Something Seeps

[Bavolis]

Something Seeps is a psychological/body/monster horror game that will feature shocking, graphic death scenes and adult storytelling. It is based on the short story I wrote years back called Knee Deep: https://www.wattpad.com/40205418-knee-deep-short-story. As much as I love AGS and it treated me very well for The Knobbly Crook, I've decided to rework Something Seeps in Unity. It's an engine I want to learn, so I am going to use Something Seeps as my learning project.

A father and son must come to terms with their tumultuous history, devastating family loss, and a past that will not stay buried. Memories are slippery, violent things and lying to one's self can be deadly.



I don't have an estimate yet for the length of the game or the release plans, but I'll update as I progress. I do have a full story to tell, expanded significantly from the short story. I also have enough content in mind to do a full horror series, depending on how fast I can create.

[AnasAbdin]

I could never expect less class and art from you. This is really going to be great. I can't wait. Just a little question since I'm super careful about spoilers: Is the game going to get spoiled if I read the short story?

[Bavolis]

I could never expect less class and art from you. This is really going to be great. I can't wait. Just a little question since I'm super careful about spoilers: Is the game going to get spoiled if I read the short story?

Thank you! And yes, it will be horribly, horribly spoiled.

[TheFrighter]

Good! After a fantasy game, an horror one is welcome! 

_

[jahnocli]

That second shot is a great composition.

[Bavolis]

That second shot is a great composition.

Thanks! I'm going to try to push for uncomfortable horror angles throughout this one.

[rongel]

Looks great (as always)! Is this going to be a commercial game? 

Good luck with the project!

[Bavolis]

Looks great (as always)! Is this going to be a commercial game? 

Good luck with the project!

Thanks! I haven't decided what it will be yet. I'll probably charge a couple of dollars for it just so it gets treated like a "real" game by the game sites, but I have to also see what I need to do for Eidos to be OK with me doing this outside of work. I'm sure it will be fine, but sometimes contracts can be tricky.

[FireFlower]

Looks and sounds interesting!

[shaun9991]

This sounds right up my alley! Very cool - looking forward to playing it

[Bavolis]

Thank you, folks! I look forward to trying to scare the crap out of you.

[milkanannan]

That style is unmistakably yours. Really looking forward to this.

[Bavolis]

That style is unmistakably yours. Really looking forward to this.

It's my curse! Every one of those wood panel lines was drawn by mouse. Soooo slow. Thanks!

[Blondbraid]

I had to read the short story, and I must say it was an intriguing idea with a great and terrifying twist at the end!

Spoiler

Was it meant to be an allegory for dementia? It felt a lot like that with the old man's memories shifting and taking a life of their own.

[close]

It will be interesting to see what you make of it in the game, the screenshots look fantastic!

[Bavolis]

Spoiler

Was it meant to be an allegory for dementia? It felt a lot like that with the old man's memories shifting and taking a life of their own.

[close]

Spoiler

Yes. My biggest fear is dementia, so any horror story about people losing their grasp on reality has a bigger impact on me than something with ghosts/monsters/etc.

[close]

Thanks! I'll be expanding on the short quite a bit, so while it will share a lot of key elements and characters, it's going to be a much bumpier road for poor Jeremy. 

[Blondbraid]

Spoiler

Was it meant to be an allegory for dementia? It felt a lot like that with the old man's memories shifting and taking a life of their own.

[close]

Spoiler

Yes. My biggest fear is dementia, so any horror story about people losing their grasp on reality has a bigger impact on me than something with ghosts/monsters/etc.

[close]

Thanks! I'll be expanding on the short quite a bit, so while it will share a lot of key elements and characters, it's going to be a much bumpier road for poor Jeremy. 

Interesting to know, I think you did a great work of getting the theme across thorough the descriptions and dialogues, and I can definitively see how that could be used to great effect in a game where you get to walk around and interact with the environment!

Though I would advice that if you plan to go into more detail on the dark topics hinted at in your story, like bullying and abusive family homes, it could be nice to have a detailed content warning,
because I know people who can handle gruesome death scenes but have a hard time with more realistic psychological traumas and prefer a heads up beforehand.

Anyway, it'd be really cool to see more of the backstory for the characters and how they ended up where they were at the start of the story,

Spoiler

plus it'd be exciting to explore more about what the different mementos meant to the main characters and where they came from.

[close]

[Bavolis]

Yeah, I have plans to go a lot further with the backstory and sorting out which things have deep meaning and why. I do plan to have a content warning and you're not the first to suggest it.

[Blondbraid]

That's great to hear, I look forward to your next update!

[The Suitor]

This is great news! I remember reading Knee Deep  years ago and loving it. You had it up on your Something Seeps site. Cant wait for this one.

[Bavolis]

This is great news! I remember reading Knee Deep  years ago and loving it. You had it up on your Something Seeps site. Cant wait for this one.

That's been a while! If Knee Deep works out, I'll probably adapt some of the other shorts from that era as well.

[Bavolis]

If you look closely, you can see reality being pulled into a spiral with that fence gap at the heart of it. You really don't want to go back that way. Real bad stuff back there.

[TheFrighter]

This stuff looks perfect for a William Hope Hodgson tale! 

_

[Bavolis]

This stuff looks perfect for a William Hope Hodgson tale! 

It will have a heavy "book" feel to the narration, so I'm glad to hear it!

