Part 1
It has come to my attention through numerous references, reviews, commentators and friends that Part 1, compared to what I am designing and showing off in Part 2, is of a ridiculously low quality. Basically, people I have shown and tested with, do not like part 1 at all when compared to even the alpha stages of part 2.
This, along with my personal distaste for how many things came along for part 1, has brought me to a startling conclusion: Part 1 is going to be remade using the brand new tod, level design, director's design (see features page) and mindset. Yes, you heard me: Part 1 is going to be remade completely from the ground up, bugtested, polished, enhanced--whatever you want to call it.
The idea for the project will be expanded upon in the future. But essentially, the entire thing is going to be transplanted from the state it's in now to a much more polished, bug free, enjoyable and downright pretty and optimized state. All of the natural vegetated areas will be completely remade to a new intended atmosphere, all of the port will be optimized to be easier to navigate and understand, the new book reading system will be introduced instead of the overlay messages, and maybe even a cutscene or two will be added for immersion's sake.
Here is my proposition. I am going to remake and re-release part 1, and after that is done, I will count on both your help and your feedback to further create part 2. I know many of you did not like part 1's initial release, and many of you wished for more out of me from it. But keep in mind, it was my first mod *ever*, and now that I know what I'm doing, things can be different.
The old part 1 is going to be kept here for reference, a before and after, but once part 1 is re-released it will be completely shifted into the background/made basically as a testing prototype and not recommended to play.
You might be able to revisit Part 1, completely redesigned and reoptimized, in less than a month. I have all the logs, voice overs, music, etc already made, and can rapidly redesign what I already know. And I can't wait to do it.
Part 2
A question that was on my mind after I released Part 1 to the public was "What do I do next?". I knew that Worry of Newport was a very niche offering, to a very small community (as reflected by the meager 60 or so followers of whom I respect completely). I knew that after Part 1 was done, and after the wildly differentiating feedback ceased, I had to make good on the promise of making this a coherent series. I had to make or break that deal to the community I'm designing this for.
The roots are being regrown
I decided to go for it and make Part 2. Doing so required that I rethink my entire approach to telling a horror story, as many elements present in Part 1 confused or downright annoyed players. To start with this, what I consider horror to be is putting a person into an atmosphere full of story and personality which presents a constant threat and dread. There still exist many people who disagree with me, and these fledglings in the genre often protest that full blown gore and monster filled mayhem is the only way to scare the player--or reader. I intend to stand firm against that notion even more with the development of Part 2, taking my own theories into pure practice.
To do this I've immersed myself in a lot of proper horror literature and theories, including but not limited to H.P Lovecraft, Stephen King, Poe and Rod Serling's creations as well as numerous essays. I have decided that the best way to scare the player is through what they see and hear.
The tale of Newport Colony is a very, very heavy one. The underhanded and subtle/dream like approach of Part 1 is going to be slowly done away with in part 2 to reveal the chaotic and unnerving truth. The senses are the most important aspect to analyize when one wants to come to the consensus on what makes horror truly affecting.
Non-text only progress on part 2 can be found in the images page, and soon the features and videos pages where demonstrations and graph or picture oriented overviews will be uploaded. For the mean time I have immersed myself in study, in intellectual design, in learning from other level designers and from my live experiment the Anthology of Horror.
