Catequesis or how to delay with style.

Hello, we have a new video and updates for Catequesis, please take a look and tell us what you think of it.

During this year of development, Catequesis has grown along from a tiny “say hello to my gun, monster” to a “We’re opening the gates of hell, guys”. We now have a strong and deep story, well built characters, new mechanics, monsters, weapons and scenario.

Chico: Oh, looks great, guys, but… where is the game? Your release date is now.

Well, the game is being delayed to 2014 during the “when-it’s-done” season,  and that’s not the only bad news… the Android port of the game will be delayed surely more than 2014.

Chico: What?! This game was the little gem I wanted to play on my smartphone. I need an explanation for this sh*t.

Simple explanation : money. Our target is now a 10$ Indie desktop game. If we put the game at 10$ in Google Play, it will not be worth the time spent in the port because of low sales (and piracy ) we will probably get for it. The game was planned for smartphones, and it still is. We will do it when we can lower the price to 1$. Don’t blame me, yell to my producer Mr. Indie Game Market.

Chico: Ok, I can understand. Let’s talk about the teaser video then. The piece of music is amazing, will be part of the OST of Catequesis?

The track  is “Danza Oriental” by spaniard composer Enrique Granados. But it won’t be part of the game, the soundtrack is being made​​ by Prison Food Sucks, a French composer with experience on electronic and chiptune music.

Chico: Nice, and the action of the game? In this video, Catequesis looks like a mistery-romantic-story-guided game.

Yeah, this is quite not the Action Trailer of the game, that’s for sure. But there are still fights in Catequesis, we will have several weapons, enemies and action situations. But not only that, the player will be able to avoid the enemies with stealth or just running like a chicken.

Chico: Sounds good, so we will have to wait for it. Anything we do for you to help?

That’s a good question, we are looking for a Japanese pal, we want someone who love video games to be part of the project helping us to make a link with Japan. Also we want illustrators to make Catequesis fanart.

Nothing more, now, time to drink some sangria and go fiestas! I mean drink coffee and make video games.  (u_u’)

What the hell, give me a big chorizo of images!

Your pixels are better than me.

Hi muchachos, we have some good news here, it will blow your mind, totally insane… bah, I’m kidding, we are still working on a lot of things at the same time, I don’t go to Corridas de Toros, Chico does not cook paella, and Max doesn’t eat croissants any more. We are all focused on the game.

Catequesis will be huge, a deep story, multiple possibilities, bosses, items…

Chico: Maybe too huge, don’t you think?

Well, yes, at the beginning, we wanted to do something really simple and short. Now we are making a cosmic odyssey. The length is not the big problem, rather the story and the puzzles: we don’t want to fill the time with repetitions, we are trying to surprise the player in each room, and that’s the big work.

Chico: mmm… sounds like we will not release the game this fall.

The game will be release this fall… the good question is “The fall of which hemisphere?”.

Here we have the amazing fanart made by Kit
If you like it, you can visit his deviantart page here: http://art-kit.deviantart.com

Ok, so you need my blood and my body skin, am I right?

Hola chicos & girls, we have tons of new material to show, but we are going to show you only a tiny part, the other part will be send to a non-existent address in New Caledonia. I’m finishing the graphics of the second big part of the game, the second floor, and then will only left the third and last part.

Chico: Hey, this is a survival and I didn’t see any monster yet. This is a big bluff with tense moments but no creatures?

Well, no in Catequesis there are monsters, several creatures, and it is one of the most important aspects in the game.

Chico: Wow, that monk looks sick ... but there will be only 3 kind of monsters like in Deadly Premonition?

No, There will be more than 3 and some of them with several different attacks. These creatures are made of flesh, and I want to use the pink for the monsters in an attempt to link the scary things to a non-scary colour. As you progress in the game the horror and creatures will be more and more surreal and weird, so these are the “usual ones”

Now I want to talk about the poll of our blog (blog.catequesis.eu) , here the results:

Which film do you find scarier?
Total Votes: 259
Ringu: 74 (28%)
The Exorcist: 72 (27%)
The Shining: 43 (16%)
Alien: 40 (15%)
Hellraiser: 14 (5%)
Texas C. S. Massacre: 12 (4%)
Jaws: 4 (1%)

Well, I have to admit that the most of the people who vote in this poll are in line with us, because Catequesis want to be a mix between asian horror and religious horror. Basically we are afraid of weird things, so weird that we can’t understand them.
The first 4 films really stir your brains in different ways. Hellraiser 1, is a good film, but more bloody than horror, and looks like the “real” horror like a psycho killer or a psycho animal looks more affordable and easy to understand. We put Ringu, but for me, the really scary one is “Ju-on”.

