The Nuts and Bolts of our new project & Horror Unity Event at 30 of March

Hello Everyone!

At first, I'd like to let you know that Genesis Game Studios along with Student Guru Unipi will be hosting a 3-Hour Event at University of Piraeus, on 30th of March, with me talking about Unity3D Game Development and more specific a quick development of a 3D Horror Survival Game. This is the poster for the event:

And thus, the time has come to reveal more details about our new project. It is Friday the 13th after all, which fits perfectly into the mood of our game.

So, last week, we said that we are preparing a somewhat big project, at least moving away from mobile titles a bit. So, it's a great pleasure for us, assembling a new team once again, and going through the path of PC Indie Game Development.

At this very moment, we will not reveal the true name of our game, and will merely call it with a codename, more precise, Project AH.

Okay, straight to the main course then! What is the game all about?

Project AH is going to be a First Person Adventure / Horror Hybrid game that is going to be featured in full 3D, and released in the PC Platforms, aiming for as many digital stores as possible, including the Windows 8 Store.

What can someone expect from the game? Of course, everything that you can expect from Adventure Games and Horror Games. In a nutshell: Puzzles, Riddles, logical thinking and Spatial Reasoning Puzzles, that each affect the progression of the story. And on the other hand we have the creepy presence of a terrifying Monster that lurks around, that has made the goal of its' life not to let you rest. Not to let you think straight before you solve the puzzle.

As a result, the player will be in constant vigilance and in parallel will try to solve the puzzles thrown at his path in order to proceed through the game. Everything will be story driven, and it's the player's goal to go and find out the rest of the story. The whole theme and setting of the game will be revealed in later posts though, so you know exactly what we have in mind..!

The thing that got us into the project in the first place was our urge to beautifully and creatively manipulate the strongest and most ancient emotion the world has ever known : Fear. Which can be easily elevated in First Person Horror Games when done right.

So, that's about it on our genre and platform reveal, next time we'll talk about the inspiration part and story and setting.

As a side gift, here is a screenshot from our prototype build:

"Open the door, or Stay right where you are?"
Dummy Prototype Screen with Dummy Textures on the walls. Don't mind the Sanity Meter. It's built for testing purposes.

Have fun!

New merits for Team Genesis, Leaking Screenshots!

Hello again, people! This time we got EXTREMELY exciting news for you!

First of all, we would like to announce that Team Genesis won its' second reward in Imagine Cup - Honorable Mention in UX Challenge, climbing to the top 10 of the Games Category in the world once again...!

User Experience (UX) Challenge was about creating 2 documents filled with diagrams covering basic gameplay flow of our game, the target screens and their functionalities, 2 LowFi Wireframes about our gameplay and menu screens as well as one HighFi Wireframe concerning the gameplay.

You can see Imagine Cup's Official UX-Winner Announcement here: http://bit.ly/1kHjeTH

Kudos, team!

Secondly, and that's somewhat even more awesome for sharing with you, we will now leak the first ever "ACTUAL" screenshot of the game, which is actualy the high fidelity wireframe that we submitted over to the UX Challenge.

In the following screenshot we are revealing quite a few things:

1. The characters in 3D !
2. Some of the Rooms of the House!
3. The Whole User Interface!

So... without further ado, behold, our UX Challenge Screenshot:

Note: This Screenshot was taken in January. Trust us, there is MUCH more to show you :)

Things are about to get nasty, as one week remains until our game is submitted for the Greek Finals so now, team Genesis is going on full power! Let's do this!

The Curse of the Rat King

Hello people and have a great week!

It's Monday and it's about time we gave you an exclusive update for Dementia : The First Scenario to be implemented in the Game for our Imagine Cup version of the game..!

Story :

" It's been 10 years since anyone has set foot in the Bloodthirsty Manor. Spectral Remains of tortured people roam about. All the explorers shake hands at the entrance and they hope they do find what they seek in this God forsaken place.

Cracks on the floor, Chains can be heard from far away and nearby, a sound that no human ear can easily discern, strange light from unknown sources is filling our hearts with hope, as we venture deeper and deeper into the house.

We can hear the rusty gears of the machinery room every now and then, yet there is no power in the house. Only candles to show us the way, it feels as if the kind spirits of those who seek revenge from the evil ones, guide us to find their dirty little secret. You can feel there is darkness lurking in every corner of the house, under every sheet, or blanket, all you think you'll find is blood.

Everywhere. 

The whole house itself may be acting against us, but we know our true purpose here. And we hope our minds can bear with what tricks it will play us. Our sanity is the only veil that covers our terrified soul from the aparitions of this damned place. Dark Clouds gather and cover our footsteps. 

