Winter is Coming

December in Berlin and it’s getting chilly. The cute hipsters, full of avocado and rye bread, settle into their warrens for hibernation, single-origin coffee waiting on the reclaimed-wood bedside table for spring.

I too find myself spending more time indoors, working hard on Sentenced. My weeks consist mostly of working and exercising, with the occasional cafe trip or social event thrown in for good measure. After almost half a year of travelling, moving flats and general impermanence, it actually feels good to slip into a routine for once.

I’m currently working towards having a playable demo ready for Talk & Play in January, a bi-monthly gaming event organised by BerlinGameScene.com. I want to have a single execution demo scenario playable, with all the art, animation, audio and coding together and working.

I have chosen the execution of Anna Arnoldin as the first to develop. Her crime is the murder of her abusive husband, which I chose because I wanted to pick a crime that was representative of the overall tone of the game. Pairing murder, a crime which most of us agree is wrong, with an understandable and sympathetic motive will hopefully demonstrate how I aim to make players feel conflicted about the righteousness of their actions.

This scenario would come about mid-way through the game, as the game begins to ramp up from punishing criminals who deserve it into less black and white territory.

In other news, I was recently interviewed by a podcast, The Gaming Outsider! It was the first time I’ve ever done an interview of this kind, and it felt like bit of a milestone, being the first time I’ve spoken about the game in a public forum. With the exception of a few university talks, it was also the first time I’ve ever been able to talk about my personal inspirations and passions, as I’m working on my own darling, rather than big product for a company. And because I’m a filthy little egotist, I love it. The link is here, in case you missed it.

Keep it weird!
Samuel Gordon

Now I Live in Berlin

Guten tag! Dear reader, I’m happy and excited to announce that I’m writing this blog post to you from Berlin! I’ve been here for four weeks now, and I’m beginning to settle in. I found a flat, which was stressful, I set up my workstation, I’m exploring the city, and it feels good. The excitement and thrill of moving to a new city is upon me, and I am energized! I’m living in Kreuzberg, a lovely part of the city with lots of cute hipsters and good coffee.

Those of you who follow me closely on social media will know that the diary of Franz Schmidt, Nuremberg’s executioner from 1578 - 1617, has been a huge influence on the setting and aesthetic of my game, so it feels good to be here in Germany working on it. At some point soon I will make a field trip/pilgrimage to Nuremberg to visit Henker Haus (Hangman’s House) myself. After immersing myself so fully in the world of Franz Schmidt and reading two books about him, I feel oddly connected to this reluctant early-modern dealer of death and physician on-the-side. For those of you interested I highly recommend reading ‘The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century’, by Joel F. Harrington.
 

Speaking of pilgrimages, let’s talk about my family connection with Berlin. My Grandfather was a Jew born here 1925, in the well-off district of Charlottenburg. To be blunt, it was a bad time to be a Jew in Germany. During the 30’s, the increasing hostility that resulted from the propaganda war waged by the Nazi government against the Jews was catastrophic for the family. His Grandparents, who owned 5 shops selling ladies hats in the city, were forced out of business and, unable to find asylum in another country, committed suicide. His father became sick with Tuberculosis and was unable to leave the country to seek medical aid, and died at age 36. 

As many Jews were beginning to be taken away to concentration camps, being left without a father gave my Grandfather, who was 11, and his younger brother priority to leave the country on the famous Kindertransport, which was a train organised by the Jewish authorities to get children out of the country. In 1936 my father went to a foster home in the lake district in England, and the rest, as they say, is history. His mother eventually escaped too, but was not reunited with her children until later.

I’ve always wanted to reconnect with that side of my families history, and my first stop on that journey was a visit to Katharinenstraße, the street where my Grandfather grew up. Today, all the buildings from that era were gone, replaced with modern architecture, but it was still interesting to try and imagine the street as it once was. Next, I’ll attempt to find the grave of my Great-Grandfather, which will be much harder as nobody living remembers where it’s located, or even which cemetery it’s located in. Wish me luck.
 

