Kickstarter

Hey Backers! Welcome to another installment of "Meri-making." We apologize for being a little late on this update; we were working closely with the New-York Historical Society on this one, making sure we got everything right and had permission to use the images you will see below. We're sure you will be pleased with the results!

This month, we're going to take you behind the scenes of the New-York Historical Society, where, thanks to Meriwether backer and museum educator Rebecca Mir, we were able to get a few questions answered about a game element we wanted to include: a spyglass. We think this will give you excellent insight as to how we are working hard to make sure the game is as historically accurate as possible while still being loads of fun. The Tl;dr is--sometimes you get lucky, and the history and the gameplay marry perfectly. 

So sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and let the many pictures and files load for the full effect!

OUR MISSION
Hard at work on Meriwether, the team was debating how to include a spyglass (i.e. a little handheld telescope) among the various tools Lewis will have at his disposal. From a gameplay perspective, a spyglass seemed like a cool addition: you could use it to scout ahead and find otherwise hidden parts of the landscape. As we started experimenting with it, however, it became clear that the spyglass would be most useful in the game if you could set it to different levels of magnification: far, farther, and really far. But then Josh asked the question, "Do spyglasses of the period really work that way? Did they have different levels of magnification?"

It was actually two different questions: 1) do spyglasses in general work that way? and 2) did spyglasses of the time work that way? To answer both completely, we'd have to get our hands on a period spyglass--not the easiest thing in the world to do.

Enter Rebecca Mir. You might remember Rebecca from her appearance on our "Meri-thon" at the end of our Kickstarter campaign. Rebecca works as an Educator at the New-York Historical Society, which Josh had visited in the past to research The Lewis and Clark Expedition. So Josh contacted Rebecca and asked her our spyglass questions.

We knew we could count on Rebecca to provide us great information, but she went much, much farther. She invited the team to see the New-York Historical Society’s collection of spyglasses, as well as other Lewis and Clark artifacts in the museum's holdings.

First, we were allowed to examine some of the New-York Historical Society’s most important Lewis and Clark objects. Among the most impressive was this: one of Jefferson's Peace Medals.

The Peace Medal was a "coin" Jefferson had commissioned specifically to help foster better relationships with Native American tribes. They came in different sizes; Carlos (who is holding the medal) was especially struck by its size and heft of this baby.

Next, we were able to see the famous painting of Lewis wearing the "tippet" he traded for with Shoshone chief Cameahwait (who was Sacagawea's blood relation, possibly her brother). Both of us had seen photographs of the painting on the web, but were surprised to find out how small it really is! Still, there is no mistaking Lewis's pride and patrician air in the painting. It's an excellent reference work we are using not only to model Lewis's face, but, because we hit that stretch goal, the tippet and buckskins he is wearing, which will provide a hunting bonus when worn.

Lewis's tippet and this painting of Lewis wearing it have an interesting history. If you want to learn more, check out this link: http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=1913 .

After enjoying a few other historical treats, Josh and Carlos got down to business and examined the New-York Historical Society’s spyglasses.

The two spyglasses pictured above date from a little later time-period than the Lewis and Clark Expedition--mid-19th century, probably--but were very much in keeping with the kind of military spyglasses we can expect Lewis and Clark to have carried (as the technology had not progressed very much in the intervening years).

Most striking is their size. We had expected the spyglasses to measure maybe 6-12 inches (~15-30cm). The team's historian, Barb Kubik, pointed us to an entry in one of Lewis's letters indicating that he had bought a six-inch telescope for $7.00 before the voyage. Furthermore, some Lewis and Clark scholars have posited, based on evidence gleaned from Lewis descendants (not of Lewis directly, as he never had children, but the children of his brother and sister), that one telescope he had on the journey measured 15 inches (~38cm) when closed and five feet (~153cm) or more when open. Scholars believe that very large spyglass would have needed to be fully extended to work--making in an unwieldy choice for everyday use.

The New-York Historical Society’s spyglasses, as you can see from the pictures below, are smaller, though perhaps not so different than the six-inch spyglass. At any rate, they would still answer the important question of various levels of magnification that we sought.

The two differed in their designs. The larger one has one draw-tube, but it can be pulled to various lengths, depending on how far you wanted to see. The smaller one has two draw-tubes that provided three levels of magnification, depending on how many you extend--which is exactly what we wanted for the game!

SO WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

Josh and Carlos agreed: the length you pulled out a draw-tube, or the number of draw-tubes you extended, affected the level of magnification. It seemed like we had our answer.