We feel like there is no way out. Most of our comrades seem to have lost their minds, they all have grevious wounds made by either cursed objects, animated furniture, or even themselves. Everyone is on the verge of insanity. Especially this shady man, with which we entered the house. But who is that man really?

You can hear his screaming. You can hear his pain. You cannot feel anything less than empathy for that poor soul. He seems completely ruined and drained. Yet here comes the skittering sound. Noises of low-pitched squeaks now roam in the house. You can feel that the house is infested.

Suddenly, the noise gets louder and louder. Every time. Things only get worse, as we have met up with our friends at the Entrance Hall. Except this one man. We know something has got to be happening. His screaming has now reached a climax. We can feel his tears on his face. He is not screaming because he saw something. He is crying out loud. He knows he has met his demise, or will probably do so soon.

Loud Skittering sounds are getting louder every second. We hold hands with our friends. We curse the moment we decided to enter that pesky manor. Why bother? Why leave that hot cup of tea and our favorite books lying in our rooms, yet to be finished, just to come here for "our greater purpose"? 

When we took the courage to walk forward, we saw him. He was not the same as before. He had a skull on his head, his body was hairy and pale gray. He had a long tail and his hands held a staff. Our friend became a were-rat. He were frozen in fear when we saw him. He completely ignored us, rushing towards the basement. We knew that such abominations should not live in our world. He was not our friend anymore. He was a demon.

"The Rat King Himself - One shall be deemed worthy enough
to command the army of Rats. That night, he is the chosen."

As we ventured towards the basement ourselves we were attacked by his vermin followers. Rats! Rats everywhere! It was a bloodbath. So we took matters in our hands and keep moving towards the basement. He heard wicked words out of the WereRat's mouth. He was their king. And even more Rats appeared out of thin air. 

We knew our final, true purpose. We HAD to destroy them all..."

The Curse of the Rat King - Scenario #1

We took the liberty of giving you out our first Scenario this way.
But what will you be at the end? The shady man who turns out to be a wererat? Or the fellow companions who must battle their way through the maze of Rats?

Most of all... Who do you think emerged victorious?

Leaking one of the Rooms of the game and Promotion across the Internet!

It's about time Dementia got some publicity! We had our time on the project and we decided to do some sharing around the internet so even more eyes can see our game!

We want to create the community around Dementia : ToBM, we want people to start talking about our game, to anticipate it coming, we want to go to Imagine Cup Greek Finals and win.

So, for all those guys that managed to get to our blog, we have one huge question:
Do you know someone or have a friend who likes Board Games? Show him this blog!
Do you have anyone who likes online action with a bunch of friends online? Show him this blog!
Does your dog like ghosts? Show him this blog!
Do you know a bunch of people who enjoy horror stories around campfire at midnight ? Show them this blog!

Everyone who likes board games or video games should check us out!

We can't stress it out more - We believe that word of mouth can help spread this idea even further, and generate the amount of audience required for Imagine Cup and success for this game. We believe in our idea, now it's your turn to believe in us :P

We look forward to talking to each and every one of you, to hear out your ideas for the game, and to share as much as we can by the time of development of the game.

Anyway, back to the usual stuff!

We got our monkey programmers on site to create fantastic traversal experiences at the moment! Interestingly enough, the house itself is made of 3 floors (as you already know) - The Ground Floor, where all the ordinary rooms can be found, such as the Kitchen, the Dining Room, the Abandoned Room, the Altar and/or the Hallowed Organ Room.

Then there is the Upper Floor, which is a bit creepier if someone is fond of heights... You never know where you might end up to! Such rooms are the Attic, the Collapsed Room, the Office and the Master Bedroom.

Last but not least, we have the most dark place of the game: The Basement Floor! The Basement has all those creepy rooms that may give more spice to your horror stories, and all those horrible stuff happen there. Rooms of ultimate darkness include the Ritual Chamber, the Incinerator, the Machinery and the Crypt.

Now, what were those "traversal" experiences that we mentioned before? Our explorers can reach the upper floor by ascending the Grand Staircase, found right at the start of the game. Then, through the Collapsed Room, they can fall down to the basement. Their only escape is the Staircase to Foyer which leads to a Ground Floor Tile. Finally, they can find themselves in the Basement after discovering "The Leap Of Doom", a semi-collapsed room found in the Ground Floor that leads directly to the basement. One way!

Currently we are making sure that they reach their destination as requested from the in-game GUI.

