The Beard in The Mirror

Paul Franzen · Thu 13/12/2012 23:19:37

Long-time AGSers might remember this post by my wife Lizo back in...holy crap, was it really 2006?? Here's where we are now.

Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/385840/
Release trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J3ov5TUfxY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oharock
Twitter:: https://twitter.com/oharockstudios

Release date:: October 25, 2016

Conception

TestGame was (and is) a game Lizo and I have been working on since we were in undergrad (she's wrapping up her doctoral degree now); it was based on games we used to play over AOL Instant Messenger, wherein one of us would start off by saying something like "You wake up lost in a forest. To the north you see a sparkling stream surrounded by long vines; to the east is a foreboding cave. What do you do?", and the other would respond as though playing a text adventure game--although instead of playing against a bunch of static computer programming, you were playing against a real-life person who could tailor the experience to your exact reactions. The story for TestGame was born from this.

Story

It's about a college-aged boy not-so-coincidentally named Paul, opening his bedroom door one day to discover, instead of the hallway leading to his bathroom, an all-new world of magic, monsters and maidens. I like to think of the tone as a marriage between Sierra and LucasArts, as my wife was raised on the former and myself on the latter, and we take a great deal of inspiration from each. Ultimately the game is about Paul growing up and figuring out his place in the world, all the while solving fun inventory-based puzzles and making dumb jokes about everything. I think it's roughly in the range of 10 (update: more like 6-8) hours long, although it's hard to judge, seeing as I know the answers to all the puzzles.

Development

For years my wife (Lizo) was coding and writing everything herself, with me offering input when I could; but as time went on she had less and less time she could devote to the game, so I started taking over things like proofing text, and then writing text, and then designing puzzles and finally, now, actually programming the game. Our roles have essentially reversed. As part of this transition we decided to finally give the game a more proper title: The Beard in the Mirror.

Now seven years after she created her first screen, here's what we're looking like:

- Story: 100%
- Puzzles: 100%
- Backgrounds: 100%
- Character art: 100%
- Animation: 100%
- Coding: 100%
- Music/Sound: 100%

If ever there was a "blood, sweat and tears" kind of project, this has been it. But it's still moving forward, now more than ever, and I do harbor a small fantasy of going commercial with it on Desura, or another indie-friendly platform.

...Although that said we're still two very slow-paced developers, both having a full-time schedule in addition to our work in Mirror. Look for it to be released sometime (hopefully) in the next seven years.

-------------------------------------------

Update: 12/21/12

Lizo just drew the cook character in Mirror, and he's everything I aspire to be in my life:

Update: 3/19/13

Just hit a big milestone the other day--the game is now fully playable, from opening to epilogue! There's still a lot of placeholder art in there (and it's only now that I'm starting to contact musicians about working on the game's soundtrack), but still. Considering the length of our development process, I'm pretty proud we've made it this far.

5/29/13

Some quick updates to the numbers! Lizo's made a lot of progress in the game's art over the last month, spurred by our new arrangement whereby for every piece of art she completes, I will watch one (1) episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender with her. The first half of the game is now essentially complete, with the second still missing a whole bunch of art assets (and the coding to make them all work).

Meanwhile, I've been playing through the game as it is--which has been a real treat, since in eight years I've never been able to play through the entire game from beginning-to-end before. I'm testing and re-testing, tweaking dialogue, replacing emotes like "*hands over item*" with actual animations of handing items over, and--most noticeably--introducing sound effects and music, mostly from freesound.org and incompetech.com, respectively. (Until now, we only had a couple of original songs, plus some sound effects I recorded in 2006 with a cassette tape recorder. Now, it's not only looking like a videogame, but actually sounding like one, too. It's amazing how much fuller a few well-utilized sounds can make a game feel.

I'm tentatively hoping to release The Beard in the Mirror* by the end of the year, and if we can maintain this pace, there's a real chance that'll actually happen. (I have a lot more free time for game development now that I've left my post at GameCola.) Fingers crossed.

* Oh, and by the way: We did FINALLY settle on The Beard in the Mirror as the final name for the game, after brainstorming through several pages worth of alternative titles (actual examples: "A Grizzled Fate," "2 Mirrors, 1 Fate", and my personal favorite, "King's Quest," but that one was apparently already taken).

