppeteer was much more psychological.
When creating a villain you have to decide what makes him or her a villain and what «brand» of evil that is. With the Puppeteer we had to consider this: Is he aware of his actions and the consequences? Is he dumb? Is he intelligent?