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Articles
Tony
Tough in a Rake’s Progress One of our favorite games of the past few years was Tony Tough & The Night of the Roasted Moths. This pint-sized Columbo’s ‘mis-adventure’ was a throwback to the LucasArts and Sierra games of the past. During that period we became close friends with Stefano Gualeni, Tony’s game designer so, of course, we were thrilled to learn that after many trials and tribulations, a sequel – Tony Tough in a Rake’s Progress – was in development. Graciously, Stefano has agreed to write a Developer’s Journal following the creation of Rake’s Progress exclusively for Just Adventure readers. The following weeks and months should be interesting as Stefano indeed possesses a unique sense of humor and has promised many exclusive screenshots and inside information. We hope you enjoy it - Randy. Tony
Tough in a Rake’s Progress It's December already. I've recently had the
chance to meet vidoegame magazine editors and various adventures
enthusiasts at the presentation to the press of
another game I wrote in the meantime ("Dangerous Heaven",
that will be published by Bluelabel starting from March 2006, I assume). It was a trifle embarassing,
but very motivational indeed. Thanks again, little computer people. Thu, Oct. the 27th 2005 We're testing Beta 3!
Tue, Sep. the 20th 2005 Working towards the completion
of the testing, soon the new beta will be given the testers like a
carcass to a hungry murder of crows. Thu, Sep. the 1st 2005 Une histoire module LVII Love and history [...] It can also be stated that true tales are about hunger, while the imaginary ones are about love. - * - Beta testing starts today! Tue, Jul. the 5th 2005 Our european publisher
released their game site at Don't worry about those
updates... I'll keep you posted on this very log! Wed, Jun. the 15th 2005 Tony: "Wh-where is
my dog hiding? Mhhh... Pantagrueeel? Pantagrueeeeeelll? Are you areound
here, somewhere?! Pantagruel?! [pause] Thu, May the 12th 2005 How Fri, Apr. the 22nd 2005 Slowly proceeding towards
the Beta-demo version. Will all the care and endeavour
eventually add up to a consistent and charming experience? Will all
the hard work pay off in the end? Tue, Apr. the 12th 2005 We finally release the
first series of six
screenshots taken from the "alpha 2" demo version of
the game dated March the 15th. New screenshots of this same demo will soon be published in the screenshots page. In less than a month time we expect to be testing the "beta" demo version, featuring environment animation, characters in the external sets, different illuminations according to the period of the day when any specific part is played, etc. I would write a few more
lines and I'd probably even try to be slightly nicer if I still weren't
quite sick... Wed, Mar. the 30th 2005 "If I had eight hours
to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." Wed, Mar. the 16th 2005 The third "Tony Tough Developers" rally in Belluno (Italy) @ Prograph was rather intense. We've all fixed, debated, rescheduled and eaten over our contribution to this game and, with a choral effort, we've completed the "Alpha 2" demo version of the game. New screenshots taken from the first phases of the adventure will soon be published on www.tony-tough.com. Both the team's overall impression and the publisher's comments are enthusastic about the work so far (despite the severe delay) and we're indeed higlhy motivated to keep the quality level constant through all the rest of the development. We cannot show you anything
from the new demo until DTP officially releases material, but we meagerly
live in the hope we can try to quell your eagerness with a group picture
of us. Until next sign...
(Left to right: Marco, Vincenzo, Me, Valerio, Alberto and Simone.) Wed, Mar. the 2nd 2005 "If it's true that
design is a process, I should start gathering proof of my innocence." Tue, Mar. the 1st 2005 Taken from one of the in-game songs titled "Not any worse". When that night the
phone rang, - he couldn't say "hello?"