Update: 3/4/15

Hah-hah, did I really say we'd release in 2013? Good one, Paul! OP has been updated with updated completion-percentages, and below I announced that we just got Greenlit for Steam! Happy times!

Update: 10/10/16

THE GAME IS FINISHED AND WE HAVE A RELEASE DATE AND IT'S GOING ON STEAM AND I'M FREAKING OUT.

Fitz · Fri 14/12/2012 07:43:24

This looks exceptionally nice, especially the (magic) forest. Is Lizo doing the graphics herself? And why doesn't Paul have a beard? Was it only in those past few years that you started to grow one as a dare in which you refused to shave until Lizo's finished the game?

Also, how fun would it be if The Beard premiered at the same time as the secret project I told you about -- since you appear in both. We could actually make a bundle out of it - Paul Franzen: Double Impact!

CaptainD · Fri 14/12/2012 08:48:54

However long it takes, I'm sure this will be worth the wait! (This has got to be the oldest "Hey, this project is not actually dead" posts I've ever seen... anywhere, I think!)

OG · Fri 14/12/2012 08:52:48

10 hours + of gameplay??? We could have ourselves a gem here.

Paul Franzen · Sat 15/12/2012 00:03:03

@Fitz: Thank you! Yes, the graphics are basically all Lizo's. So far my contributions in that respect have been: 1) an animation of Paul drinking soda. The rest is all hers (and that's what she's continuing to do, too, in addition to providing me with AGS support because I'm still a little fuzzy on this crazy thing called "coding.") As for the beard--yes, this game's development began in the pre-crisis, beardless Paul era! We try not to talk about those dark days.

Hey, if you can hold off release until around 2020 or so, I think we can make that work!

@CaptainD: Thank you, too! Gosh, I hope so. It's bugging me that it's been taking so long, but part of that is because I stayed so hands-off in its development before, just watching it slowly creep its way out of Lizo's life-goals. I couldn't just let that happen; the game deserves to come out some day.

@OG: That's my best estimate! I haven't tried to play it all the way through (in as much as I can, anyway) in a while, but with four reasonably long, distinct sections, I don't think I'm over-reaching too much.

dactylopus · Sat 15/12/2012 06:32:18

First of all, I like the tenacity. It's not easy to make both a game and a living. Good work sticking with it.

As for the game itself, it sounds like fun. I like the screenshots, they are evocative of that old 90's feeling. Some of them remind me a little of Kyrandia, Book One.

This is definitely something I'll be looking out for.

Paul Franzen · Tue 19/03/2013 22:04:33

Quick update: I now have a fully playable, beginning-to-end build of the game! (I say "the game" because I'm still not entirely sold on our working title. I guess I'll have to finalize something at some point, though...) Post and percentages have been updated accordingly.

Random question, to give this post a little more meat: ...How important is voice acting to an indie adventure game in 2013? I feel like, to me, it's not a deal-breaker by any means, but I'm not sure what The People At Large think about it.

Stupot · Tue 19/03/2013 23:27:40

Looks interesting Paul. Can't wait to see the finished product.
For me, voice-acting is a bonus, but by no means a deal-breaker. I think it's better to play it safe with no VO than to risk it and end up with really bad acting. Even some top commercial games are let down by poor acting.

SarahLiz · Wed 20/03/2013 06:08:26

Quote from: Stupot+ on Tue 19/03/2013 23:27:40
Looks interesting Paul. Can't wait to see the finished product.
For me, voice-acting is a bonus, but by no means a deal-breaker. I think it's better to play it safe with no VO than to risk it and end up with really bad acting. Even some top commercial games are let down by poor acting.

Ditto...exactly what I was going to say. Voices are nice in some games but unless it's top-notch acting and sound quality I think it takes away from the experience of it, and I'll usually end up changing it to text only if that's an option.

The game looks gorgeous, by the way. Anxious to get my hands on ten hours of that...

dactylopus · Wed 20/03/2013 07:42:45

So glad to hear that this is still ongoing!

Voices are not a necessity, but there are voice actors out there. Then again, at 10 hours of game play it might be more trouble than its worth.

Congratulations on the milestone, I look forward to the next one!

