A Sleuthhounds Trick or Treat in March?

March 18, 2016

At any given time I have multiple creative projects on the go: writing, comics, and, of course, computer games. One of the games I’m developing is a Sleuthhounds game, but it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of (if you’re thinking of any). After releasing The Valentine’s Vendetta I was inspired to do other holiday related games. And the next holiday up…Halloween!

“Wh-huh?!” you say. “Halloween? But it’s only March. That’s like April, May, June…seven months away.”

The Sleuthhounds Halloween adventure is, as I mentioned, one of several projects that I’m currently working on. As far as production goes, I’m only spending about ten hours a week on it. The Valentine’s Vendetta clocked in at three hundred seventy-two hours and twenty five minutes. Assuming the Halloween game is similar in size and spreading that time out between now and Halloween…yeah, about ten hours a week.

The Sleuthhounds Halloween adventure has been in development since The Valentine’s Vendetta released. Out of all the projects that I’ve been working on, it’s the first one that’s reached a state where I can talk (or write) about it and even show an early, early, early screenshot. Thus:

[The rooftop of Tender's Novelty Co.]
The rooftop of Tender’s Novelty Co.

The Halloween adventure takes place on the rooftop of Tender’s Novelty Co. in the heart of Londinium. Here Bram Tender, the owner of the company, is hosting his annual Halloween party. However, he has received threatening notes. He’s been warned to cancel the party or else. As our heroes—that’s Jane Ampson and Pureluck Homes, if you weren’t keeping track—arrive Bram and his guests are in danger of being…or elsed. Once the game releases, it will be up to you to save them from this fate.

A quick study of the rough screenshot should show some familiar faces from previous games, with Henrietta from The Valentine’s Vendetta and Phineas Hogg from The Cursed Cannon. As well, you’ll see several repeated crowds, which also come from The Cursed Cannon. Right now, I’m just using these characters (and a duplicate of Pureluck Homes) as stand-ins for the real characters. When the final game rolls around, all of these stand-ins will have been replaced with new character designs just for this game. In the meantime, the stand-ins allow me to work on the game logic and sort out the story and characters without requiring a lot of time consuming artwork to be created first.

The characters aren’t the only stand-ins at this point. You may have noticed through this blog that I’ve simply been calling this the Sleuthhounds Halloween adventure. That’s because I haven’t come up with the real title yet. Titles are always tricky to get and I usually go through several of them before I find one that sticks. So for now, it’s just the Halloween adventure.

Right, so be sure to pop back in over the coming weeks and months for more news on the Halloween adventure. Trick or treat.