The Talkers

Gif of the overworld of The Talkers. Might take a moment to load
Gif of the overworld of The Talkers. Might take a moment to load
Inside the player's house. Here the player reads their mail and letters
Inside the player's house. Here the player reads their mail and letters

Project Details

  • Project: PS1-Style horror game
  • Engine: Unity
  • Team: 1 Programmer, 2 Designers, 1 Producer
  • Roles: Creative generalist,  gameplay, tools and graphics programmer
  • Dates: 28/03/2022 - Current
Itch Prototype

Contribution

The Talkers is a PS1-style horror game combining Point&Click and Visual Novel mechanics with a First-Person perspective. The player character just moved into a new town and is being stalked. It is up to the player to find out who the stalker is. 

 

The player will be taunted and manipulated throughout the game by the stalker through emails and letters they send you. The player has to make decisions on how to maneuver through town to avoid or confront the stalker based on the cryptic messages they will send the player. The game draws lots of inspiration from the movie Perfect Blue. 

 

My role on this project is substantial as the only programmer on the team. On top of that I am a generalist and as such also do pretty much anything that comes up. From implementing sound, tweaking lighting and adjusting the way the mechanics feel. Most of my time has been spent creating tools for gameplay and content creation and just the general technical backbone of everything that will be in the game. 

Experience

 The Talkers is not just a game. We started work on it as Katelyst, an independent game studio I and 3 others started up during our study. Katelyst went paired with an incubation program that would encourage fellow students (and just young game developers in general) to start their studio with practical access to a knowledgable support group.

 

We started this with the idea to combine the facilities of BUAS (MoCap, Devkits etc.) with various other parties in the area that try to achieve the same goal. We piloted this incubation concept over the last school year (Sept-Jul) with 2 teams that were starting their own studio as well. We provided them with business knowledge and workshops, as well as support by picking up part-time producer roles. 

 

Eventually we decided against continuing that concept in favor of "just" making The Talkers. The Talkers development is still slowly ongoing.