Hello again!

We’re back with more development progress for Need to Know, which has continued at full speed since our previous update.

A lot of our work since the last update has been behind-the-scenes, so while there’s not a huge amount of exciting in-game stuff to show, we do have a lot of (slightly-less exciting) groundwork to share!

The main focus of this update is on some of our recent programming work on the game. Quincy will share some more details on this work, which has, in part, involved developing and linking together a bunch of databases - he’ll try his best to make it interesting.



Programming

One of our focuses with programming has been integrating all our databases together, to improve the interaction between them, and make entering new data easier. We’ve also overhauled the way in which story segments are pieces together behind the scenes. Read Quincy’s section later on for more in-depth explanation!

We restructured how segments in the game (like mission and conversations) fit together, which will give us more control over pathways in the game, saving us time and avoiding bugs. The previous arrangement was very hodgepodge, and didn’t allow us to get a quick overview of how the segments were fitting together in-game. The image below shows our new editor, filled with sections from the alpha.

Our new behind-the-scenes content editor, where we put game's sections together

Although we need to make some usability refinements, this new system is already fully functional.

We replaced our clunky old suspect editor! More on this in Quincy’s section.

We’ve also started implementation of the face generator, a process which is speeding along apace, due to the experience Quincy has picked up with the suspect detail and evidence generators. By keeping the database structures quite similar, we saved quite a bit of time in this process, without having to compromise functionality.

Quincy also implemented some smaller additions to our generators. One of these additions was the integration of mission rules into the evidence generator, which will also be covered in more detail later on.

Writing & Game Design

Pinpointing the introduction point of every new gameplay element, such as being able to pore through a suspect’s dating history, or rendition them to another country for interrogation. We’re trying to introduce different, novel features at a steady rate throughout Need to Know .

. Cataloguing sound and art requirements for every Clearance Level.

Clarifying the identities, mission statements, jurisdictions, politics, tones, and salaries of every Clearance Level. It’s a big list!

Ensuring every Clearance Level maintains clear narrative goals, stakes and urgency. These are some of the most essential elements in keeping things exciting- think of this as running diagnostics on the story.

Building up multiple-section assignments, such as the serial killer sequence, and the presidential election subplot. For personal investment and enjoyment, we feel that it’s essential to set them up earlier in the game, and link them with the protagonist’s development.

Incorporating backer-submitted storylines smoothly into the game’s existing plot. We want to avoid them sticking out awkwardly as side-missions, so that they fit into the world and hold up on their own. Fortunately, the ideas that we’re working with have been extremely inventive, and already blend really well with the game’s tone. Much appreciated from our end!

Collaborating with Quincy on structuring the suspect database and editor. By the time of release, we’ll have added thousands of entries, so it’s essential to ensure that process is as efficient as possible.

Sound

Using Tristram’s detailed frameworks, Byron has been zoning in more specifically on some early scenes and missions, by tailoring tracks and ambience to fit the tone of each segment.

Art design + UI

Alison has completed all the sketches for the in-game backer faces, and is now moving onto the process of colouring - this will take the images from their current wireframe-y state to faces which will look like you!

One of your backer faces, at the sketch stage

Our plan is to use components from these faces, along with faces from the alpha and new faces, to generate a bunch more faces. Reusing these elements in the generator will allow us to have an even wider range of facial generation possibilities in the game. To this end, Alison started the exhaustive process of adapting both existing and new faces to have a more consistent facial structure. This will allow the face generator to be set up reasonably simply, while still offering lots of facial variation.

We now have an in-game pause menu which, SHOCK, now actually pauses the game! A few people who played the alpha brought up the fact that there was no way to pause or change settings while playing - we’ve fixed that. Also conspicuously missing from the alpha was the ability to press ‘Esc’ to open and close the menu, which you can now do! Check out the GIF linked below to see the new menu in action.

Click for a GIF of the the new menu!

So, when's it coming out?

We’re still pushing for a release around the middle of the year, specifically in the July to September window. Since this is our first foray into procedural generation (and other aspects of development), we’re yet to see how well the generators will work together, and how much adjustment they will need. This makes it really hard to pinpoint when the game will be ready. As always, our main focus is on quality, so we really want to make sure we get everything right before committing to a date. We can only release once, and getting the right amount of polish on the game first time around is absolutely key.

The received wisdom from others in the gaming industry is the October to December is a bad time to release indie games - this is when many big AAA games launch, capturing most of the attention of both journalists and gamers. With that in mind, we’re really really keen to get Need to Know ready for release before that window rolls around in October.

An attempt to make databases interesting

In our last update, Byron shared more about his work on the music of Need to Know, and this time around Quincy steps up to describe his recent programming work on the game in a bit more detail. Here he is:

As my work on the in-game generators has progressed, it’s become increasingly clear that reusing and cross-referencing data in the generator will be critical for producing good results. The more we can link various sorts of data together, the more variation we’ll be able to produce, and the more time we’ll save in manually writing content. To this end, my main focus since the last update has been to develop, consolidate and connect the game’s numerous databases, which were previously scattered and stored in different locations.

What do these databases hold? Almost all of the game’s content - missions, mission rules, suspects, evidence, suspect details like names and occupations, and soon face components like noses and hair.

The navigation tabs for our database editors - with the Location editor currently open, as part of the Suspect Detail editor

An example of one such database is the person/suspect database, which I recently overhauled to improve usability, and to connect it the other in-game databases.