Fan-arts time, here we have this awesome picture from Roque Romero, he worked with me a year ago, and he really surprises me with this image showing one this things of the game you didn’t see yet, the iron maidens...

Roque Romero
Website: www.roqueromero.com
Inspiration tumbrl: pinnedblackholes.tumblr.com

Chico: Fran, today I can’t work on Catequesis I’m going to the playa.

Don’t worry Chico, me too, Max will work for us.

I left my visceras into the wrong hands.

Muy buenas people! after the teaser release we have become rich, no finished game needed. Steam, Sony & Nintendo has given us money for our awesome video, so we are planning to leave Catequesis unfinished, as a great and mysterious urban legend, and devote all our time to Fiesta-Siesta duo.

Chico: You’re a liar! nobody has given us money... oh wait... you’re a liar or a bastard!

Be quiet my friend, i’m a big liar, i’m spanish & we are paltry as the devil. Talking about that, our blog (blog.catequesis.eu) poll about horror movies is still alive, and the movie winner seems to be “The Exorcist”... what a surprise... ¬_¬

Chico: Fran, what is this post for?

Is for me, like a therapy. I need to tell the people my thoughts about life...

Chico: Show us more Catequesis material and shut the f*ck up!

Wow! That’s the latino passion I want!

In the Teaser we have shown a small part of a small part of Catequesis. But there is much more, like the second floor: the clinic. Dr. Mandeo is specialized in weird illnesses, the word “incurable” is not in his dictionary, he’s young, he’s clever and ambitious, the science is his power and he’s reaching the glory with it. Dr. Mandeo is treating the Sophie’s father, and Daniel will visit him to investigate the disappearance of Sophie. Be careful Daniel, this place is full of weird people!

Chico: Ok, so... where is the Demo? where is the Beta? where is the damn game!?

All those things are at the heart of everyone, so everybody raise your arms and pray for it... but you have to pray hard.

A teaser trailer exploded in my face

Hola niños y niñas del Club Nintendo! Today we will show you a special material, totally secret, totally horrible and totally "wow, what's this pal?!"

Chico: Wow! what's this pal?!

I wanted to show, at least, a little bit of the gameplay of Catequesis, so I decided make it right and prepare good material for the occasion. We have some new images, new poster, and a weird teaser trailer just here.

Chico: Hey I build these maps! and...with this music... looks like the apocalypse is coming.

 

The music is piece from one of the greatest Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, a part of his Suite Española, Op. 47, this special theme is called Asturias (Leyenda). 

Chico: Albeniz maked 8bit music?! Hell yeah, that's vision of future.

Aha... well the chiptune adaptation was made for another great Spanish musician, Sergio "Sergeeo" de Prado. A really nice and talented guy who collaborate with us. You can listen more of his work just here: www.sergiodeprado.com

 

Chico: Ok, everything looks awesome, so what's the next step, when will we see the game done? I want to play now! oh, wait I can play now, because I'm a member of the development group... but how my friends can play?

Well, there is still a lot of things to do yet, but we think the game release can be this Fall. So if your friends are interested in test betas, see videos, images and demos, please submit your mail in our website homepage:

www.catequesis.eu

Don't look now but I think they are watching us.

Chico: Eh, hello? Is anyone there?

Get away from here! Stranger! Ah, oops, sorry pal, I've been enclosed here for a long time.

Chico: Jesus Fran, you look like crap, what happened to you? and, more important what happened with "Catequesis" ?

You don't know Chico, they, they came from everywhere... it was a...ah, Max, poor french bastard he resisted till the end. It was a Max_sacre... Ok, I'm trolling, the game is alive, and we are working so hard, bla bla.

Chico: But you don't post any news since a month or so. Why? Tell me why!

Well, because we are working in a teaser trailer, yeah, showing a lot of stuff... yeaaah.

Chico: Ingame too?

Yeeeaaaah! So, will be a huge update and we want to do it right.

Meanwhile I have another fan art, take a look this awesome picture. This is a work of Caelin Cacciatore, she wanted to capture the ritual that Isabel performs on Daniel, and the loss of Sophie.

You can see more works of Caelin here:

deadums.deviantart.com

null-physical.tumblr.com

Fan art take my soul

Holaquetal, we are being lazy, we aren’t working hard in the game. I spend all day drinking calimocho (Cola + red wine), so we haven’t any news or updates because we haven’t any progress at all....

Chico: What?! I was working like a psycho robot while you drink calimocho?!

Nah, I'm kidding. All the game dev. diaries are about how hard the people are working in their games, and I want to give it a touch of laziness. Speaking of which, I have some fan art here.

Chico: Wow! looks great!