(A scene taken from the initial movie storyboard drawn by Valerio Massari) Thu, Feb. the 24th 2005 In the last couple of days
both the first edition of the scripts + texts and the rendering of
the outdoor sets were completed. On an unrelated note, it seems it stopped snowing. Thu, Feb. the 17th 2005 I find it most amusing
that a band called "Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark"
published a record called "Architecture and Morality". "Live hidden" was an epicurean motto. Unlike the artificial space
which is included in the category of "built space" and actually
imposes itself onto the masses' perception, the "imaginary one"
seems to be indeed rather shy. The same happened for you and this site. " Videogame architecture"
is framed according to principles and strategies that are a lot more
akin to scenography than to functional rationality. Buildings are
bereft from gravity, economy and accordance to its cultural and urban
context. Architecture and Morality (the both aesthetical and cultural awareness of imaginary space as part of the "thesaurus" our generation will pass to the next one). You find this boring?!
Tue, Feb. the 15th 2005 «Mh, I'd better pause for a second and reflect on what I am doing. The thing is... Well, I once again seem to be making confusion between the concepts "evade from my prison cell" and "put together a rudimentary scarecrow".» Wed, Feb. the 9th 2005 Work work work and more
work. Briefly: it's the last
week of textwriting for me and I've begun with a preliminary testing
on the first phases of the game. I literally just cannot
wait for the writing part to be over. So
Thu, Feb. the 3rd 2005 <Simone> Don't apologize
to me. I am the musician for the game, remember? The most miserable
among the slaves. Mon, Jan. the 31st 2005 <Scott> Done with
work at all for the day? Mon, Jan. the 24th 2005 «Dear Mr. Stefano, I was just thinking that together with the pictures you could just say that we've completed the classroom location and are proceeding with new characters (the mailman and the various fat ladies) and the new locations. What about something like: "the guys in Prograph - after having assembled all the seemingly interminable school part - are eventually working on the external locations and the little hospital. The cameras have been repeatedly moved in order to accomplish a better visibility and gameplay, not leaving out the original direction choices, obviously. The characters on which they're dabbling are the postman and two huge sisters, which is to say: there's a whole lot going on. Soon enough we will have Tony wandering as free as a butterfly all over Washington. I think that's something to be proud of." How do you like this as a trace?»
(Alberto Doriguzzi - TT2 Quality and testing manager, locations assembler) Wed, Jan. the 12th 2005 Christopher Kellner: «We absolutely consider Tony as art. When I first saw the screenshots I immediately thought "Wow, this is Edward Hopper creating a pc game". I also think what you as an author do is nothing less than art. Why shouldn't the author of a game not be seen as an artist whereas book-authors, regardless how bad they are, get all the credits as artists?»
(An in-game poster a of theatrical play) Mon, Jan. the 10th 2005 A very productive weekend
for what concerns my writing. It's just five more weeks to go and the main body of text will be handed in, then my work will shift from creation to criticism, which is the part I like the best. Being somehow the reflection on what is already a reflection of myself, it makes me kind of dizzy in a very ticklish way. One of the first locations in the game (the classroom) seems to be giving a hard time still to coders and animators after having severely teased Michel during the modeling. I wonder if we'll be able to overcome all the paradoxally expectable "unexpected issues" and manage to finish the work by time. While Valerio is espected to have the new external group of cameras ready by early next week, I'll try to complete Tony's comments for the treehouse and Chucho's office. Great new characters (my beloved mailman, Alexis and Lorraine Biddle) have moulded by Demis while Simone, our musician, started composing last Monday. More lukewarm news soon... Mon, Jan. the 3rd 2005 We're on vacation, allright. I want both my colleagues
and the reades to know that I am growing verily satisfied with my
work so far and even more so for its integration and that I am having
quiet nights of sleep tangled in yellow bedsheets. I would also like to recommend anybody Kim Ki Duk's last movie "3-Iron", probably the best movie I've seen in years. Happy new year everybody,
wishing for an at least less tragic 2005. P.S. Finally I too can hum that "I have a Tiki God"!
