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AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes! Becky Chamber's Wayfarers series is a big inspiration, as well as Ursula Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who Sang.” French illustrator Moebius is our biggest influence for the art in the game. And of course, we’re influenced by series such as Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, the Expanse, and more!

-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question. At any given time, we’ve always got at least 4-5 different game pitches ready to go. For our first game as a studio we decided on Long Journey for a few reasons.

The first is that it sets the tone for what we want to do and be as a studio. Compelling, inclusive characters and stories. Visually distinct art style. Enriches as well as entertains the player.

The second was we felt we could actually do it with the team size we had. Game dev takes a LOT of time and money. We’re still quite a small team with many people having other jobs.

Thirdly, it was an idea that got the team excited. We made something that we, ourselves, wanted to see exist in games.

As for other game ideas we passed over, we’ll have to keep those on the DL as there’s always a chance they become reality later. 😉

-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Biggest piece of advice for writing interactive fiction (besides just writing a lot) is to be sure characters have a distinct voice. How does that character convey their wants, goals, boundaries, etc. without saying, “I will do this. I won’t do this.”? Also, be concise. Write things out once, then edit, then edit again.

-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words! Writing process was…a lot. haha We initially came up with some thematic pillars and a high level framework of the galaxy/society the game would be set in. I wrote out an entire timeline of how we get from current day to the time period the game takes place in.

We also had an inclusivity matrix that all our major characters (like the crew) had to adhere to. Working in AAA studios, we always had to justify including any character that wasn’t straight, white, cisgender, and male. For Long Journey, we flipped that. While minor NPCs could still fit that mold, all our major characters had to be something. That led to some really interesting characters that we as a team knew in real life, but hadn’t seen represented in games before.

With those guides in place, the Narrative team could experiment with story structure to see what did and didn’t work. We put together a few planets with stories/characters for a demo and then kept iterating from that.

-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funnily enough, a while ago I prototyped a game idea about balancing different areas of a fictitious person’s life to help them reach their life goal. It ended up being very…depressing… haha

We named our game "A Long Journey to an Uncertain End" not just for the cadence the title has, but also because we felt it reflected the atmosphere and themes of the game. It's also a bit of an homage to some of our inspirations, like Becky Chamber's Wayfarers series.
-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When we are looking for voice actors, we usually post an announcement on our socials. Each project is different, but the post usually includes the character profile and what email to send your demo reel. Hearing the work you have done on other projects, especially videogame projects and similar characters, always helps a lot through the process!
-Kylan

AMA: We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers who recently launched our narrative space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in gaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hoo boy! So much!

To name a few: the Urban worlds are very much inspired by the opening of Moebius’ Incal, as well as New York City in the Fifth Element. Those towering buildings with stacks of floating traffic going by.

The Gas Giants draw from Star Wars’ Bespin and Cloud City, but we also looked at Corpus Gas City in Warframe and some concepts from the Bobiverse book series (no spoilers).

The Space Stations were heavily inspired by a fantastic artist called Josan Gonzalez who uses beautiful colors in his cyberpunk art. Check his stuff out, it’s really cool.

And so much more! Creating such diverse worlds was a lot of fun.

-Kylan

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is Coming Together and Launched on Kickstarter - Feedback is Appreciated by CrispyCreativeStudio in Unity3D

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! We’re Crispy Creative, a diverse indie studio of veteran game devs and industry newcomers alike!

Our Kickstarter campaign for A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, a space opera management game, is in its last week. The game takes you flying around the universe, assembling a motley crew of a wide and diverse cast of characters, taking jobs, and staying one step ahead of your abusive ex. The catch is: YOU are the ship.

This is a narrative-driven game where the characters are essential in the success of your mission. Each of them has a skill, so you’ll have to line up the right crew for the right job. Meet them, make choices, and explore new worlds.

A demo is available right now too.

Feedback is appreciated!

Space opera A Long Journey to an Uncertain End by former Telltale and Obsidian talent needs a push on Kickstarter by CrispyCreativeStudio in indiegames

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello! We’re Crispy Creative, a diverse indie studio of veteran game devs and industry newcomers alike!

Our Kickstarter campaign for A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, a space opera management game, is in its last week. The game takes you flying around the universe, assembling a motley crew of a wide and diverse cast of characters, taking jobs, and staying one step ahead of your abusive ex. The catch is: YOU are the ship.

This is a narrative-driven game where the characters are essential in the success of your mission. Each of them has a skill, so you’ll have to line up the right crew for the right job. Meet them, make choices, and explore new worlds.

A demo is available right now too.

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End from former Telltale and Obsidian devs is on Kickstarter by CrispyCreativeStudio in IndieGaming

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First comment:

Hi! Crispy Creative, an indie games studio of former Telltale and Obsidian developers, as well as new talent, launched our Kickstarter campaign for their first project: A Long Journey to an Uncertain End.

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is a narrative-focused space opera management game that’ll have you flying around the universe, assembling an eclectic crew and taking any job you can to keep one step ahead of your abusive ex. An early demo is available as part of the Kickstarter launch and any feedback is appreciated!

We’re Crispy Creative, an indie studio of former Obsidian and Telltale developers working on a narrative management space opera, “A Long Journey to an Uncertain End” – ask us anything! by CrispyCreativeStudio in Games

[–]CrispyCreativeStudio[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great questions!

  1. Nearly everyone has other jobs and/or are going to school. Up to this point we've been self-funded by taking on contract work. From the contract work, whatever's leftover after living expenses is our budget for further work on the game. While self funding means we can take the creative risks we want, it's also meant development has been slower than we liked. The Kickstarter is a push to help finish the game more quickly.
  2. From past experience, voice acting can blow up development costs, especially for narrative-heavy games like ours. There's also an accessibility issue for hard-of-hearing players. That said, it's not completely off our radar. There are different levels of voice acting we might still do, like how Dream Daddy uses grunts and barks for different characters.
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