Our old suspect editor used a modified version of the suspect card that is shown in the game, but this approach turned out to be less practical than expected, as it was difficult to select things like the suspect’s face and location. The new-and-improved editor is almost complete, and is shown below with some suspects from the alpha.

Our new suspect editor, nearly finished!

Unlike the old suspect editor, which only used the location database, the suspect editor now connects to several other editors and databases, like the occupation database. When we’re manually creating a suspect, this allows us to click “Select occupation”, and be shown a searchable database of occupations to select from (this is the same database that is used for generating suspect occupations in the suspect generator).

For the alpha, each suspect just had a text field for their occupation, which was fine for the ~30 suspects in the alpha, but this would be extremely limiting if expanded to the scope of the full game.

So, why is it so useful for the generator to have these databases connected? The generator works by pulling elements like names, occupations, locations etc. from separate databases, and comparing which details are appropriate for each other. In theory, this means you won’t have lots of incongruities like Chinese people called “Jeff Bridges” or unemployed people who own 200 foot yachts. To prevent this from happening, we need to create a relationship between different pieces of data, like names and ethnicites, to tell the generator which elements are compatible.

(As a side note: We do want some quirky people like this in the game, but we want to write them so they make sense, rather than have them created in a nonsensical way by an overly-simplistic generator.)

In a previous update, we posted a simple diagram of compatibility relationships between different suspect details - here it is again, partly for context, and partly because I like my drawing of Beartato.

A diagram of relationships between suspect details

Such restrictions are also needed for the evidence generator and face generator - some websites, for example, would really only be frequented by people in a certain age range, while a person’s ethnicity needs to be at least somewhat represented in their portrait.

Each piece of evidence also needs a list of any rules which it breaks - for that we have the mission rule database, which contains the rules which say what the player should look for in a particular mission. Linking generator evidence and rules together was essential for the generator to work in a gameplay sense - this allows the game to internally compare generated evidence with the current mission’s rules, and determine if the player has done the right thing when processing the suspect (as far as the rules go, at least!). Our previous setup required us to manually mark a suspect’s evidence as suspicious or not, an approach which is much too simple to work with the generator. In the alpha, suspects and their evidence were each tied to just one mission where the rules were static. In the full game, generated evidence could be used in a variety of missions where the rules are quite different, so this more complex solution is required.

I could write more about dependencies between data types in the game, but I think I’ve already written ‘database’ more than enough times. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into some of the inner workings of Need to Know, and I’m really looking forward to sharing some generated suspects as these databases (there it is again) are filled in the coming months. Ultimately, all this work should hugely improve the variety of suspects and evidence found in the game, resulting in emergent gameplay and much more replayability. We can’t wait to see the results!

Backer poll 8 results

We had a good number of votes in Backer Poll 8, where the question was “Which recent major news thread(s) would you most like to see incorporated into Need to Know?”

We’ve collated the results, and here they are:

Backer Poll 8 results

An interesting mix of responses, with an understandable preference for us to explore the power of information. Even if we don’t transplant these events straight into the game, we’d like to cover their related issues with equivalent scenarios. Regardless, these topics will come into play more during the game’s later stages!

You once again submitted some great ideas in the ‘Other’ category - here are some of our favourites:

“Panama Papers! You forgot about Panama Papers!” (Worry not, we definitely have the Panama Papers in mind!)

“Foreign government changing political course and limiting journalistic rights and filtering internet.”

“The growing threat of AI undermining jobs and economics in general”

“Rogue executive branch”

“The game should be timeless and not be linked to any specific news and instead an idea” (We totally agree - if we’re referencing current events it will be through themes and the general structure of events, rather than particular people or even state actors)

Thanks for your continued input! It’s so useful to get an idea of what you’re most interested in, so please keep it coming for future polls!

Backer poll 9 is ready for your votes

With the game’s story elements becoming more set in stone, this time around we’re keen to hear your thoughts on a part of the game which isn’t so closely integrated with the broader story. The question for Backer Poll 9 is: "Which in-game phone app(s) are you most interested in using off-duty?"

If you’re a backer from Clearance Levels 9 to 0, head over to our website to vote!



What will we be working on in the next month or so? This:

Programming

Implementing the face generator, using our current design.

Restructuring how missions work in-game to prepare for new types of missions.

Implementing some new mission types from early Clearance Levels.

Adding some more functionality to the in-game phone.

Writing & Game Design

Working through gameplay elements for one-off missions, including ideas for your character to make discoveries and have an instant impact on the world during an assignment.

Further testing on existing mission types and gameplay mechanics.

Adding more off-duty elements, especially those you access through your phone.

Cataloguing every interaction for the first 5-6 Clearance Levels of the game.

Collaborating with Alison on faces for the many recurring characters.

Establishing audio cues for main characters with Byron.

Sound

More music! More!

Art

Continuing work on suspect faces.

Preparing some components for the face generator, to see what works, and what doesn’t, so Quincy can make any adjustments that may be needed.

Working on some new aspects of UI design, with a focus on colour, and a more visual way to represent progression through Clearance Levels.

We’ll be getting more into the specifics of physical rewards - we hope to decide on the exact composition of things like the DoL agent kit and decide on designs for other elements like T-shirts. Our main focus is working on the game, but we’re keen to keep the ball rolling on Kickstarter rewards so we can send these out to you at the same time as the game.

If you have any questions or ideas, please keep sending them in! Until next time, goodbye!