Just one thing: we could not be sure that not extending the spyglass to its full length did not distort the image--kind of a "objects in this mirror are closer than they appear" type of effect. It didn't seem that the two spyglasses we examined distorted images, but we knew from research we had done, from Lewis and Clark scholars to modern-day spyglass manufacturers, that some spyglasses don't function well at anything less than full extension.

HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN HELP!
So for now, what we have decided to do is include the three levels of magnification for the spyglass, since our experience seemed to suggest it is at least plausible, and it does make gameplay more fun. But we do not consider the case closed! We have a very smart Kickstarter base, so if you know a little something about 19th-century spyglasses, please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

THE SPYGLASS IN-GAME

As we said, we love the way the spyglass is working so far. These test-shots will give you some idea of how the three levels of magnification will work. (Please remember that this is placeholder artwork.)

Close...

Closer...

Closest!

Besides allowing you to scout ahead, the spyglass will allow you to find discoverable landmarks and points of interest. When you look through the spyglass, invisible points of interest, represented by stars (for now), will suddenly appear. You can then walk over to them to discover what it is that makes this point interesting and what role it played in the Expedition's voyage. They will also serve as fast-travel points on the map.

NEW CONCEPT ART
So much more to tell you! We've been charging ahead on all fronts: programming, design, writing, music, everything. Here, then, is a heaping helping of our work over the last month or so, starting with concept art.

By now you know we are absolutely committed to creating honest portrayals of Native Americans. In that vein, here is our concept art for Coboway, a Clatsop chief who helped Lewis and Clark survive their Pacific-coast winter.

If you're wondering why he's so plainly dressed, it's because this is an authentic, unidealized portrayal of what the Clatsop of that time and season wore. Yes folks, this is winter attire. And compared to some other Clatsop, Coboway here is relatively bundled up--some Clatsop that Lewis and Clark encountered walked around naked.

Next up, our concept art for Pierre Cruzatte. Talk about colorful characters: this gentlemen was hired as a guide and translator for the Corps. And he also has the singular distinction of being the man who shot Meriwether Lewis in the tuckus! Apparently, while the two were out hunting, he mistook Lewis for an elk and planted a lead ball in the Captain's buttock.
Here he is. Notice the violin case; he was one of two fiddlers with the Corps, helping to keep spirits high. And for you Lewis and Clark buffs, notice that we are purposefully NOT portraying Cruzatte with an eyepatch. There is some debate in the community whether or not Cruzatte wore one: in the journals, Clark mentions that Cruzatte "is near Sighted and has the use of but one eye" but "has the use" is a phrase that is open to interpretation. So, without spoiling too much, let's just say that Cruzatte's questionable eyesight is part of the game, and that you might have to improvise a patch for him if things don't go well. Bwa-ha-ha! (See picture two.)

And last, but certainly not least, feast your eyes on the concept art for Sagacawea's husband, Touissant Charbonneau. This fine fellow will play an integral part on your voyage, so get used to seeing this face!

MUSIC
Jim Welch, our composer, has been purchasing period instruments, studying music of the era, consulting with the team (esp. historian Barb) and writing short musical studies. After all this work, we are proud to unveil his first iteration of one of the game's themes. The final version of this piece will play during Meriwether's menu screen, so it's meant to evoke the gravity of the task ahead, with all the potential for greatness and disaster thereof. We'd love to hear your feedback, so please let us know what you think! You will find the audio file at the bottom of this update.

Jim's hard at work on the various other leitmotifs and themes for the game. Here's a sneak preview of his notes toward what's he's calling the "River Theme." The team agrees the best part is the "river sparkle"!

BACK-END PROGRESS
Our lead programmer, Kyle, nearly lit his fingers on fire coding so quickly over the last month. Thanks to him, we've made huge strides on the programming side of the game. Some of this stuff we will feature in future updates, but for now, some of the main things we have accomplished include:

• Updating Unity, and implementing the new "Mechanim" system to assist with animation. (P.S. Mechanim is awesome, as it allows animations to be created much more cheaply and efficiently than previously possible);
• Pathfinding is now working (and those of you who are programmers know what a big deal this is);
• Procedural terrain for Travel Mode is now implemented! This is one of the hugest gains we've made, as it will allow us to really start testing and troubleshooting Travel Mode and get it into its final form. We'll probably center an entire future update on Travel Mode once it's a little more camera-ready, so stay tuned!;
• The Medicine Mini-Game is a hair's-breadth from being completed. We hope to have some footage to show you for the next update of this vitally important aspect of the game.

WE COULD GO ON....
But at this point the update is probably functioning more as a sleep-aid than a forum for communication. Please know that the entire team is charging ahead on every front and that we are committed to delivering you a game you will be delighted to have supported. Thanks so much, and we'll see you again in a month.