CaptainD · Wed 20/03/2013 10:19:04

I think VA has become largely expected in commercial indie titles, it's a nice bonus in freeware games. But as already mentioned it needs to be done well if it's going to actually add to the game. Just be aware (well, I'm sure you already are!) that adding VA will add a considerable number of weeks to your production time - months, depending on the amount of dialogue in your game, how reliable your voice cast are, and whether you add voicing for everything (not just dialogues).

ThreeOhFour · Wed 20/03/2013 10:28:44

Keep in mind that there have still been a number of commercial AGS titles without voice acting. Time Gentlemen Please is one of the most successful commercial AGS titles ever and had none whatsoever.

Retro Wolf · Wed 20/03/2013 12:07:38

For your graphical style, I think it would be good without voice acting. I'd be happy with bleeps and bloops!

Fitz · Wed 20/03/2013 14:25:44

The current title needs to stay -- in honor of Chuck Norris, who has recently shaved his iconic facial hair.

As for voice-over, I'd say it's not a must. But if you have some epic voice-over material there, I say go for it

I do remember you recommending your friend/cousin (I forget) once when we talked about possible VO in Gray, and he was good, indeed.

Paul Franzen · Thu 21/03/2013 00:43:05

Thanks everyone; that's just what I was hoping to hear. I'm always hesitant to include voice acting because, like a few of you mentioned, if it's bad, it can really tank a game, and I don't really have it in the budget to hire professionals. (Plus the fact that--yeah, the game's length kind of got away from us, so adding voice acting would be a pretty big thing at this point.) Maybe if we do release the game commercially and it does well, we can release a talkie version later

dactylopus · Thu 21/03/2013 16:04:19

I would agree with Fitz, please don't change the title. It's actually a great title.

Paul Franzen · Fri 22/03/2013 23:34:47

I do like it a lot! My wife's not particularly sold on it, though, and since the game's 50% her work...

I think I might spend some time this weekend brainstorming ideas, to see what I can come up with. I've also had a lot of fun recently playing with sound effects; I never knew before how much richness they add to a game!

Paul Franzen · Wed 29/05/2013 15:17:17

Original post is updated with new numbers and a status update! Spoiler alert: It's all good news.

CaptainD · Wed 29/05/2013 18:35:59

Good news! Unhidden spoiler! A cook that looks like LeChuck! Release by end of the year (hopefully)! It's all good.

cat · Wed 29/05/2013 18:45:06

Sadly the new title is less awesome than the original

CaptainD · Wed 29/05/2013 22:05:50

Quote from: cat on Wed 29/05/2013 18:45:06
Sadly the new title is less awesome than the original

I have to agree!

Fitz · Thu 30/05/2013 08:22:31

Wasn't the full title supposed to be "The Beard in The Mirror is Yours"? That last bit is the little twist that I liked so much about it.

CaptainD · Thu 30/05/2013 08:51:52

It was "The Beard in the Mirror is not mine" if I remember rightly.

Fitz · Thu 30/05/2013 12:33:38

Hm... The replies' topics are by default "Re: (whatever the topic was at the time)" and stay the same even if the original post's topic changes. So a quick look at the first reply will show you it was "The beard in the mirror is yours". Though I have to say I like your version just as much

dactylopus · Thu 30/05/2013 14:34:03

That's all very exciting news! I'm still looking forward to this one.

I like the new title, not too different from the previous.

Keep the updates coming!

CaptainD · Thu 30/05/2013 15:07:35

Quote from: Fitz on Thu 30/05/2013 12:33:38
Hm... The replies' topics are by default "Re: (whatever the topic was at the time)" and stay the same even if the original post's topic changes. So a quick look at the first reply will show you it was "The beard in the mirror is yours". Though I have to say I like your version just as much

Oh weird, I was absolutely certain I'd remembered it right! Which just proves that my head really isn't a safe place to keep anything important. :-

Still, looking forward to this game whatever it's called!

Paul Franzen · Thu 30/05/2013 16:12:50

You guys. You guys. This is getting out of control. That's it, I'm renaming it again. Now it's called "IT'S MY DARN GAME AND I'M CALLING IT WHATEVER I DARN WELL WANT, AS LONG AS MY WIFE APPROVES: The Graphical Adventure Game That Will Become Your World, by Paul and Lizo."

