So we decided to start a new initiative we thought would be fun : producing short dev logs in video form. Here is the first dev log video, with the smooth voice (and Denis Villeneuve-style accent) of William Somewhat. Hope you enjoy!
VIDEO CONTENT TRANSCRIPT
I am William Somewhat, co-founder of Somewhat Software, and I welcome you to our new series of dev logs. We wanted to make those dev logs for a while now, so we could should you guys how we are making our games and share a little bit of the thought process behind each of them.
Our newest release, this week, is a game called Please Duology. This game concludes our cycle of re-releasing older games from our back catalog on Steam in 2021. The intention behind this cycle of re-releases was to beef up our catalog and build a reputation on Steam, as well as give us an opportunity to revamp and fix the biggest issues in these older titles, without spending too much time on each of them.
So this is why you’ve seen us release Steam Editions of our games all throughout the year, although I understand that a lot of players are discovering these games for the first time, which was also part of the intention behind the re-releases.
About our new game, now : Please Duology is a compilation of two games I’ve previously created as a solo dev, which are Please (released in 2019) and Please Follow (released in 2020).
Those games were influenced by trippy 70s music and movies. You might have recognized the use of the mellotron in the soundtrack of Please Follow, for example, which shows the influence I’ve taken from King Crimson and other prog rock acts of the time. Album covers and visually trippy movies such as Alejandro Jodorowsky movies were a visual influence as well.
Most players mention Lovecraft as a potential influence for the Please narrative universe, which is something I cannot deny entirely, but I didn’t feel that it was a very heavy influence during the making of the games themselves.
However, I will acknowledge Lovecraft as an influence in the supplemental material I wrote for Please Duology, all the unlockable documents I call Please Read in the game. I tried to reproduce the feel of the ‘found documents’, a technique used often by Lovecraft himself, in order to slowly reveal details about the Please narrative universe.
Speaking of the documents, those of you who played the game and unlocked the secret ending have read the very last note, which mentions people holed up in a church, waiting for the end. This document is a nod to my original idea for a potential third game, which would have been called ‘Please Don’t’, chronicling the last moments of the remaining humans hidden in a church.
Unfortunately, circumstances did not allow us to go ahead with the production of this third game. Instead, we are working on some bigger and more ambitious things that we are very close to announce. I’d like to say we’ll tell you all about it by the end of the year, but as an indie dev I know better than to make such promises.
So stick with us for a little while and we’ll have some exciting stuff to show you.
See you all real soon, under the full moon.
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