Nailing the Concept

One of the challenges of developing Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is transferring Michel's unique style to the interactive environment. Our goal is to give the player an experience of being the central figure in an animated film drawn by Michel Gagne. While we generally use Michel's concepts to set the visual bar and to provide mood and composition, in this case the end result is extremely close to the initial vision.

Below I've posted 2 images. One is an in-game screenshot I captured recently, the other one is from Michel's original concepts. Enjoy!

Pixar and Skeleton Crew

I've been working on Pixar's "The Bear and the Bow" since we finished the Microsoft presentation. Work on ITSP is still forging ahead at Fuelcell with a small skeleton crew and I'm reviewing the progress on a weekly basis. This game is getting done.

Anyhow, here's another rejected design of our little alien I did about a year ago.

Our Newest Recruit: Chris Eng

I wanted to take a moment (and some of Michel's blog space) to introduce a new member of the Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet team here at FuelCell - Chris Eng. Chris applied to FuelCell for an internship under the University of Washington's Computing & Software Systems course and ever since has been instrumental in the development of ITSP. Most notably lending a much needed programming hand in the demo build we put together for the XBLA group at Microsoft. Contributing everything from AI state machines to bug fixes and polish, (even Michel can't break the build now!) Chris really knocked it out of the park.

Recently Chris graduated and gave a presentation on his internship at the UW's Bothel campus. A number of the FuelCell staff was on hand to witness this great moment in video game history, so I thought I'd share some photos with you. Also, it's good to mention Chris took first prize in the poster design section of the presentation - which not only comes with bragging rights, but also a large bag of victory blow pops. Congratulations Chris!

More Alien Madness

The presentation at the "Industry Giants" conference went extremely well. All the footage I showed was enthusiastically received with cheers and applause.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera out of my suitcase so I don't have any pictures to share. To make up for it, here's another rejected design I did for our main alien character.

Industry Giants

I'd like to invite those who live in or around the Dallas area, to come and check out the Industry Giants symposium on June 5th and 6th. Among other things, I am scheduled to give a presentation where I'll discuss the making of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. I promise to show lots of never-before-seen gameplay footage.

Interview @ The Escapist

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Nathan Meunier, from the popular gamer website, The Escapist. Nathan writes a bi-monthly column called Indie Queue that highlights indie games currently in-development. The interview came out today, so check it out!

Microsoft Presentation

The presentation with Microsoft on Thursday went extremely well.

We all worked our butts off to give them an eye full and without sounding pretentious, I must say that we really delivered. Getting the new demo ready for the presentation was no small feat. Our meeting was scheduled for Thursday 10 am and, after weeks of long hours, we completed the presentation material by Thursday 5 am! The whole team came through big time! Joe, Jonathan and myself went to the pitch having not slept for over a day. We all looked pretty exhausted, but fortunately, the work we showed spoke for itself.


We have a new two and a half minute HD trailer and a bunch of video captures of actual game play that I'm extremely proud of. Everything is coming along beautifully. I can't wait to share some of this stuff with the internet world. I hate the trailer that is currently on line as I feel it is no longer representative of the quality and the sheer epicness of our game. But since we are talking with Microsoft, we will not be releasing any of the new material for the time being. You'll have to be patient. In the meantime, we'll keep posting preliminary artwork and screen grabs to keep you checking the blog.

Upcoming Presentation

The last few days have been intense to say the least. We're getting ready for a big Microsoft presentation this coming Thursday. We've got a lot of new exciting footage and gameplay to show them and we have a revised proposal that should be quite enticing. Our new 2.5 minutes HD trailer showing the overall vision of the project should make a strong impression. ITSP on the Xbox could be a cool thing indeed!

The Homebase Observatory

When art directing the opening part of the adventure, set on our alien homeworld, I wanted to make sure to create an environment that would contrast strongly with the shadow world. I used soft and earthy colors, and restrained myself to not go too weird on the vegetation, as I wanted to keep the really strange stuff for later on. This image shows the homebase/observatory where our alien hero observes the shadow planet, keeps his equipment, and builds his ship.

Another One from the Reject Pile

In our search to find a design for our alien hero, I came up with some pretty weird concepts. This design was just too strange and not relatable enough, but we all got a kick out of it.

Alien

One of the challenges when designing the art work for the game, was to come up with a unique and appealing character who would be the hero of our adventure.

Here's an early version of the alien scientist who builds and pilots the ship that will explore the shadow planet world.

We all liked him but ultimately, we felt that the design was a little too cute and typical, so off he went to the reject pile.

A New Blog

Hello folks. Many months ago, a decision was reached by concensus that we would keep quiet about our videogame until we get closer to our release date. Although, I was itching to release new footage and images, I held myself back and agreed to keep everything under wrap. The fact that we've been quiet doesn't mean that work on the game has stopped. Far from it. In fact, since last September, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is where I've dedicated the majority of my working hours. My partners at Fuelcell have also been pulling long hours programing, animating and building what we believe is going to be a unique gaming experience.

After discussing strategies on how to bring this project to fruition, we've decided to break our vow of silence and start sharing some of our work on-line to get people excited. As production progresses, I will share our triumphs and hardships, I will update with insights, videos and images at least a couple of times a month. I hope you'll enjoy the ride. Stay tuned.