I'm a graphic designer and in my career I have met some pals with great drawing skills, so I decided to talk to them for some fan art of Catequesis, not only with friends, also with some interesting artist in the Deviantart community. 

And one of them is Jante, you can take a look of her amazing art here:
http://kaktus-chan.deviantart.com
http://jantelaw.tumblr.com

I want to thank her from here for the work and her interest in the game.

Chico: Great sketches too... so, besides this fan art, there is no picture or update the game?

Eeeh, we are working really hard in the game, doing our best, to make the best game as soon as possible...

How many Demons do you need to change a lightbulb?

Iepa iei, I'm working really hard on scenarios and these are the results. Take a look, these are not final gameplay images, the lighting is still to be done.

A few months ago I started a poll in our website (www.catequesis.eu), the question was:

"Which creature do you find the scariest ?"

• Vampires
• Aliens
• Demons
• Zombies
• Ghosts

First of all, I have to say that I forgot put an essential scary creature.

Chico: Yes! Where is the Chupacabras?!

Well, a lot of them like "Werewolves", "Witches" or "Chupacabras", but one in particular important, "Robots". Anyway I was curious about the results and and here they are:

TOTAL VOTES: 108 Demons - 38 (35%) Ghosts - 31 (28%) Zombies - 23 (21%) Aliens - 11 (10%) Vampires - 5 (4%) I have to say I understand the low fear about Vampires. Right now you can only think about a young guy with a casual pose and the highest toupee in the history. And you can dialogue with a Vampire, so, nothing is really creepy when you can convince him to not kill you.  I don't really understand the 3rd place for zombies. I mean, ok, a zombie/infected is really dangerous, ugly and with bad breath... but to be in the third place? a Zombie is like a dangerous animal that want to eat you. Ok, it is scary, but you are smarter ( and sometimes faster), you can defend yourself. Aliens are scarier for me, really more than Zombies, and more than Ghosts too. You know, a Ghost is a soul, they can give you a  fright, but usually it is difficult for a ghost to kill you. They only want someone that listen to their story...  but as Ghosts & Demons are linked with the religion, this is really interesting.  Chico: Ok, I understand your points, so for you, which is the scary one?  Demons, totally and without a doubt. A Demon is the worst possible nightmare. Not only can he kill you, he can play with you, he can trick you to think you are safe, he can transform himself in the scary monster ever only for your eyes, he can... I mean, it is like a mini evil god! He can do whatever he pleases, you can't escape nor survive, so is the scariest one for me. Chico: And which one will be in the game? A mix, dear Chico.

The rusty scenarios eat my pixels. Screencast #2

Buenas, like I promised I did my first video for Catequesis. It's about the scenarios I'm doing for the games and how I design the elements.

Chico: Oh, great... hey but do you actually speak in English?

I beg your pardon? I trained my academic English in the Royal University of New Hampshire and with several years of gatherings about philosophy at the Premium College of... Cambridge. So I have no problem speaking English any time.

Anyway, don't miss the Resident Evil moment at the end.

 

Sir, there are catechumens in my soup.

I promise, the next week I will do a video, or anything technical, about the pixels and graphic design or whatever, but today I will talk about the Catechesis.

Chico: Apuf, time to siesta for me....

Venga Chico, ánimo! This is a really interesting subject to talk, and maybe the readers can know some secrets of  the game.... I don't think so, but who knows.

The true is I loved the word "Catequesis" since a long time before the game, so when I talked to Mr. Max to make together a survival horror I knew the name had to be this, and when I had to structure my story I read about Catechism and I found some interesting things. First of all, in the ancient times, the word Catechesis hadn't exactly the same meaning.

Chico: zZz... Had the ancient Catechesis big creatures from the sea or dinosaur zombies?

Yes of course, plenty of them... well, the meaning of the word has not really change in the fundamental sense. Catechesis: (From greek κατηχισμός, “instruct”) Is an education in the faith which includes especially the teaching of doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of religious life.

But the big changes were in the phases of this instruct. For example, now the people are baptised when they are babies, but in the old times people were converted to christianism several times when they were adult.

Ancient Catequesis Phases:

1. First Preaching: This is an introduction to the pagan people into the elementals of the chrisnianism. 
2. Catechumenate: This lasted three years, where a godfather/mentor accompanies you and teaching you the doctrine and challenge you with tests. In this stage the catechumens can go to the church to listen mass from bishops. 
3. Baptism: The catechumens are presented to the community and they receive the Traditio-Symboli, an official comunication of faith symbol. Basically you start to be a part of the religion comunity. 
4. Mystagogy: Once you are baptised, you enter in the mystagogycal catechesis, where the bishop tells you the deep sense of the sacraments and rituals of the religion. 
5. Eucharist: This is added by me, it's not a real phase of ancient catechesis, it is a sacrament. The eucharist is a communion with the religion, a weird ritual where you eat bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ.