Hey Backers!

As promised, here is a video of our experience at PAX East. Kickstarter was kind enough to invite us to exhibit our demo in their room. Tl;dr — it was incredible! See for yourself below.

We are overjoyed by the response we received, and were delighted to meet many of you backers in person. To sum up: almost universally, people who playtested the game enjoyed it and had no trouble seeing the game's potential. Players especially like the writing and dialogue, the melancholy mechanic, the plant discovery mini-game, and the sense of openness and exploration that the level provided. We also received excellent feedback as well, and took tons of notes on what players had to say. On Friday in particular, Carlos would demo the game while Josh and Kyle were editing it on the fly, incorporating the notes from each playtester into a new build to put in front of the next one. Some of our notes will take longer to implement and so we couldn't test those immediately. In all, we feel like, even at this very early, months–away–from–beta stage, the game is shaping up tremendously well. 

So what's next? We will be concentrating on nailing down the Travel levels, as well as filling out the part of the game that will feature the Shoshone (Sacagawea's tribe). Jim Welch will continue to work on the game's music, and we will have new art including an improved Lewis model to show you. We also will report on our visit to the New York Historical Society, where we were able to examine spyglasses. Not only will our spyglasses make good mechanical sense in the game, but, as always, we are going to great lengths to ensure historical accuracy — and in this case, we can do both without sacrificing either. But the story of our spyglass research is a story for a future update. Until then, proceeding on!

Josh and the Meriwether Team

Hello Backers! We wanted to send a quick update to let you know that: A) we've been making terrific progress on Meriwether, and; B) if you happen to be headed to PAX East this weekend, you can come see that progress for yourself!

The good folks at Kickstarter have given us a little space in their area to show off our current build in what they're calling the "Kickstarter Arcade." You can check out the list of Kickstarted games featured there just by following this link.

The games you'll see at the Kickstarter Arcade are at various levels of completion. Ours isn't even an Alpha build yet, of course, but we will be able to show how the some of the game's key systems will work: missions, dialogue, plant/animal discoveries, and other fun stuff. We've love to give in-person thank yous to as many of you as possible, so don't forget to swing by if you'll be at PAX East. And if you won't be there, not to worry: we're planning on giving you an update that will feature pics and possibly video footage of our experience there.

In the mean time, here's a succinct summary of our progress. Programming, design and writing/dialogue are cooking with gas. We've all but achieved the milestone of "vertical slice" on all fronts, except art (which always takes the longest). Jim Welsh has collected input from the team about the score for the game in terms of mood and feel and is now at work at creating music. On the visual-art front, the team welcomes 3d modeler J. Anderson, whose first task has been to improve our Lewis model. Besides making the model more realistic, he's also rigged the face so that it blinks and the mouth moves. In all, he's moved us closer to final art on the most important asset in the game! We'll include the model in a future update (once it's a little more ready for its close-up).

But we couldn't resist showing you the new GUI that pops up when use the Observation feature. The team loves how it plays and looks. We'd love to know what you think!

Here's how the Observation feature works. When you click on a species you haven't identified yet, a GUI like the one above appears. You can choose up to three of the circles on the right, and doing so will fill in the image on the left. Then you're off to find a new example of the species to get more opportunities to fill in more of the image. Once you've completed 80% or more of the image on the left, the image will auto-complete and the species is identified. Our internal tests have found the system to be lightweight and fun, but of course nothing is finalized until our beta-testers and backers agree. Still, we're very excited with it and feel it's pretty close to beta-ready.

Finally, Kickstarter is the gift that just keeps on giving. We were contacted by the good folks at Story War because they wanted to create a special, promotional Lewis and Clark card for their game. We have to say, they did an amazing job. The attention to detail is terrific!

This card will ONLY BE AVAILABLE to people who have backed both our project and theirs, so since you've already backed Meriwether, supporting the Story War Kickstarter will earn you this limited-edition card! Here's the link: http://kck.st/155MjkF

As always, we thank you for your continued support. Proceeding on!

Hey backers!

Welcome to our first installment of "Meri-Making"! About once a month, we'll be giving you a substantive update as to our progress on the development of Meriwether. We will cover all aspects of the game design process: writing dialogue; creating art assets; composing music and sound effects; and refining game mechanics, just to name a few.

Video!

First, enjoy this video, taken at Carlos's place in Queens, NY. The video covers the planning meeting we recently had to outline our Roadmap to completion (see below), and also shows you just what a Kickstarter fanboy Carlos is. And yes, that is a life-sized lime-green papier-mâché bull head covered in Christmas lights hanging on the wall. That's how we roll on team Meriwether.

