Alebrijes

A Detective Visual Novel… coming soon to Kickstarter.

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Hello, everyone!

We were having a bit of trouble properly syncing the audio on the video last week. Thankfully we’ve figure it out!

Here’s a teaser of Alexandra’s prologue (part of one scene) which you’ll be able to play in the demo once we’ve debugged it.

Just a short re-cap: Alexandra Valente (a.k.a. Valeria Shaw) is one of four protagonists in the game. Alebrijes will feature two routes played/seen through her eyes. Her fate, of course, will be on the player’s hand as every decision will have a consequence; ever action… a price!

What do you think of the new art and the scene? Is there anything you’re interested in seeing? Is you have any questions, feel free to send us an ask!

As always, thank you very much for your patience!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the delays. This week we’re sharing an extract of Altaire’s prologue. To give some context: Altaire is unconvinced Nina Blaire’s took her own life and breaks into her apartment to investigate. Depending on your choices, you may or may not get an insight. The game is further complicated by the addition of “false insights” as well, which can occur when you investigate two objects that might lead you to incorrect assumptions.

Like Alexandra, Altaire is one of our four protagonists. Be sure to check out his profile to learn more!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Hello, everyone!

We were having a bit of trouble properly syncing the audio on the video last week. Thankfully we’ve figure it out!

Here’s a teaser of Alexandra’s prologue (part of one scene) which you’ll be able to play in the demo once we’ve debugged it.

Just a short re-cap: Alexandra Valente (a.k.a. Valeria Shaw) is one of four protagonists in the game. Alebrijes will feature two routes played/seen through her eyes. Her fate, of course, will be on the player’s hand as every decision will have a consequence; ever action... a price!

What do you think of the new art and the scene? Is there anything you’re interested in seeing? Is you have any questions, feel free to send us an ask!

As always, thank you very much for your patience!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Evangeline Guthrie | Character Chart

Hello everyone! This week we’re sharing Eva Guthrie’s character chart. This one was the most fun just because you really get a sense of Eva’s quirky personality. Just check out some of the ways in which she views others. According to her perception, Scott Lee is jealous of her and she holds authority over him.

What do you think?

Next week we will be sharing a video of the prologue with the new art!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Sebastian Cabot | Character Chart

Hello everyone! This week we’re sharing Sebastian Cabot’s character chart. This one was the hardest to create because he’s the most connected character out of the four leads. As such, we had to group his Ivanta PD teammates together rather than connect them individually to Sebastian just to keep the lines straight.

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Altaire Wolfe | Character Chart

Hello everyone!

This week we’re sharing Altaire’s character chart! With this, you’ll be able to tell how he connects and relates to other characters in the game. Which also means that these connections are how he personally views the people surrounding him. So if one of the connections doesn’t coincide with a connection shown in another character chart, then you already know there’s a discrepancy based on perception.

What do you guys think?

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Alexandra Valente | Character Chart

Hello everyone!

This week we’re sharing Alexandra Valente’s character chart! With this, you’ll be able to tell how she connects and relates to other characters in the game.

[alebrijesgame-blog]

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re having a great week so far! As promised, here’s another sample of several ITEM CGs. The ones on the left are new ones, while the ones on the right are a better version of ITEM CGs we had originally included in the demo.

Hopefully next week we’ll be able to share the intro video updated with the new art. We’re still working on updating the demo and making sure it’s working properly, but we’re very excited about how everything is coming along. I hope you are too!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

OVERLAY DESIGN | ITEM CGs

Hello everyone!

Apologies for not updating anything yesterday. We once again had technical issues (no internet). Regardless, the update for this week is about the changes in the interface regarding how we’ll deal with “Item CGs”. These are cues or important clues you’ve unlocked or gathered throughout the game.

Rather than the CG taking over the entire screen like we’d done originally, we’ve changed it so it integrates into the scene in a more stylish way. We’ve also polished most of the Item CGs used in the demo (which are so many).

Here we have a comparison of an ITEM CG from each of the four routes. The ones from Altaire and Alex were simply polished, but overall seem very similar to their original ones. The ones from Eva and Seb show a bigger change in regards to how they are presented. We’re aiming for semi-realism so it goes with the new style.

We’ll show more ITEM CGs next week!

What do you think about this change? Please helps us out by re-blogging our posts to help up raise interest in the game. We’re still working on updating the demo, but I’ll let you all know when it’s released!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

EXAMPLE CG | ALTAIRE

Hello everyone!

So updating the blog every Friday turned out to be more problematic than anticipated. So we’re going back to the regular schedule of updating every Wednesday to ensure we don’t fail to meet the deadline anymore!

This week, we’re sharing Altaire Wolf’s new CG.

Like with Alexandra, we opted for a more dynamic scene this time, ensuring the colors aligned with the CGs from the other characters. The original scene showed Altaire being comforted by his older brother Damien. We focused on the “aftermath” of Damian’s beating at his father’s hands.

But when we were re-working the CGs, we also changed the approach. This time, we see the brother’s preparing for a beating, with Damian pushing Altaire behind him in an effort to protect him from the monster that has just walked through the door. We wanted to focus on the fear and the hopelessness of the situation, which fits better with the narrative, as Altaire remembers the pain of his father’s presence. 

What do you think of the new design?

