New Direction

They probably do not want to give you a hug..

Stone field

We're trying out some new stuff.
Having the game first person gives it a different
kind of depth.



/Martin

A lake

Tried out to see how a lake would look in the game.

The color of the water and reflection is probably a
bit too close to the the rest of the environment.
It looks better when playing and moving around though.

Also tried out adding some glowy "butterflies".
It was nice with some small things flying around and moving
in the envronment. We probably should add some leafs or branches
falling down from the trees to give the stiff environment some
life - as long as it does not kill the right feeling.


I'm off to do some modelling on the main character.
/Martin

The player character will mainly be in the dark hiding. It's important he doesn't take too much attention from gameplay. Also we want him to change if standing still for long,  slowly leafs and branches grow out of the character and he absorbs into the environment around him. Once he is changed the player will also know that he can't be seen at all by creatures around him.

First video!

Howdy


Here's the first video of the game, remember it's a work in progress.

It might be a little dark on some screen but don't worry,
it looks great on the iphone and ipad.

I really love the look and feel of this, how the fog reveals the trees as
you walk through the forest.

Usually you use fog to hide geometry for better performance,
but we use it 'light up' and to give depth to the flat-shaded geometry.
Without the fog everything would be pitch black.

This is not the final look of the game, of course, but I am really
sure we're on to something that could look really nice and have that scary,
but at the same time cozy, feel to it.

Next video update we'll be filming an Ipad.

Over and ouuuut
/Martin

Early concepts

Hello again,

ok, here comes a bunch of early concept images. Trying to find a way to get a polygon look and keep it dirty and painterly. Almost like each polygon is a dab of paint.
We have already started on some test code and found a pretty good way to get that dirty painter look, will post some Fraps soon.

Someone is lurking behind a tree.. probably you. We are thinking you are some sort of tree character, if you stand still for a long enough branches and leafs grows out of your shape. Like a camouflage. 

The game will be about sneaking up on creatures.

The polybeast.  This will work great as a 3D model.

Different areas of the world. Maybe a rocky dessert area? Large, empty, misty places.

Could this be you? Character design rule: Keep the silhouette simple and easy to recognize. Can you describe him very easily?

Hello there,

so the blog is up for our little game experiment.  Guess I'll start out writing something about why I'm really excited about this project.

In the last couple of years we have seen a whole new wave of Iphone games that really focus on gameplay and I love it!  We at Zoink all used to work on giant triple A games. Big development teams, tons of content and dev time way over  2 years. We would often loose focus on what was actually fun. Tons of features, thinking that the more you could do in a game the more fun it probably would be. 

For me the The Forest project is an experiment in just focusing on 1 single gameplay mechanic. One  experience. How simple can it be and still be engaging?

A lot of  iPhone games are super-happy-candy-over-the-top looking creations. I guess with this experience we want to try something different.  Can a iPhone game be a calm and beautiful experience?  Something you play before going to bed to calm down?

Hello World