Tue, Dec. the 21st 2004 A short, delirant article by me and an interview on the forst screenshots for "A Rake's Progress" featuring your favorite developers... Or are we? All and more disgusting little thingies can be found on the DECEMBER 2004 issue of THE INVENTORY! Tue, Dec. the 14th 2004 Nearly two over sixteen sub-parts of the game are now assembled. Alberto and Valerio are collaborating for what concerns the placement of a new and enhanced set of cameras while they are respectively assembling the game (A) and sketching out the last charachters and the first storyboards for the full motion videos (V). Michel should be beginning a new interior location modeling, Demis enriching and correcting the external ones, while Daniele is busy fixing the last issues with a few details in the classroom location. Vincenzo must be trying to have icons and icon animations ready before he'll have to take care of the realization all the game full motion videos. Brrr... Marco and Ubik (Stefano C.) are moaning and twitching trying to put it all together. I am proceeding with the location texts and the integration of material for puzzles and dialogues. Feeling drained although delighted. Tue, Dec. the 7th 2004 "Climb Mount Fuji...
(One of the latest renderings of Arroyo Rd., one of the least important roads in the imaginary city of Washington. Ha-ha) Mon, Nov. the 29th 2004 November is fading like the dying embers of a wood fire and we're on the verge of releasing and alpha demo which has no evident connection with the forementioned smoldering coal. I am writing the location texts for the Toughs house. The glee of having Tony wandering around more than he previously did has a price as all forms of happiness and obsession have. In this case the payback has the shape of a quite controversial problem regarding the use of a certain bucket. On a slightly unrelated note I am growing very fond of the new characters for whom I think both Valerio and Demis are doing an excellent job. New sketches and material of "the postman" are available in the "characters" link. I presume his personality and role in the development of the plot will soon make him very dear to the ones who will decide to go through the fretting of playing this game as well. I am considering posting more background information as well... Mhhh... Fri, Nov. the 19th 2004
Tue, Nov. the 16th 2004 This stupid geographic map doesn't know a thing about my masculinity! Thu, Nov. the 4th 2004 It’s aliiive... We seem to be starting to move again, while the creative juices bubble anew. Valerio is working on “the postman” carachter and finalizing the placement of internal cameras supported by Alberto. Vincenzo is modeling objects and preparing the first edition of one of the final locations of the game. I have integrated some dialogues and laid down an idea for the initial menu, while the working plan for tomorrow uniquely consists in writing the automatic dialogues for Reverend O’Lantern and his controversial sermon on the bible’s ambiguous and promiscuous passages. Yes, young and gullible readers... It takes a good deal of imagination indeed to write a game and by no means I am Joseph Smith or something... I only have is a certain constancy and a twisted mind, besides the hope the two of them will be enough. Lemons and a small constellation of other distinctive traces... Until next sign... Fri, Oct. the 29th 2004 Beginning take 4. Today we will most likely have to face another team re-organisation in the hope this will lead more efficiently to our goal. No, I am not talking about being able to instruct monekys to train more simians, but to finally reach the transparency and the timing that I retain necessary to bring this game about. At the moment we're stuck: some delays with the graphics team not only caused malcontent but comprehensibly jammed any cog in the somehow delicate development machine. Assemblers cannot assembre the locations, writers cannot write witty or less witty remarks and although the direction and storyboard for the full motion videos is partially ready, it cannot be taken on screen. I am full of hope and passion, though and I am positive this family of issues will soon be nothing but a difficulty we've overcame in a recent past. The spare time I'm granted I can dedicate to trying to be a trifle more sociable and to go back to some solid morning reading. Until next sign...
Fri, Oct. the 22nd 2004 I hereby declare the charachters’
dialogues first edition complete. “... Drive home with no lessons learned.” Thu, Oct. the 14th 2004 We’re proceeding
a bit too slowly, but the delay is not what worries me the most. Why, at least it seems the problems with real time shadows are solved for good, game icons are being modeled and I will be done with charachters dialogues in their first edition by the end of this week. On an partially unrelated note, I am investing the spare time I am allowing myself out of the game in this last period to complete the gathering of all the papers I need to apply for a PhD in California and to steer away from a routine which got a trifle stifling and ceased to keep me stable. I strongly believe that the dialogues for this game will be very accurate and amusing, once they will be assembled. At the moment only I and a few other lunatics can enjoy them in dark corners or some equally spooky location, wringing their hands with a wry smile. Thu, Oct the 7th 2004 While the old demo we’ve prepared in September is being refined and dolled up with new charachters, fonts and pointing devices, we are blessed with the first autumnal shower.