More on the Roadmap

The video gives you a good overview of our Roadmap, but here's a little more detail. We used a method similar to a “scrum board” to understand the project as a whole. First, here's a picture:

Imagine the table as a grid. Running vertically is the "Easy-Hard" axis, while the "Less Vital - More Vital" axis runs horizontally. Now, we break down the tasks we need to accomplish into individual units. These we write down on a 3x5 card, along with a time estimate (in days) of how long we think each bite-sized chunk will take. Then, based on the importance of that task and the difficulty in accomplishing it, we place it on the grid. Things that are Very Important take priority and are then assigned a due date based partially on how difficult that task will be to complete. Sometimes it makes sense to knock out a bunch of important but relatively easy tasks, but sometimes a difficult problem must be solved so that the project can proceed.

Visualizing the project as a whole in this way gives us a clear development path to follow, and it also yields the added benefit of giving us an estimate of how long it will take us to get to beta. You'll be happy to hear that this detailed study of our workflow matches our initial estimate, and that, as long as everything goes as planned, we are on-track to hit beta in August.

Writing the Teton Sioux Levels

Carlos has spent the month writing dialogue for the various characters that appear in the two Lewis levels that feature the Teton Sioux. Here is his development diary.

I've had a blast writing the main dialogues for the Teton Sioux, but it's also been a challenging assignment, to say the least. The Corps of Discovery's interactions with the Teton Sioux were fraught with miscommunications and hindered by each party's expectations of what the outcome of their negotiations should be. And of course it is at this moment in the Expedition where the Corps comes closest to total annihilation. You'll get at least as close when you play this level, so be careful!

First, a little background. The Corps encounters the Teton Sioux in what is now South Dakota. It was this nation that Jefferson was most eager to establish peaceful relations, as the Sioux were thought to be the most numerous and powerful of the known Native American tribes. Based on information gleaned from French, British and American traders and trappers who had had contact with the tribe, however, the Teton Sioux were rumored to exact tolls and tributes from those they encountered, and they weren't afraid to use intimidation as a bargaining tool.

Relations between the Corps and the Sioux get off to a bad start. John Colter tells the captains that the Corps' last horse has been stolen by a party of Sioux warriors. Their parley goes from bad to worse when the Corps discovers that Pierre Cruzatte, the interpreter they hired in part because they thought he knew how to speak Lakota, had perhaps exaggerated his linguistic skills.

Those difficulties might have been surmountable by themselves. But negotiations quickly soured when the Sioux accused the Corps of being stingy with gifts and Captains Lewis and Clark accused the Sioux of being greedy. A standoff ensued with the Corps of Discovery pointing their rifles and readying the keelboat's mighty swivel gun, while hundreds of Sioux warriors strung their bows and readied to let a storm of arrows fly. If anyone on either side had fired, carnage would have ensued. It is almost impossible to imagine that enough of the Corps would have survived to return to the United States. Both Lewis and Clark would have been killed, almost certainly. The mission to cross North America would have ended in failure then and there.

So how did the Expedition escape with their hides intact? Sorry, no spoilers! You'll get your chance to hold council with the Sioux soon enough.

One of the interesting developments that I have noted in working on the game is that, in Meriwether, unlike pretty much any game I have ever encountered, dramatic irony plays a role in most of the dialogue. A quick reminder: "dramatic irony" is a literary term that simply means the reader (or in theater and film, the audience) knows more about what's going to happen in the story than the characters do. Basically, the horror genre depends on dramatic irony: you know the last thing the busload of cheerleaders who are spending the night in the haunted house should do is split up, but they do it every time in every movie, don't they?

Because Meriwether is based on the well-known history of the Corps of Discovery, dramatic irony is unavoidable. It plays out in the dialogue in exciting (and sometimes nerve-wracking!) ways. For instance, in recounting their interactions with the Teton Sioux, the journals of the Expedition describe how the captains used threats, bluster, bribery, and even physical force in dealing with the Sioux. I promise you, many of these will seem like bad ideas to the player. But playing this game, you will have to live the history of the members of the Corps, and that means learning to think like they did. And that means sometimes saying things that, to a 21st century ear, might sound like pure madness.

Not to worry though. Madness is fun! In fact, I mentioned horror before, and it's interesting that the second Teton Sioux level has a bit of a horror vibe to it. Everything seems fine at first, and but the clues start to pile up that the Sioux might be planning an unpleasant surprise for the Corps when they try to proceed onwards… 

New "Comic Book" Dialogue Interface

In video games, it's common to see dialogue handled much like it is in film: every time a character speaks, the camera cuts to the new speaker. That works great in film (and in some games), but after testing dialogue in Meriwether, we found the constantly-jumping camera to be distracting. If we wanted players to immerse themselves in the story, we knew we had to find a better way to present conversations.

