Hey everyone!

My name's Dylan and I'm the creator of Black Noise. I've been working on this project for the better part of 4 years now, though in reality, I've only really started last year. For most of the time I've spent, it's been trying to figure out how to make this game work, both as a good game, a story, and financially. I've also changed a lot as a person throughout this pre-development cycle and as such much of the game itself has changed since this game is really an extension of myself, but the core idea is still and always will be there.

What is Black Noise?

Black Noise is a stop-motion third-person point-and-click adventure game with heavy survival horror influence, but I must say now, this is NOT a horror game. Though there may be quite a few scary moments, the goal of the game is not to scare. Perhaps more accurate to say it's more uncanny and unsettling, I don't think most people would be scared by it (at least, it's not my intention.) I'm also aware I put this in the horror game section but hey I need to get visibility!

Heavily inspired by the likes of Silent Hill, Rule of Rose, Pathologic, Sanitarium, but also with alot of game design philosophy from the likes of Majora's Mask, Knights of the Old Republic, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts.

There's also a lot of movie influences too, Stalker, La Casa Lobo, any Brothers Quay film, any Jan Svankmajer film, any David Lynch film, etc... I could write multiple pages about this when it comes to film influence, but I digress.

With all of that in mind I still don't think it's ambitious as all these influences make it sound, the most ambitious part is making it with real life puppets and sets, gameplay wise it's quite simple and have already made a few different prototypes of it.
To really boil it down, even though all of those games and ones like it have influence in every aspect of game design, expect it to be like the level design and mechanics of Majora's Mask, with the gameplay loop of a Survival Horror, and a heavy focus on narrative content like a point and click adventure.

There will be enemies to fight, puzzles to solve, interesting and fun mechanics to play with (hopefully), and a mysterious story to keep you intrigued (hopefully). 

Why make Black Noise?

To put it simply it's a vent project for me and even if I don't get fame or cult classic status and this is just hidden under the rug I'm happy with that because really just a way for me to express myself, and the achievement of completing this game alone is all of the fulfillment I need, recognition and money are just some nice bonuses, but to go further despite the esoteric attitude this game takes I believe some concepts are simple enough where one can understand and sympathize with it if not find comfort in it as I do. 

While the goal is to make a fun game, I also am going to go really all in when it comes to narrative as I find that just as important as making a game that's compelling and fun to play. If I wanted to make a movie, it'd be pretty easy, considering I'm doing all stop-motion, but I think a game is just a better way to tell the story. 

When can we expect release?

I can't make any promises, but I must say, making puppets and making sets is a very lengthy process, and at the time of writing I only have 2 puppets which I'd consider complete and 1 set which I still think needs more work done. This is all within 4 months of work, though, I must say I did complete the second puppet much faster than the first puppet, so perhaps the more I do and learn better techniques and strategies I'll become more efficient at doing it, so perhaps the time towards completion will decrease exponentially as time goes on.

As for actual gameplay, I'm really aiming for something by March. A small demo/prototype to show off the aesthetics and gameplay is what I'm hoping for by that time, but life is tricky so who knows... 

Conclusion

I'm going to be posting progress every week from now on, since I'm at the point where the game really starts taking off and I want to make sure I get the name out there now rather than later. I'll also say future posts won't be nearly as long as this one (unless it's a fairly big update)

I'm excited to go through this journey, and more excited to finally show off what I've been working on for these past few years. I'll see you guys next week, where I'll be posting some behind the scenes on how I made Evelyn, the protagonist!