Michael Chiniquy

Hey everyone!

Since the summer began, I’ve managed to assemble a very talented team of concept artists, 3D artists, a programmer and a writer, and we’re all working very hard on the pre-production phase of this game. We also have our own engine in development that’s coming along very nicely that’s created specifically to suit the needs of the game. We’ve got a bunch level designs, 3D models, character designs, story and dialogue created so far and we have no plans of slowing down. (Unless real life interferes, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!)

A lot of people have commented on the video and have been asking for a way to follow our progress, and I think the time is right to show you guys our Facebook page which we will be using as our main outlet to show everyone what we’re working on. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep it as free from spoilers as possible in terms of enemies and story elements, but we’ll see how that works out later.

https://www.facebook.com/soundofsilencegame

Please like this page if you are interested in the development of our game, and thanks for taking your time to read this!

Michael Chiniquy

You can check it out here at FMV Magazine if you’re interested to see my views on what I want to do with Sound of Silence as well as why the horror genre is so stale today,

http://www.fmvmagazine.com/?p=8367

Wow, I could not imagine that this would be picked up and accepted by the Internet community so quickly. What’s funny is that I didn’t even have any intention of spreading the video in the first place, that’s why it’s been on my YouTube account since the beginning of February pretty much unwatched. Either way, I’m very happy that all of this happened since I now feel much more confident about making a reality out of Sound of Silence, and it’s all thanks to you!

I’ve received hundreds of e-mails from people who want to volunteer and help out, so I’ve been spending most of my free time making sure to read every single one of them. Sorry if I can’t respond to all of you, but do know that I am very grateful for every single e-mail that I’ve gotten from you!

At the moment, I’m waiting for the current semester to end so that I can fully focus on this project and truly get the ball rolling. I’ve heard Kickstarter be mentioned over and over again by people, but I wish to clarify that I have no intention of making a Kickstarter project before I have a fully functional alpha build to show to everyone. I’d hate to be one of those guys that literally only has an idea to show and asks for money , I’d just feel guilty about doing that right now.

So once again, thanks for the interest and well wishing, I’ll make sure to not let you down. I’ll most likely be using this blog as my primary channel of communication, Twitter is to small and YouTube feels rather impractical having to make a new video every single update. Either way, stick around!

- Michael Chiniquy

Feel free to tell me what you think of the gameplay ideas that I’ve come up with so far and ideas on how to improve. All feedback is appreciated!

Hey, everyone. I’ve been doing some planning on trying to get some skilled developers and 3D modelers interested in this project, so I’ll be creating a concept video using Unity3D as well as skillful editing with After Effects to illustrate certain game mechanics to both the players as well as the developers. I’m hoping to get it done within these next few weeks, so stay tuned.

So I’ve been incredibly busy with a lot of stuff lately ranging from college, to Everybody Edits, to other projects that I’m not actually allowed to post yet since they are still in an unfinished state. With that said, I’ve decided to try to become more active with this blog and post more content. I started out by renaming the Games page to Projects so that I can just shuffle every new finished project that I’ve done in there such as web designs, logos, game graphics, UI, etc.

Also, feel free to make requests for stuff, like tutorials and we’ll see if I have time to make one.

A little while ago, I was hired by Erik Dahlman to create some cool looking card templates for him to use in his own game called Genegrafter, a so called “Customizable Card Game”. At the moment, he’s looking for funds so that he can kickstart his project with a goal of 2500$, a sum that would help him cover most of the expenses that will arise because of production, shipping, etc.

Top-right corner!

The layout and overall look of the cards are all made by me, so feel free to help us both out by buying the game!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1460165270/genegrafter

I’ve managed to find the time to take some fall-inspired pictures fairly recently. Big fan of the golden colors. The link down there will lead you to my photography section since WordPress is terrible and doesn’t let me turn this in to a separate gallery using shared pictures. Bleh.

Click here to visit the photography section.

I made a bunch of new graphics that were just added to Everybody Edits for everyone to purchase and enjoy. Check them out at www.everybodyedits.com !

I’ve also been working on some brand new card templates for a client of mine at Dataspire Games that turned out quite well, in my opinion. Once I get permission to post them here, I will do just that.

To be entirely honest, I’m not entirely sure what direction I’m supposed to take with this blog, since limiting it strictly to my hobbies/work won’t be very content filled during weeks when school takes over my entire schedule. I’ve been thinking about stuff like tutorials and similar things, but I’m not too sure. Perhaps the readers could give me some tips?

Managed to find a client who was interested in having me make trading card templates for a certain amount of money. Can’t tell you much more than that right now, not allowed to tell.

I’ve been doing some serious thinking and planning with how the level design will work with Sound of Silence to make it as unique and fresh as possible. Some people have commented on my plans as being a “personalized horror game” which sounds unique enough to me. I really wish I had more time to develop some actual assets for this so that I could begin testing, but that’s sadly not the case these days.

Basically, the way it works so far is that the levels will be divided in to “components” as I call them, that are completely interchangeable and can be swapped at random depending on what fears the players experience. Imagine that you are incredibly afraid of spiders, for instance, and that the choices you make in this game tells the game that you want to avoid them as much as possible. The game will respond by altering level layouts to include rooms and areas that are specifically crafted to take advantage of this and instill as much fear in the players heart as possible. Each component will include between 3 – 5 fear events that can be anything from heights and darkness to snakes and spiders. These events, once the “insanity meter” is high enough, will manifest themselves by trapping the player in the room and start to shake you up until the insanity meter runs low.

Those are my preliminary plans so far. If you are a C# programmer interested in bringing this to life in Unity 3D, don’t hesitate to contact me!

EE News: Me and Cyclone are working together on a new contest system that allows teams to register themselves and manage team mates. Expect a contest fairly soon!