Now, for the highlight of the post I would like to share a Leak of 1 Room with you - just to get an idea of what the house will evolve into:

Behold: The Main Entrance Hall, Including Foyer and Grand Staircase Room Tiles !!!

Welcome to the Blackthorn Manor. Dare to Open the Doors?

And with this... I shall leave you :)
Experience the Curse!

HexCraft Release Soon!

It's #HexCraftWednesday, and we will fill you in with the latest.

Our game will feature 12 different leaderboards! Finally, we got this working with Azure Mobile Services and we feel that this game is really coming to an end.

As you saw in our latest photo in Facebook, we leaked how the main menu will look like!

HexCraft - Being Tested on Windows 8 - Desktop and Tablet versions.

HexCraft is currently under playtest mode and we look forward to hooking you up with the Download link soon! Expect the game to be released in February!

Also, we will appear at infocom to showcase our game, we will be expecting you :)

For more information, visit this link : http://www.infocomapps.gr/

That's it for today folks, see you next week!

Bashing code for HexCraft like crazy!

The days are passing and HexCraft's first release is being prepared. We got galactic monkey demons writing code, so you guys can finally play!

This week we have started going into rage mode for our promotional art, and adding finishing touches to HexCraft, such as Facebook login and In-App purchases. We expect to be done around the end of the week, if everything goes as smooth as we hope it will!

Each level you play is going to have a dead-simple goal : Solve the puzzle. That's it! You don't have to worry about the best time, or the best moves, anymore, as we are only recording these for getting you into the global leaderboards of HexCraft, meaning that if you like playing for fun, then we won't stop you, or mess up your experience!

The very first release of HexCraft will be for Windows Store, and soon there will be a Windows Phone version coming right after.

Stay tuned people, till next Wednesday!

HexCraft Promotional Image - Coming first on Windows Store

Let's do the HexCraft Dance! - Gameplay Video

Hello people!

How's everything going? It's HexCraft Wednesday! Everything goes smooth in the world of the hexagons. We are adding timers on each level and playtesting like mad, every single level. Some of us suck at this game, we got to admit, others are just getting better, so we really hope the time we give out for each level suits everyone's playstyle and it really helps them out to gather as many stars as possible.

Besides designing for levels we are just begining turning our wireframes into in-game UI, so that is "under development" as well. Social Media is still a pain, since we have been researching quite a lot on how to implement such features correctly.

Remember what we promised you last week? Was it a candy? Was it a toy? Or maybe was it a HexCraft Alpha Version Exclusive Gameplay Video? Bwahahahah, and just as promised, here is some video footage from our gameplay currently in alpha version (Which only means it will only get better)

By now, you get the idea of the whole game, and for those who still haven't i gotta warn you it may not seem as easy as it seems on first sight. There are actualy some hexagons that will make your life easier and some that will make it harder, by turning around all other nearby hexagons. Sure, you want to turn that Cyan Hex into an Orange one, but just by doing that, you may turn all Orange Hexagons around it to Cyan Hexagons.

Think before you act! But then again, there is the factor of "Moves" and "Time". It's a tough call...

Catch you next week folks! ;)

Hexagon Cells gone crazy!

Guess what? It's HexCraft Wednesday!

Time to fix you up with the latest..!

So, what's been going on at Genesis the latest week? With all those crazy projects on, our minds are literally blown, yet we are so thrilled to just keep going at the same pace as before to deliver..!

HexCraft is coming to a pretty decent shape, since we have finished up the procedures of level design and we have been working on visuals, leaderboards and porting to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.1 Platforms.

Each level now ought to be tested thoroughly, as those little cells are taking away chunks of our time, in order to properly create a challenging enough experience for everyone out there. 

Looks Yummy. Next Week!

We have a special treat for you people, next week - We promise to hook you up with a sweet Gameplay Video, so stay tuned, there are puzzles to be solved!

You can see our progress here, when our programmer has failed enough times on this puzzle so he can now solve it perfectly right in front of you, hey dont cheat now, when you get the game, okay? ;)

This HexCraft Puzzle is calling out to you "SOLVE ME, SOLVE ME!"

Hello Imagine Cup - Hello Dementia

Been 2 days since our announcement of HexCraft, and now here are some big news for you : Genesis Game Studios will do their best to compete on Imagine Cup 2014 , Games Competition.

Hello World, Hello Imagine Cup

Do you like ghost stories? Do you like exploring the unknown, possibly encountering numerous supernatural beings? What if...

Stories. They are everywhere. In pictures. In our minds. In our surroundings. Every house has a story and every object around us has a story. What if you could experience the story?

