I'm awful at keeping regular updates. I tweet in binges, sometimes brought on by frustration, other times brought on by excitement. I update this devblog in much the same way, chances are if I'm writing here, I'm either high on life, or in the depth of meh. 

Now that I've dumped that on you, I get to pull a switcheroo and tell you that today isn't one of those days. The main reason I'm writing today is more to gush about a massive change to BISC. 

BISC was, until this last week, largely a runner game. I mean, I feel like it's more than that, that it was a runner with a story and character and so on, but in the end it really is essentially a runner with some story bits. This last week I came to a realization, the realization that it's boring as all hell to constantly scroll up, especially when the gameplay is simple and not particularly difficult. While it was fine for the first couple hours, it gets old quickly and provides basically zero replay value. So instead of accepting that BISC was doomed to be an especially mediocre title, even when compared to my previous library of  mediocre works, I decided to entirely redo the way that players will interact and experience BISC's world. So, now BISC has a shiny new gameplay style, which'll reinforce the more reflective tone and allow for a new emphasis on exploration and allows for a slower paced playthrough, one that's more focused on making an engaging and coherent world. 

For a visual reference, the older gameplay is on the top, and the new is on the bottom.

No more are the simple, infinite runner inspired gameplay loops. They've been traded in for arena exploration, which expands the time needed to finish BISC, but I feel that the time will be well spent on making a game that's more engaging and replayable.

That's kinda all I had to say, but before I go, I wanted to plug a game made by a small developer, based in Manhattan, called Malevolent Machines. It's a little runner about a steampunk lady and her robot smashing all sorts of baddies, and does some interesting stuff with incorporating some fun twists into the standard jump/slide runner gameplay and also features a goddamn Giant Robotic Skeleton. . . so that's a thing. In any case, it's available on both iOS and Android for $ 1.99(as of writing this) and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading,

Wyatt White
Kelly Chambers in #1 Waifu

These last couple of weeks have been frustrating, but also have prompted some real introspection. I've had the issue that people like the idea of a dog sledding game, but me trying to explain it just loses the person. BISC isn't made to be an upbeat happy go lucky romp through the snow with a bunch of puppies. It's more a trudge north after a tragedy has befallen the player character and their country. The game I'm making right now isn't the happy game where you just go out dog-sledding and it's all great and no one gets hurt. I'm making a game that aims to place the player in a world of people who have hurt and been hurt, who're mostly at the end of their lives, living in seclusion, people with nothing left but to look back and think of what could have been. The player is pursued the whole while by a pack of strait up murderers. Along the way the player will encounter all sorts of characters, some innocent and decent, others less so. A lot of normal people have interest in a sanitary dog-sledding game for their kids, and that's not what BISC is right now, and it likely won't ever be that.

Death overall is a thing that seems to be glossed over. I'm aware I'm not exactly fresh in observing that most people pretend it doesn't exist, but I'd argue that it's equally bad to exalt deaths we're forced to accept. Movies where the hero dies, they go out in a blaze of glory, or defending someone they love. Few depict death the way it almost always happens. Pointlessly. People rarely die at the climax of their lives, and I think on some level that's what BISC is about. The denouement of the game's own world, it's a game taking place after all the riots are over, after all the revolutionaries are dead or in hiding, after the dark forces influencing charismatic leaders have won, but this story isn't about overthrowing anyone, or even surviving. It's about trying to run, and ultimately being surrounded by the world.

Anyway, work is always happening, so if you're interested in checking out the changelog for the last few weeks, take a look right here(Google Doc).
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I've no idea what BISC will become by the end, and there's still a chance that I'll be working on secondary version for a local health corporation, but right now no one's paying me, so I'm making the game I want to make.


Thanks, 

Wyatt White
Someone once called me handsome, once.