Update #14: August news!
about 5 years ago – Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 10:08:43 PM

So you thought we took a vacation, didn’t you? Instead, we have some fresh news for you!

Once the Kickstarter campaign was over, we took some time off from the socials, to recharge and, above all, to restart working with more enthusiasm than ever!

First off, we started the auditions to choose the actors who will work on the English voiceovers of The Hand of Glory. The first names are starting to emerge and we are more and more convinced that you’re going to love the final result!

But there’s more! You helped us reaching the second stretch goal, remember? We were so happy about that, we started working on the new area straight away! Here’s a preview of what’ you’re going to find in the game!

This new area not only allowed us to add suggestive locations, but also and above all to give greater emphasis to Alice, the young intern that will help Lazarus during his investigation.

Apart from being a great hook to the story, this game section is shaping up to be stimulating from the point of view of the game design as well. We’re making sure that playing with Alice will be a considerable different experience from controlling Lars. Take a look at her work desk!

In addition to using kinesics, the discipline that studies microgestures and involuntary movements, Alice is a tech enthusiast with good computer knowledge (something Lars can’t get a grip on!)

That's it! Have a nice end of August and don't forget we will start sending the KS surveys in a few weeks!

To the next update!

Update #13: Final results!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 03:15:39 AM

Hi people!

The campaign is over and what a great ride it was! We gathered great numbers, unlocking two stretch goals and almost getting to 10.000€, which is 125% of our basic goal! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our backers: you have been wonderful! Here's a recap infographic!

The campaign was super-fun and exciting but also tremendously tiring, so we will probably take some days off to organize the next phases, while we wait for Kickstarter to release the funds (it generally takes a couple of weeks). So you will probably receive our KS survey in late August. We'll keep you updated on this.

In the meantime, if you haven't done already, you can add the game in your Steam wishlist!

Thanks again, and to the next update!

Update #11: The animation process - Road to the Stretch Goal #3
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jul 27, 2019 at 12:16:21 PM

PROJECT UPDATE

Hi guys, some exciting news today. We just shattered the 9.000€ mark and we're on our way to the 300 backers and the second stretch goal (the new game section in Rome), which we absolutely want to reach! So, spread the word around as much as you can, because we're entering the final 48 hours of this exciting campaign!

Today, we will talk about one of the aspects of The Hand of Glory we’re most proud of: animations!
 

A GLORIOUS PAST 

There was a time when adventure games were FILLED with them. Almost every action the characters performed was accompanied by a custom animation, making everything more real and fun to watch.

As time passed, this had to change for various reasons (mostly cost-based ones). Custom animations were replaced by generic ones, or even worse, erased using the “black screen technique” (basically, while the character is performing an action the scene fades out to black and you can only listen to sounds explanatory of what is happening). 

OUR PRESENT

We wanted to do more than this. Our initial plan was to reach the same standards of the past, animating pretty much everything. In order to do this, we needed a fast way to animate and that is why we chose to use vector graphics! When we draw a character, we use a process called “bone rigging”. Basically we build a “skeleton” which allows us to animate the character as if it was a puppet! Take a look at the following video:
 

 DREAMING OF A BRIGHT FUTURE At some point during development, we realized our plan was a little too ambitious for a small indie studio like us. Don’t get us wrong: The Hand of Glory is already full of animations; we’re just a step away from being able to animate EVERYTHING! Imagine Lars having a custom animation for every interaction in the game, every item picked, every random action he decides to do (such as fighting with a chicken)!
 

That’s when you come into the picture! You can give us the power to realize our wildest ambition! Just spread the word around, share our campaign on your social networks, ask your friends!  

We’re in the final rush, guys, let’s do this!

To the next update!

Update #12: Last 24 hours!
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jul 27, 2019 at 12:06:20 PM

Hi guys, this is it: the final 24 hours of this incredible month have just started! 

Again, we cannot stress enough how much we care about the 9500€ Alice stretch goal: we're just 200 euros short, so WE CAN DO IT!

We encourage any of you who is still uncertain if becoming a backer or not to pledge now: you will able to get your hands on one of the EXCLUSIVE rewards we have prepared for you and help us tremendously in our effort to give you the best game we can make!

And if you're already a backer you can help nonetheless by posting on your favourite social networks, forum, or whatever group of narrative adventure game you know!

Thanks again, let's close this campaign with a great final sprint!

Update #10: Let's send Alice to Rome - Road to the Stretch Goal #2
over 5 years ago – Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 01:42:39 PM

Hi, guys!

With the first stretch goal already reached, we feel it’s the right time to talk to you about our plans for the second one: Alice in Rome!
 

WHO IS ALICE? 

Alice is a young intern in the HPD, the same department where Lazarus works, and she’s enthusiastic about her position (even though they don’t pay her yet)!  Her father was a famous detective, and Alice grew up watching noir movies and spy stories, or discussing the latest case of him. It’s only natural that she wanted to become a detective herself!

In The Hand of Glory, Alice will be of great help for Lars, especially since she knows how to make use of technology (as opposed to our bold detective) and she can use kinesics, a science that analyze gestures and facial expressions to gather information. 

WHY ROME? 

We think Alice is a great character with an interesting personal story and we want to give her more space. But we want to do more than that: we want her to be on her own for an investigation, separated from Lars, in a brand new location. 

The question is: why Rome? First of all, it is the city where the author of the game, Stefano, was born. As such, he always dreamt of writing something set in the “eternal city”.
 And secondly, Rome offers some of the best views and locations you can dream of: places you all know (and probably visited) and some other places you may not have heard about! 

We won’t lie to you: we REALLY want to reach this particular stretch goal. Being able to design an entire new section for Alice would be a dream of us!

Therefore, keep spreading the word around on specialized websites, forums, discord channels, wherever you want! You already did a fantastic job helping us, but we have a few more days to make The Hand of Glory even better!
 

To the next update!