The introduction to this post, as if you couldn’t tell from the fact it was typed in Courier New, is the beginning of the first ‘Sentenced’ script. Writing is now fully underway. Since I now have space to set up my Vive once more, I’ve also been back into the game engine, testing and improving. I’ve updated the character physics a little to make interactions less ridiculous, and figured out a way to make bloody slashes appear on a model if struck with the sword. This game is horrible.
 

I also modelled this young townswoman for the crowd!

It’s full steam ahead from now on (apart from in October when I travel to Japan for the month), so as usual, watch this space and social media for all the latest.

Auf Wiedersehn!
Keep it weird,
Samuel Gordon
 

Reanimation

Hello Lovelies!

What a great couple of months it’s been! Between catching up with old friends, getting stuck back into Sentenced, and even squeezing in a couple of little holidays to the Forest of Dean in the UK and Vienna, I've been having a blast! It's been nice to have a bit of space to unwind and find myself again. For my last few months at Weta I was exhausted for most of the time, and now I've recovered it really feels like I'm alive again. 10 hour work days do not agree with me.

As my current accommodation here in my parents place is a little on the small side, I can’t set up my Vive right now. As such I’ve been continuing to focus on art and assets for this month. I’ve created another of the hero characters from scratch, the guard, as well as the first crowd character, whom I've lovingly named Brunhilde, and also some new props and tweaks to the scale of the execution scene.
 

In other news, I’d like to welcome a very special guest to the Sentenced team (which was, of course, previously just little old me). Antoni Kujawa (@blokepainter), an old friend from Industrial Light & Magic, has managed to negotiate a four day week with his current employer. Instead of using that extra day to relax and have fun, as he should, he has offered his services as a look development & texture artist in exchange for the simple opportunity to work on a video game. I’m extraordinarily grateful for his help, and to begin he’s been taking a look at improving the look of the castle walls.

Last week I also attended my first ever game developer’s conference, ‘Develop:Brighton’. I went at the urging of my friend Jasper, @JasperPT , who is developing his own mobile puzzle game, ‘Will it Fit!’. I was slightly concerned about whether I would fit, but it turned out to be a great experience. I’ve got no true insider experience of the video game industry, coming from a VFX background, so it was useful and interesting to get a look behind the curtain. I got to watch some really inspiring and interesting talks on subjects ranging from managing voice actors to AI chatbots and indie game marketing advice. I met some interesting and friendly people and most importantly, had fun.

Finally, I have set date for moving to Berlin now: August 13th. The flight is booked, it’s happening people! I’m very excited.

Keep it weird,
Samuel Gordon
 

There and Back Again

I write this from my parent’s house in Buckinghamshire, England. I’m back in the country after almost a year in New Zealand. It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon, my third summer in a row thanks to my hemisphere-hopping antics, and the birds in the garden are tweeting up a storm. Life is good. 

First, allow me to apologise for the extended silence here on the Phantom Magazine blog. When I work in VFX, I have to sign a strict NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), which prevents me from talking about or showing work from anything I’m working on professionally. In addition, I’ve been working for Weta Digital, (The Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes), a company with a 50 hour standard work week, which often rises to 60 during crunch time.

Some snaps from NZ

This lead to a situation where I spent the vast majority of my time doing something I can’t legally talk about, which is not a great recipe for social media output. It’s a source of frustration for me, as I love to share the things I’m doing with people, however, in the corporate world of filmmaking, the profit is master and we must obey. It also left me little time to work on my game.

However, all that is changing as of right now! My contract at Weta is up, and I’ve saved up a fat stack o’ cash, hopefully enough to support myself until I finish development on my pride and joy, Sentenced. I’ve already resumed work on the game, and re-assessing some of the work I did last year and bringing it up to standard.

An updated version of the Magistrate. New style!

Heraldry for the Port city of Sentenced.

I’m going to be staying with my parents up until the end of July while I catch up with friends and family in London, after which I’ll be moving back into a place of my own, most likely in Berlin. I’m also currently in the process of applying for German citizenship, so it seems like a good time to go the country and learn the language. Also, I hear that’s where the cool kids are at. Maybe the coolness will rub off on me? Is that how it works?

Anyway, it’s all go go go again on the Phantom Magazine front, so follow me here on the blog and also on Twitter and Instagram for all the regular updates!

Keep it weird,

Sam