[alebrijesgame-blog]

EXAMPLE CG | ALEXANDRA

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the late update, we have been having technical difficulties since yesterday. This week, we’re sharing Alexandra Valente’s new CG.

We remade the scene to make it more dynamic as well as to have the colors be cohesive between all the CGs and across the routes. We also wanted to get a more claustrophobic feeling to the scene.

What do you think of the new design?

[alebrijesgame-blog]

EXAMPLE CG | SEB

Hello everyone!

Apologies for not updating the blog last Friday. Life got in the way. This week, we’re sharing Sebastian Cabot’s new CG. We actually opted for discarding the idea for his previous CG in favor of this one. Partly because with the previous version you would’ve had to play his route a certain way to get it, unlike with the other three main characters. But mostly because this new CG gave a glimpse into an important part of his demo. 

What do you think of the new design?

[alebrijesgame-blog]

EXAMPLE CG | EVA

Hello everyone! Happy 2019!

I apologize for being MIA. We are still working on updating the remaining art for the game, which includes the CGs and Item CGs. I’ll be updating the blog every Friday from today onwards!

Having said that, this week we’re sharing Detective Evangeline Guthrie’s demo CG. Out of the four main characters, Eva’s CG was the closest to the original in terms of content and composition.

What do you think of the new design?

[alebrijesgame-blog]

ARTHUR GRIFFITH

Hello everyone!

Arthur Griffith got his redesign this week! With this update, we’ve finished working on all the characters who make an appearance (even if briefly, as is in Arthur’s case) in the game’s demo.

If you’ve played the Demo, you meet Arthur during Alexandra’s prologue while on the train back to Ivanta. Though we don’t want to reveal too much about him, Arthur is a criminal lawyer who will appear as a support character in several routes.

He’s reserved but charismatic, with the eloquence to speak his mind without insulting anyone in the process.

What do you guys think of his new re-design?

From this point on, we’ll start working on the new CGs!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

AGATA CABOT

Hello everyone!

So we have another big update this week with Agata Cabot’s re-design. If you’ve played the Prologue, you know that like Nina, Agata Cabot --Sebastian’s younger sister and Eva’s best friend-- is dead by the start of the game. In a way, it was her death that broke our main leads apart.

However, Agata is still very present in the minds of those who haven’t been able to forget her --either because they loved and missed her... or because they feel guilty towards her. For that reason, Agata will make appearances in both flashbacks and nightmares.

For those who don’t know, Agata Cabot was the last victim of Benjamin “ChainShaw” Shaw. As such, she pays Alexandra Valente (aka Valeria Shaw), constant visits through nightmares, reminding her of her father’s monstrous deeds. Because we wanted to drive home how terrifying those memories are to Alex, we went with a more dramatic and horrific idealization of Agata’s ghost (just like we did with Nina).

What do you guys think of her new re-design?

We’ve also included a few changes to the exterior of Nina’s apartment in order to match Cobbhesit overall new design. If you haven’t checked out Cobbhesit’s new background art, you can do so here. 

This also means that we’ve got one character to go before we’re finished with the re-design of the characters that make an appearance during the prologue. After which, we’ll be able to start working on the new CGs!

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GUI: TRANSITION COVERS

Hello everyone!

This week we’re sharing the new transition/cover screen designs. Considering how much we changed the game’s interface, it felt it was necessary to also extend the style to these screens. We went a bit more minimalist, choosing an object to represent each character for a more somber style with embers peeking in.

What do you think?

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TLALOC

Hello everyone!

We’re finally ready to introduce the re-designed version of Tlaloc. The first thing you probably noticed is that he’s no longer a German Shepherd. Though it was a difficult decision, we went for a Silver Labrador Retriever this time around.

The biggest reasons for the change had to do with time management. After finishing a single pose of a German Shepherd Tlaloc under the new art style, it struck us how very time-consuming it to continue down that road.

So we took a step back and looked at other breeds. We wanted to find a breed that would maintain or fit Tlaloc’s current personality, but which would also have a shorter/simpler coat. In that way, we could compromise the original design in favor of lowering the amount of time we needed to spend on his art.  

The Silver Lab felt like the right choice. He’s not only cute, but it’s a breed that’s also known to be quite gentle and intelligent. A perfect companion for Alexandra. 

As we were deciding whether to give him blue or golden eyes, we opted to give him the special trait of Heterochromia iridium (different color eyes).

What do you guys think of Tlaloc’s new design?

There are two more characters to go in order to be able to update the prologue! Thank you for sticking with us through all these changes!

[alebrijesgame-blog]

SEAHORSE

Hello everyone!

This week Seahorse, one of our antagonists, got re-designed. The first time you meet this figure is during Eva’s & Sebastian’s prologue. Not much has been revealed about this masked individual yet, save that he kills new moms by drowning them. Who hides behind the Seahorse’s mask? You’ll have to play the game to find out!

Last time, Seahorse was the first antagonist we design and we were never satisfied with his mask (or his overall design really). So it took us a while to get the right feel of his mask, especially because the masks should represent aspects of the wearer’s personalities. Seahorse sees beauty in death and we wanted that to come across by using “heavily” colors.

We also wanted to show some of his personality with the choice of clothing, going for a more stylized version (unlike what we did with Cheshire). 

What do you guys think of Seahorse’s new design?