Afterlife: Beyond The Darkness Game Breaks Ground!

Hello one and all,

As I have been working on content packs and exploring my own game ideas for Project Jupiter, a game a have an idea for but I know, alone, I will never be able to make it like I truly vision it. So, while throwing ideas around, I came up with a idea for a new type of game. A game that has only been made a few times in the industry, that I know of anyways.

Let's start at the beginning...

A game called Dear Esther is what sparked this idea for me. Simple game play, not complex menus or weapons to worry about and a relaxing journey through a world that you can get eye candy from as well as a movie-like experience while you venture through the game with only a flashlight. This excited me to know you could make such a game...

Project Jupiter

A game about space, Jupiter and a missing crew. Basically, the crew goes missing in the early opening scenes of the game... Earth launches a new mission, to rescue the crew but the mission will take 7 years before they can arrive to the space station above the planet Jupiter to begin their search. The crew of a mining mission has vanished, and their last transmission to Earth was that of terror. Now a beacon deep down in Jupiter is beaming a weak signal back, telling the new crew that they, the old crew are in some kind of trouble and thus, the adventure begins.

Project Jupiter is a massive project, suited for a AAA title score for sure. I was even thinking of trying to make the game in UDK, C4, Unity and others but it dawned on me, I was shooting way too big for a project I know I can't make alone with the talents I have. This project would take a team of at least 10 or better just to pull off what I had envisioned it to be. After I came to that reality check, I decided to play around with ideas... small ideas in Torque 3D. I began loving the engine a lot after I seen what it could do. Then, yesterday, I got an idea for a new project. Afterlife: Escape The Darkness...

I've toned down the Project Jupiter game with massive cuts, focusing on only the Space Station portion of the project. From it, I am going to be making a game off it and it alone. I already have the tools and most of the content I wanted to use in the major game anyways, so why waste it if you have it? I'm going to reuse a lot of my assets from that game idea I was toying with.

Why am I telling you all this?

Basically, it comes down to this... I'm making a Dear Esther-like game with the exception of it will be a nightmare more then a relaxing jouney through an island. You will have no weapons, no other players to interact with. You will only get a flashlight and a audio experience that I will custom make for the mini-game. Oh and it will be a mini-game. This isn't going to be scaled large at all. One, maybe two levels at the most but it will tell the story through audio, visuals and triggers in-game til the very end.

I don't want to give away the experience, but think of it as a haunted house experience... you go in and usually don't know what to expect. You get scared, enjoy yourself and leave the attraction alive and in one piece. This mini-game is geared towards scaring you visually and with audio segments, kinda like Doom 3 did when it first came out. The audio is what brought the game to life for me.

Will you encounter creatures of any kind?

Yes, but that is all I'm saying. You will have to wait for the launch of the game once it is done. I'm working on it now. Slow going between making content packs, doing haunted house production and living a normal life with the family.


Will the game be free or will there be a cost to play it?

I expect to charge $9.99 for the game once it releases. Payments will be via PayPal. A pre-release order package will also be available before I actually release the game so you can pre-order it at that time and it will be limited to just 100 copies. Then the game will go public and there will be no limit, but the people who pre-order the game will get extra perks that I will talk about later.


Will there be a demo version of the game?

Yes, I will be releasing a demo version to allow you to see if it runs on your system. Mainly, it will be a systems checker to see if the game is running laggy on a older system, but should run smooth on faster systems.

Will there be a Beta Release?

Yes there will. As soon as I get one together to test I will post a blog here on the site. You can email me at info@hallowscreams.com and get on the beta test list if you like. I'm limiting the beta to 50 people. So if you want on board, hit me up before it releases as I'm expecting it to fill up quickly.

Can I help with the game?

Sure, if you want. The more people who help, the better the final product will look. Email me at info@hallowscreams.com and let me know in the subject AFTERLIFE TEAM MEMBER and I'll get back to you. You will get credit for helping but I am not paying for the help.


When will it be released??

I don't want to put a time stamp on it and say it will be out by this time or date, that is how game devs get in trouble. It will be finished when it is finished. I just broke ground on it 48 hours ago, so I would expect maybe late this year or early next... depends how much time I get to work on the game and how many tech issues I run into during that time.

Is there more screen shots??

Yes, many more but I will post them in the next blog. I wanted this blog to talk about the project and not be distracted by the pretty photos.

Thats about it for this blog. Watch my next update coming shortly with photos on the progress. Thanks for reading!

Will Zettler
www.facebook.com/pages/Digital-Lightstorm-Game-Studio/236909276500210 - Facebook Page
info@hallowscreams.com