"10 years ago, in our hometown, we used to gather at the entrance of a big old house that was built upon a graveyard, just across a Church. Legend has it that spirits of its' former dead owners wandered around the house and we wanted to experience seeing a ghost hovering above the floor. Careless and mindless as we were back then, we ventured into the house with flashlights in order to explore it. 

The very first night we attempted to open doors and explore its' rooms 2 of our flashlights went off at the same time, and we heard strange noises like footsteps along with a chain slowly approaching us as the sound was getting louder and louder. This was enough of a chilling experience for us, as we went out of the house and never ever came back. Who knows what REALLY happened there after all? "

"We never ever mentioned about the house... Until now."

Based on this story, we were so deeply inspired to create a game that would, in its' very essence, bring this thrilling ghostly experience to you, as much as possible, and as such, Dementia, the land of Madness was born. (Dementia = Madness in Latin)

We created our very own universe, with its' crazy characters, all willing to explore places with bone-chilling stories, curses and haunts. The very first place which has many stories to share and experience : The Blackthorn Manor.

To get to the point : Introducing Dementia : Tales of Blackthorn Manor , a survival multiplayer turn-based strategy game with horror elements. The Blackthorn Manor is a cursed building with 3 different floors: The Upper Floor, the Ground Floor and the horrible Basement. Up to 6 players may enter the house at any time and start exploring it. Every time you play, the rooms appear randomly, and you never know what can happen, what is waiting for you on the other side of the door... Can you open the door?

Every room has a story to share, or a seal to break. Each time you break a seal, there is a chance for you to trigger a curse. Every curse changes gameplay dramatically, as one of the whole lot of you explorers, turns into a traitor and most of the times transforms into a horrific supernatural (or not) creature that the rest of the explorers have to fight.

You never get to chose sides, that's the risk of exploring the Blackthorn Manor, your goal is to either destroy the cursed one, or when  YOU get to be the cursed one, your goal is to destroy the others.

What this game has to offer is many many random stories, random traitor setups and a different style of play for each curse that unfolds.

Following is a screenshot of our prototype that we have been working on:

4 Brave Capsules are exploring the Blackthorn Manor...

Every Friday we will be keeping you informed about Dementia : Tales of Blackthorn Manor and we will be updating you with concept art, models, environment. Stay tuned, there is much more waiting for you...

Experience the Curse...

Welcome HexCraft to the Genesis Family!

Happy new year everyone! 2014 has arrived and we promised for special news! So here they are!

We are announcing our first puzzle game to come on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 Platforms : HexCraft !

HexCraft is a hexagonical tile puzzle game, featuring over 200 puzzles for you to solve and sharpen your
brains! Can you beat them all ?

The concept is pretty simple. Rotate all the hexagons so that you solve the puzzle! Just tap on the hexagon to rotate itself and all its' neighboors around themselves but be aware, rotating the wrong hexagon may make the puzzles even more challenging than they already are!

But then again, rotating the right hexagon may result in making your lives easier..!

Here is a sneak peek from our Level Design :

We focus on designing pretty, challenging levels to bring you hours of fun!

We will be bringing you news of HexCraft every Wednesday, so stay tuned people, as we have even more spicy news to share!

First week at MIC is over!

What a crazy week it's been! We had a blast over at Microsoft Innovation Center, on our first days of finally working together as a team. Did you know that we were working over skype for at least 7 months? It's a relief finally seeing each other's faces, going crazy on our laptops in this great workspace we are provided with!

Our website is live, our blog is live, our social media started spreading everywhere, we will do our best to keep the fire burning and inform you guys about our latest endeavors. Speaking of which, the Genesis Team says "THANK YOU" for this initial love by liking our posts and our pages, we would like you to know that it really helps build the morale to keep us going.

The Genesis Team

And we have one more announcement to make! This week, on Saturday, Genesis Game Studios along with Microsoft Hellas, are organizing a Unity3D event! Kudos to Found.Ation for providing the space to do such an event. Don't you miss it if you live near Athens!

Stay tuned for more juicy updates in the week!

Site and Social Media Launch!

Hello people!

Today is Genesis launch day for us and we are super excited about this! Everything goes public, there is no turning back now, we must keep on fighting!

"Grab your swords, your shields and your potions of ultra awesomeness +2 and show to the people what you can do!" - That's today's feeling.

You may visit our site, which you can find either here or on this blog, on the tab "Our Website" and you can see what we are currently working on! Should you have any questions or inquiries about us, don't fear, we don't bite! Send us an Email or try out our contact form in our site!

Any likes or follows are very appreciated, and keeps us going :D