For the Crows
“The forest is in us all now. So here I am now inside her.”
I’m writing to you from the brand new Weather Factory site backend, which AK miraculously set up the week before the internet was paralysed by the PHP flaw. Suspicious? I agree. We have a few teething problems on mobile (we’re working on them!) but let us know if you notice anything else hinky when using this site.
Mimata playtest
As AK mentioned in his latest patch notes for Travelling At Night‘s demo, we’re almost ready to invite a small group of people to test out Mimata. The current demo ends when you arrive at the Gare de Mimata, but we’ll need people to beta test every city in the game before launch. In December, we expect to invite a small number (40? 100?) of people to unravel the case of a pair of disappeared young lovers, to help Chaima in a certain hunt, and to try their best not to screw up the Commendation of the Dying. And this is all before you even get to the spooky convent looming over it all, where Mother Mamerta’s crimson nuns guard secrets from the world.
There’s absolutely tonnes of story in this town. AK said Antibes is a necessarily friendly opening to ease people into Travelling‘s world, but Mimata’s more like Sunless Sea in terms of content and theme. Plus, you meet a throng of strange new people: our header for this blog post is a selection of characters hiding here.
If you’d like to be in the running for the Mimata beta test, sign up here. It’s the same list as our original pre-alpha testing list, so if you signed up once already you don’t need to do anything. You’re already in with a chance! Just watch your emails in December…
What we’ve been up to
One of my favourite moments in an RPG is when you discover a new place for the first time. We wanted to acknowledge this feeling in Travelling and give each destination some presence, so we’ve added a little visual flair the first time you travel there. You’ll return to places you’ve been at your leisure, whether that’s to escape rising Traces or just because you forgot to finish that storyline about the thing that might be a doll or the Ysien ambassador or the bit where Frauke said she’ll kick you in the knees if you don’t do what she says. So don’t worry, this won’t fire any subsequent time you return – you’ll just get a nice little subtle title in the top left-hand corner instead.
We’ve also been experimenting with perils. Remember the ‘CAUTION’ area around Léon in Antibes? We’re using meta stage-markings like white arrows and dashed-outline areas to visually flag when something is going to trigger: step into that circle or start talking to Léon, and a dangerous conversation begins! We’re using it again with a murder of crows along the forest path in Mimata. They’re so intimidating, bunched in their susurrant gnarl, that you’ll suffer a penalty walking near them unless you pass a skill check to shoo them away.
“The eyes of the crows are on me: all their eyes. The rattling of their beaks and wings is like wind in a field of knives…”
There are a number of approaches you can take to scare them off, depending on the Spencer you’ve built. For instance, you might have had an earlier conversation with… something, which told you of a particular sign to ward against the birds. Or you might call on the Names of the Sun to command the crows disperse. If you’re really good, you’ll pass an Eloquence or Stagecraft skill check which can make you sing, extremely loudly,
“I HAVE A GUN AND I’M GOING TO SHOOT YOU ALL. ALL OF YOU. BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG.”
We’re getting a BAFTA for that one, I can feel it.
Isn’t this whole game supposed to be about a travelling circus
Funny you should mention this! Mimata has been sneaky: we set ourselves an internal deadline to ‘finish Mimata content and art’, but this scene is the first where you also get to visit the Rosa Mundi. So we have to get all the Rosa Mundi content, art and functionality in place before we can usefully test the whole town out. Cue lots of interweaving narrative ingenuity from AK (because the Rosa Mundi is the repeated home-hub you’ll come back to again and again throughout the game), and lots of cutaway work for me. Check out our new tent interiors: Monica’s office, cobbled together in what is definitely not the storage tent; management’s ‘tent-share’, featuring – depending on your choices – a large mad cat; and Spencer’s very own home away from home, where you can sleep, change outfits and admire your gorgeous cheekbones in the mirror.
Next sprint will be all about peopling this isle with Calibans: turning our Rosa Mundi concept art into animated Spine skeletons so our circus NPCs actually live and breathe, and writing their dialogue – including Lalla Chaima, the second companion you meet in-game, who may have been thrown over by Vincent in the distant past. So I hope you bring him along with you when you talk to her: the crows might not be the scariest thing after all…