Sun, Oct the 3rd 2004 Another hectic weekend for what concerns my personal contribution to this game! I both manged to support Valerio with the postitioning of the cameras over the main external sets of Washington, to finish writing the main body of Chucho’s dialogues (took me more or less six days so far) and to begin to structure Cornelia’s ones. Cornelia – what a lovely name – will be a black maid in her twenties who works part time for the Toughs’. Incidentally she is a pivotal charachter for what concerns the uncoiling of the main storyline thread. Yeah, like if you cared at all... Although you soon will be informed about the history and architecture of the town itself (in the “BACKGROUNDS” link), someone gracefully insisted on being informed about this game’s general characteristics. Imagining that many others would probably be more interested in something of that kind more than to listen to my petty mumbling, I guess I will try to endeavour to sum up what this game is going to be. Hrm... "Tony Tough in a Rake’s Progress” will be a very elegant 3D point and click adventure in third person. A more logical and mature prequel to the first crazed episode featuring a young Tony Tough which will paradoxally be the old Tony relatively to the time when the first one is set (the first which is indeed, chronologically, the second). The old Tony, or if you prefer, the younger Tony has just turned 13 and lives a simple life in his native town with his parents and his dog. The game is very accurately set in 1953 and allows the player to drive Tony both thru the hardness of adolescence and acne, both on the road – paved with passion for mystery and notionism – which will lead him to become the private eye we’ve cordially hated in The Night of Roasted Moths. The sun shines over nothern Italy. Wed, Sept the 29th 2004 In the last couple of days I have personally been quite productive, moulding the personality and writing the dialogues for a most lovely character named Jesus “Chucho” Juarez. His narrative and symbolic roles in the plot were of course determined in an early conception stage, but in this specific phase I need to work on his details and malfunctions, trying to give this puppet a soul and make the next human wreckage out of him. I would paste some quotes here, if only they were written in English...
As I write, Valerio is presumably working on refining the main set of cameras for the central square in the village of Washington (an imaginary, lonely and squalid town in New Mexico where our hero was raised and a big slice of this adventure takes place). Alessio is starting his journey as character animator for this project; Vincenzo is busy modelling the first set of icons and pointers... I am sure I will soon have the chance to appropriately describe the settings, my team-mates’ work, some - I guess - charming aspect of the main characters’ features, their double relationships and whatever else I may fancy revealing... Although right now I reckon it might be more interesting to introduce you to “the cast”. I have, then, asked any colleague to integrate and enrich the very schematic description of himself listed in the “TEAM” link, simply using four words. This is what came out: Valerio – “Total
and distressing waste” Mon, Sept the 27th 2004 Just like when observing a planet, I believe one can have a complete and holistic vision of what’s being examinined only from a certain range of distance. Being too close might be deceiving, being too far, useless. These few intermittent lines will not - by design - try to either describe objectively the process of blooming of this game (I’d rather call it that than “product”) nor to technically log its development steps, but to pour on screen thoughts, anecdotes and pictures which will hopefully add up to some kind of reflection of it. Whose reflection is it going to be? And why is this journal tracking the development of “Tony Tough in a Rake’s Progress” starting today? The narrative voice belongs
to Stefano Gualeni, Tony’s game designer, locations architect
and writer, besides being a real architect and a part-time human being.
It’s nice to meet you.
Needless to say I’ve been working on this game for many months before anybody else, in order to allow all the ghastly people involved in this crazy and artsy project to start working on it efficiently and to make it come (untruly) true. In my eyes it will, then, resemble more the chronicle of an embalming then of a growth, having this phase more to deal with the detailed and careful rendering of a set of ideas of mine, then to the actual production of new thought. (In a way, for me, those ideas died a while ago. More or less like the adventure genre... hee hee...) Besides my personal spare time, another reason to start today has to be found in that last meeting of ours, in which some equilibriums and roles in the crew members were rearranged (Demis Trevisson who was the character artist for Broken Sword 3, is now responsible for the modelling of Tony Tough and all the other lunatics in the game) and some, in my opinion, fundamental decisions made. This journal will, hence, start from a sort of beginning. Beginning: take 3.
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