That is the thinking that led us to our new style, which we've been called "Comic Book Dialogue." This new way of presenting dialogue displays two or three lines from characters at a time, much in the same way speech balloons work in comics. We're very happy with the results: now, it is much easier to follow the thread of the conversation. Furthermore, we still will be able to control the camera to have the occasional dramatic close-up, and we think big conversations (those featuring more than two characters) will be easier to follow as well.

Ultimately, our playtesters will tell us what they think of this new system, but we're stoked about our early experiments with it. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we further refine it.

The Pacific Coast -- In-Game!

Our Environment Artist, George Sokol, has been hard at work for the last month designing and beautifying the levels that will take place on the Pacific coast. While everything in Meriwether is a work in progress, we couldn't be happier with the work George has already done. Here are a few screenshots to tide you over for now. Just keep in mind that this are only first passes, and that they'll continue to improve up until we release the game.

Upcoming Events

We have two very cool events coming up in which we'll be talking about Meriwether. The first takes place on Thursday 20 February. Josh and Carlos are heading over to Kickstarter headquarters for an Open House where they, along with other folks who've run successful Kickstarter campaigns, will talk about their project and give Kickstarter hopefuls advice and protips about getting projects funded.

We're equally thrilled to say that Kickstarter has invited us to be part of their showcase at PAX East, the largest video game conference on the East Coast. At PAX East, we will have a playable demo of the Clatsop Fall Lewis level and will answer questions about the game and discuss the development process. Again, if you're planning on being in Boston from March 22-24, swing by and say hi! More info is at http://east.paxsite.com/

And Finally…

We are gaining momentum! We have our schedule locked down, we are continuing to refine our mechanics and artwork, and we are marching steadily closer to making Meriwether a reality. Thank you again and forever for giving us the opportunity to devote ourselves to creating this game. We will continue to work hard to justify your faith in us and make this the best game it can be. Excelsior!

Hey Backers!

What a rush. That final countdown to the Kickstarter campaign was like nothing anyone on the team had ever experienced. If you missed it, you can see it in on Sortasoft's YouTube channel. In fact, you can catch any or all of the Meri-Thon, all nine hours of it if you so desire--some great interviews with game designers and Lewis and Clark experts are waiting for you here: part 1, part 2, and part 3. Thanks to all of our guests, our viewers, and to all our backers for the support you gave us throughout the campaign. Such a great way to bid bon voyage to our Kickstarter!

So now it's time for us to start making good on our campaign. We are thrilled to be back to work on Meriwether. Here's a quick update about what will happen now that the Kickstarter is over. We definitely want to keep you in the loop, but we also want to devote the majority of our time making you a great game. It's a difficult balancing act for a small team like ours. So we plan to update you about once a month on our progress. We hope this is often enough to be informative, but infrequent enough that it won't interfere with our work on the game. Our goal is to hit Beta by August, and finish the game by November, so we will be working hard to make that happen. Sound good?

One major task immediately ahead of us is upgrading to the recently released Unity 4. This will improve the game's performance as well as give us access to many new features--specifically Unity's new "Mechanim" system which makes character animations much easier and more powerful. Also, Unity 4 will allow us to use advanced shaders on terrain, which will help make our landscape look even better without slowing down the game. 

A second major task is related to content. We are developing a level based on the Corps' encounter with the Teton Sioux. Due to a number of miscommunications, the Corps ends up in a standoff with them. One of the player's major challenges is to navigate the complex politics to get out of this sticky situation--hopefully without the use of force! (But even the historic Corps of Discovery came within just a hair's breadth away from a skirmish that would have likely jeopardized the entire mission).

One of our challenges as designers is to allow players to realize that while force is an option, it has significant repercussions and should not be used lightly, as it is in many other games. The Teton Sioux episode is an excellent example of how we intend to be historically accurate, culturally sensitive, and player-centered all at the same time. We hope that striking the right balance during this episode will give us an approach we can carry to other parts of the game that require that same careful mix.

Finally, if you tell your friends about the game and they find themselves regretting that they didn't contribute, please let them know we have set up a Paypal at meriwethergame.com. They can't get quite the same deals you could during the campaign, but we have built in more scholarships into the post-Kickstarter levels so that the good folks who contribute now will also be contributing to putting the game in the hands of educational institutions. So send your friends here to contribute. (http://meriwethergame.com/?page_id=10) 

Again, thank you for your amazing support. It's time for us to get to work and do you proud. Excelsior!

Josh and the Meriwether team