I'm just gonna go ahead and register IMDGAICIWIDWWALAMWATGAGTWBYWBPAL.com now.

But really, the whole boring story is that we added the "is Yours" to the end of the title to make the game sound more serious, but it went a little overboard and made the game sound pretentious (to us, anyway), so we chopped it back off. I'M SORRY!

CaptainD · Thu 06/06/2013 15:22:53

Quote from: Paul Franzen on Thu 30/05/2013 16:12:50
I'm just gonna go ahead and register IMDGAICIWIDWWALAMWATGAGTWBYWBPAL.com now.

You are clearly bluffing, as I have checked this several times (yes I am that sad!

) and it is not registered.

I plan to register TCTMPFAHWRTBINMTTBITMINMWICTSTARBWSFACT.com.

The Campaign To Make Paul Franzen And His Wife Rename The Beard In The Mirror To The Beard In The Mirror Is Not Mine Which Is Clearly The Superior Title As Rafa Benetiz Would Say FACT.

(Incidentally, I just want to say that I am still looking forward to the game.)

Paul Franzen · Thu 06/06/2013 23:05:18

Haha, I really should have! I just went on a url-registering spree, nabbing thebeardinthemirror.com and paulmfranzen.com (both of which just point to my own development blog, rather than anything particularly useful).

PRO-TIP: If you're linking a WordPress blog to a new domain name, don't buy the url through a different service because it's "cheaper"; just get it through WordPress itself. WordPress is charging me extra to associate the url with my blog, anyway, even though I'm already paying an annual fee through GoDaddy. In trying to save myself five bucks a month, I think I'm actually spending like seven extra, instead.

On the plus side, GoDaddy called me a couple days after I registered the domains, just to see how I was doing, and ask if I needed any help. They didn't try to up-sell me or anything; when I said I was good, that was it. The call was over. It was adorable.

Ummm, is this too far off-topic now? Am I gonna get modded? If so, here's a late-breaking The Beard in the Mirror development!!

I added a sound effect today.

Paul Franzen · Tue 25/06/2013 00:49:19

Links to our new teaser trailer and Facebook page added to the original post!

...but I'll paste them here, too, so you don't have to scroll back up:

Teaser trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPC4LP6NU7g
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheBeardInTheMirror

kaput · Tue 25/06/2013 02:52:34

Very charming promo. It's also really sweet that you guys play adventures together (in a nice way, like, I'm happy for you guys kinda way). I look forward to play it.

dactylopus · Tue 25/06/2013 05:22:28

Nicely done.

I am significantly more interested in seeing this game after seeing that teaser.

Looks like a lot of fun, can't wait to play it!

CaptainD · Tue 25/06/2013 12:17:47

I was very disappointed that only one of you had a beard in real life.

Paul Franzen · Tue 25/06/2013 15:25:32

If I grow mine out more, can it count for both of us? Thanks for the positive feedback, everyone!

Paul Franzen · Fri 16/08/2013 02:06:31

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that Lizo and I are going to be demoing The Beard in the Mirror at Boston FIG this year! Come say hi if you're in the area! Free hugs for all.

Also, we started working on a title screen. Yes, eight years later. That's not weird, right?

(We can't really take any credit for it; it's courtesy of our friend Kate Jay.)

CaptainD · Fri 16/08/2013 08:44:52

Looking nice, Paul. But... there's a mirror, where's the beard?!?!

dactylopus · Fri 16/08/2013 09:42:08

Quote from: CaptainD on Fri 16/08/2013 08:44:52
Looking nice, Paul. But... there's a mirror, where's the beard?!?!

The beard in the mirror is yours!

But seriously, I am still very much looking forward to this game. It looks to be coming together quite nicely.

Good luck at the festival! I hope it provides you with many opportunities.

CaptainD · Fri 16/08/2013 10:28:15

Quote from: dactylopus on Fri 16/08/2013 09:42:08
Quote from: CaptainD on Fri 16/08/2013 08:44:52
Looking nice, Paul. But... there's a mirror, where's the beard?!?!
The beard in the mirror is yours!

Ah, of course... and it's not me looking in the mirror on the title screen. I understand now. Um... I think.