[Blondbraid]

Great atmosphere in the last screenshot, although the yellow wooden slide in the background clashes a bit with the blue tones in the area by the tree. Maybe some shadows could improve it?

Just my two cents, it still looks great. 

[Bavolis]

Great atmosphere in the last screenshot, although the yellow wooden slide in the background clashes a bit with the blue tones in the area by the tree. Maybe some shadows could improve it?

Thanks! You're right - it's probably a bit *too* yellow for its place in the shadows. I'm gonna darken it.

[KyriakosCH]

Excellent art style!
I will keep an eye on this... 

[Bavolis]

Working on the most important character in a story like this - the house!




Edit: Phase 2

[Stupot]

Looking amazing.

[Bavolis]

Looking amazing.

Thanks! It's going to improve a lot when I get the background stuff in there.

[TheFrighter]

Hey, there's a scratch on the door! Those stray dogs!

_

[Wiggy]

Looks marvellous! You are a genius - any proof reading or Q/A let me know.

[Bavolis]

Hey, there's a scratch on the door! Those stray dogs!

You may be onto something...

Looks marvellous! You are a genius - any proof reading or Q/A let me know.

Thanks! I am still  pretty far from the proofing stage, but I will remember your offer

[Bavolis]

Lots of structure work done with the house exterior, including the backyard abyss. Watch your step:

[Blondbraid]

Wow, that looks menacing!
It reminds me of the other world from Coraline!

[Bavolis]

Wow, that looks menacing!
It reminds me of the other world from Coraline!

Funny coincidence, I also have a character would could be called an "Other Mother."

[Bavolis]

Working on a new Gnarled Scar logo since the last one was specific to the Knobbly Crook. This one is pure chaos and I am having way too much fun:

[Durq]

Looking nice and grotesque, just the way I like it!

[mkennedy]

Working on a new Gnarled Scar logo since the last one was specific to the Knobbly Crook. This one is pure chaos and I am having way too much fun:

Anybody else think shoggoth from "Mountains of Madness" when seeing this?

[Bavolis]

Anybody else think shoggoth from "Mountains of Madness" when seeing this?

Kind of a Lovecraft/Warhammer Chaos hybrid

[Bavolis]

Final version, but now I need to animate all the parts. Phew.



For fun, here's the original rough sketch:

[rongel]

That final version looks amazing! Have fun animating it! It would be great to see the animated version here too.

[Bavolis]

That final version looks amazing! Have fun animating it! It would be great to see the animated version here too.

Thanks! I think there's a fun/sanity balancing act with this one, which is appropriate to the subject matter. I'll likely throw it in youtube and link it here when I'm done

[Wiggy]

  A fun/sanity balancing act sounds like life, to me anyway.

[Bavolis]

Working on a style for intro/credits sequences now. The text is placeholder because I'm not obnoxious enough to put in two "game by" screens. Yet.


I used a photo of my wife as a reference for this one. Tear my wife into pieces, this is my title screen:



Incorporated the old short story book covers from the Something Seeps "universe."

[TheFrighter]

Tear my wife into pieces

Poor wife! 

_

[Haggis]

Your artwork is stunning, I can't imagine how long it takes to perfect each piece without any dip in quality.

Also...

Poor wife! 

Concur!

[Bavolis]

Aiming to get more weird perspective shots in the scene, I realized this one caused Jeremy to look like a tiny gnome. After working in AGS for years and releasing a full game, I just now realized you could increase the scaling above 100%. Duh. I'm trying to mask the distortion a bit through a grungy window, which works pretty well, but may end up just going for a touched-up jumbo sprite set. What do you think?

[Matti]

It looks great! 

[Bavolis]

It looks great! 

Thanks! And thanks to Haggis above, too. Somehow I missed your post

[rongel]

Nice to see progress here, the screenshot looks good, very grungy! Definitely a horror game look.

[Cassiebsg]

I think it looks great as well, and the dirty window makes the fuzzy sprite not look weird.
If you want to touch something, I would only do the hole in the windscreen, since that one should be sharp, and not fuzzy. 

[Bavolis]

Thanks folks! As for the hole in the windshield, I think I can live with the flaws peeping through in that one little spot

Although I probably *am* picky enough to consider redoing the entire sprite set for 30 pixels of visibility. No... must resist...

[Blondbraid]

I'll add to the choir and say it looks good, it reminds me of old classic horror games!

[Bavolis]

Behold, the darkest thread necromancy at the end of a year's worth of plague! I apologize for the lack of updates, but after I did the Knobbly Crook patch/additions, I wasn't sure where I'd go next and I had to convince myself I really wanted to go back to this one. As you can see, I switched Something Seeps over to Unity/Adventure Creator, both because I wanted to learn the tools for other potential projects down the road and I wanted to work in much higher resolutions with a lot more parallax scrolling and fog.

It does seem like I'll still be working in AGS in some form because my daughter wants to start up a new game project of her own and I promised to help teach her my awful way of coding and shameful hackery.

Here's a new HD screenshot! I've already reworked several of the previous rooms and sprites into 1080 hd, but this is a new one.



The following video shows how it now looks in motion, but there is a bit of EXTREME GORE at the end. Something Seeps will celebrate killing you in many horrible ways, but it will not result in Game Over screens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38dMt8g8TwY

[TheFrighter]

This could fits a Clive Barker tale!   
_

[Bavolis]

This could fits a Clive Barker tale!   

Definitely an influence of mine!