This morning I woke up, and the first mail I saw was this:
“Do you ever do updates of development status? Or add new screenshots? Or, open a forum for people talk about your game? OR DO YOU JUST LEAVE UP THE MOTHER FUCKING BUY MY GAME FOR $10 RIP OFF BULL SHIT WHILE YOU COLLECT THE PEOPLES MONEY? FAKE GAME ASS MOTHER FUCKER.” - John Q.
then this:
“”It is taking way to long to update the blog not even thinking of investing in this game….. I check every day every FUCKING DAY and no update or anything thanks for nothing….” - Raging
I’m sure many of you already know this, but for those who don’t, let me assure you that making a game takes definitely quite some time. Also, if you don’t want to spend money to help us out with the project or if you don’t want to wait for us any longer, please don’t. Or at least try to stay calm, because the game will be finished and it’s going to come out, no matter what happens.
On the other hand, it’s true, most of you don’t really know much of what’s been going on, what happened, how everything started and where is everything going. That is why I’m going to write my next post personally and describe the whole story behind RIOT so far.
RIOT Game Background
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In 2012, after experiencing a few riots back home in Italy for the first time, and after realizing how much the television was fighting to hide or manipulate some of the bloodiest and most powerful events I’ve ever thought existed, I automatically drew a few images of what I lived, using the style of one of the coolest games I’ve ever played at the time: Superbrothers Sword&Sworcery:EP. This was where everything started, and even though at the time I had no idea of what would’ve happened next, I kept saying to myself: “Dang I really want to bring these guys to life somehow”. |
Turin 2012, later used as Tahrir revolution in the 2013 trailer
Chianocco Clearing concept 2012, NoTAV revolution |
I officially moved from LA to Turin a few months after knowing that there was a lot more going on in Italy than I thought. I met up with a friend of mine (Lorenzo Mori) and an artist that I met through some new friends in a riot (Luca Delloste), and in mid July 2012 we moved together in my parents’ house for a few weeks to work on RIOT for the first time.
The amount of work we accomplished was amazing, and the results were beautiful. That was the first time I realized how awesome this game could turn out.
First RIOT team. On the left Luca (additional artist), in the middle myself (Leonard Menchiari, creator), on the right Lorenzo (Programmer), July 2012
The team was powerful, but it lasted only two weeks. Lorenzo had to study in England, and Luca left to explore Europe with absolutely nothing in his pocket. I didn’t want to give up, so I had to find a solution and keep working on the game myself.
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At this point I decided to learn programming by my own through the endless possibilities that the web has to offer, and by February 2013 I was able to put together a very simple and cheap prototype that I made with my own hands. I couldn’t go on without money and without a place to stay though (mostly because I needed the internet and the power for my laptop), so I had to find another solution soon. |
Early prototype 2012 |
That was the moment I decided to start the Indiegogo campaign so I could work on RIOT for about an year or so without having to worry about food or finding a different place to sleep every single night. Once the indiegogo campaign started, I was able to make around twice the amount of the $15k I initially asked for. This definitely gave me a big push to move forward, and make this game a whole lot better than what I initially pictured.
Very first concepts and experimentations of 2012
The money was spent for licences, to hire different people, and to pay rent and food. Unfortunately, because of many issues, the team had to be changed several times this year, causing the project to drastically slow down in different occasions. But even though the game design was delayed for several months, we had to go through many different programmers, and there were some dysfunctionalities with the public relations department, the team is solid now, and the speed on the project is constantly increasing. We’ve been receiving a lot of help lately, so hopefully you guys will be able to see some in-game footage progress and how things are moving forward fairly soon. We’re also finally starting to picture a release date, but we don’t want to anticipate anything because I don’t want to make any promises yet.
Many things happened, many obstacles were passed, but the team is moving forward and for those who are still wondering, upset, scared, or tired of waiting, I can assure you that this project will be made, and from what I can see, I can already say that it’s gonna turn out pretty sick.
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Rioters style comparison from 2012 to 2013 |
Police style comparison from 2012 to 2013 |
Just a few last things, before I get back to work.
There is a forum for those who were asking. It’s not official, but you can find it on the Steam website. That is what we’re using right now to read comments and suggestions: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/discussions/129385144
As soon as we get an official forum page, we’ll make you guys know of course.
About the demo, we decided to work on it some more rather than sending out something cheap and hasty, so hopefully we’ll have some more updates about it soon.
Also, until we fix the Public Relations department, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll do most of our updates there from now on.
Again, thanks a lot for the support! You guys are great and with a little more time and patience you’ll finally see how sick this project is going to turn out.
Riot on,
Leonard Menchiari