Paul Franzen · Fri 16/08/2013 14:32:34

Quote from: dactylopus on Fri 16/08/2013 09:42:08
Quote from: CaptainD on Fri 16/08/2013 08:44:52
Looking nice, Paul. But... there's a mirror, where's the beard?!?!
The beard in the mirror is yours!

Beat me to it! We're using the Beard 5000 plug-in for AGS that detects users' facial hair, and doesn't even let them start the game until they've got at least a half-inch of growth. It's sort of like the old Monkey Island code wheels, but with beards.

No, but really, the exact nature of the beard in the mirror would be a big spoiler, so we decided not to allude to it in the title screen. Maybe I can find a font that adds wisps of scraggly hair to the title or something... Umm, wait, actually, that would be awesome. I'll have to look into it.

Paul Franzen · Wed 04/03/2015 23:04:02

HEY! Long time, no...make any appearances on the forums, whatsoever. I thought some of you all who've been following this game's progress for the past 37 years might find this interesting...

Our little-big adventure game is coming to Steam!! It's so weird to think that the weird little project my wife started in college is going to be an Actual Video Game, released on a Real Website. I'll take it!

We're not ready to announce a release date or anything, although if I had to guess, I'd say we have maybe 5% of the game left to build. (...And of course, it's that last 5% that's taking the longest.) We're still working on it a little bit each day; just yesterday I squashed a bug where the main character grew 18x his normal size when walking through a specific doorway.

CaptainD · Wed 04/03/2015 23:40:10

Congrats on getting the green light Paul!

Paul Franzen · Mon 10/10/2016 23:29:18

*blows away the dust on this post* *coughs* *coughs a LOT* *dies from inhaling too much dust*

I can't believe I'm even saying this, but ~~testgame~~ ~~The Beard in the Mirror is Yours~~ The Beard in the Mirror is finished. Actually FINISHED. And it's coming out (on Steam and itch.io) at the end of this month!! Like, I already sent out review codes and everything; there's no stopping it now.

As documented here, Lizo and I have been working on this off and on (and off and off) for around 11 years; that's a third of our lives and the ENTIRETY of our adult lives. We weren't even dating when we started on it; now we're married and looking at buying our first house. It's so, so weird to me that this project is actually complete, that it won't just exist in the background of our lives anymore--a constant point of contention and creativity, stress and excitement. Since starting Mirror, I've started and completed four other games (who knew visual novels were so much quicker to make); but this is the one we've put ourselves into more than any. it's the type of game I dreamed making since I was a little kid (likely a common sentiment around here), and now it's done; it's done and I can't keep poking at it and other people are gonna play it and BOY that's weird and maybe I should just test it twenty more times? Maybe just thirty?

...Anyway.

I figured I should post something official here, even though I've been basically the worst about keeping up with the forums; so here you go! testgame is finished, and it's coming out for real on the 25th! Thanks to everyone who's checked out our post(s) and given us advice over the years!!

Stupot · Tue 11/10/2016 00:52:02

Congrats to you both. Can't wait to try it out. All the best with the release.

dactylopus · Tue 11/10/2016 01:33:22

That's exciting news! I've been interested in this game since you first posted about it here. I'm looking forward to playing it!

ThreeOhFour · Tue 11/10/2016 03:28:05

Hey, that's awesome. Congratulations to the both of you! I love seeing long running projects like this coming to fruition.

Retro Wolf · Wed 12/10/2016 17:39:19

11 years! That's some dedication! Congratulations!

Chicky · Wed 12/10/2016 18:32:57

So happy to see that not only is your project now finished, but you've also passed the Greenlight process! A massive congratulations to you both

Coming from a similar situation, this is really inspiring stuff. Wishing you the best of luck with your release, can't wait to get my hands on it!

Cassiebsg · Wed 12/10/2016 20:41:40

Congrats on finishing the game!
And good luck with your next project.

Paul Franzen · Wed 12/10/2016 23:41:10

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!!

Paul Franzen · Wed 26/10/2016 17:56:05

This game has now been released! Clear out, everyone!!

Release thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=54087
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/385840/
itch.io: https://oharock.itch.io/the-beard-in-the-mirror

Darth Mandarb · Wed 26/10/2016 18:07:42

Congrats on the release!