Chico: What the f*ck! I have to admit that with all these weird names and rituals this can looks really amazing for... japanese people, for example.

Yes, and for me. Transform this phases in chapters and mix them with horror concepts, you got a story.

How to Catequesize your stories

Hi people, after the video of Max showing the awesome editor he is creating, I'm going to continue talking about me... so what have we got after all my egocentric posts?

Chico: Well, we got Japanese weird terror, Spanish history influence... Jesus on a cloud and a giant chorizo attack.

Ok, thanks Chico, a curious mix of influences. I'm going to talk about how I create the stories. It depends very much of what the goal is. When I have total freedom and time, I don't sit in front a white paper and write until the story is finish. No, that would be the hell for me. I'm a visual author, so normally, when I think of a story, images appear in my mind. This is curious, because I talk with scriptwriters, who told me they don't see images but hear dialogues of the characters. When I have to create a story I try to describe this particular images I see.

Chico: But, in this case you do music videos. I mean, a story is not a sequence of consecutive images, you have characters, plot points, climax....

Sure, dear Chico, this is the hard part : making something that really works like story and not a sequence of nonsense. And I have a weird technique. First of all the images I see in my mind are the base, the core, so, I don't adapt this images to a good story, I adapt the story to this images. 

I put an easy bad example: 
- I imagine the hero frightened by a masked killer, escaping for building corridors.
- I imagine the hero with a mask, dancing with the masked killer in a big hall.

These images give me a true feeling of what I really want to the story, so I ask myself: "Why is the hero actually dancing with the killer?" or "Is the killer really the bad guy?" ... So, I analyse the images and try to put it on a big story scheme that really works, this way I keep the original feeling.

Chico: I see a tricky business finding the correct path to join the images.

Sometimes I spend several months to build a whole story, sometimes you don't have the missing piece and find it watching a movie or playing a game. 

Sh*t, again a long and boring post with no information, for the next I will talk about the Catequesis scheme... or not.

Catequesis Development Screencast #1

Hello dear followers.

Today, i'll show you a bit of the editor that we're using in Catequesis.
This is our very first screencast, there's a lot of room for improvement.

This editor is a homemade tool for building our maps for the game.
This first screencast shows only a tiny part of what can be done: simple map editing.

Some might found that i seem bored and speak with a french accent, but that's just to give a nouvelle vague style to this video. Fran just loves it.

Hope you'll like it !
-Max

Black Snake VS Giant Chorizo

Hello dear Chico, how was your holidays ? Did you have any gift?

Chico: Hola Fran, yes I got a new orange sweater.

Great, I got the affection of my family and the joy of my beloved friends... talking about it, lets talk about fear.

Coming back the last post, I told you about the "don't show" thing, the classic trick to generate fear in the player/viewer. So lets take an example.

Imagine you are walking in a creepy house, you start to hear a strange sound. At first you think that it is the wind, but then you approach the basement and the sound is more clear, like claws scratching. You walk down the stairs and open the door.

WAIT, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!
Right now you are scared, in your mind a strange evil creature stands behind that door, this is the classic horror where you "don't show", the player/viewer imagine the scariest in his mind.

But what happen next? The guy opens the door and... you have two choices:

1. You put an evil creature inside, with claws and ugly face growling something like "grrr".So, you waste the previously generated fear. You didn't get to satisfy the expectations, because it is really hard to do this.
2. You put nothing inside, or you lock the door, and the noises stop.So the people will call you a liar, because you create an expectation and then there is nothing.

But imagine that you don't want to show the creature but still want to keep the fear. You have to show something in the basement or have to give a new clue to the player, like a diary for example. We can keep the tension only putting the diary over a table in a creepy basement, but I propose to grab the player/viewer by his guts.

Come back to the creepy house... you are hearing claws sounds then you open the basement door, the sounds stop. Inside the creepy basement you see a white blanket covering something... or someone. You get closer to the "thing", it's like a body and his covered hand grabs a book. Suddenly an internal blood star to cover the blanket, you are afraid but you still approach to focus on the book,  get the book and you realize that it is a diary. You start to read without noticing a black snake crawling out below the blanket. Suddenly while reading an important part in the diary, the snake bites you in the leg.

Chico: Ok, that's creepy, weird and mark the player. It's like there is something to solve, something deep.

You can change the bloody blanket for a weird statue, or a girl in a corner with his face hidden, or a man with a mask talking to you in a strange language, or dancing backward.
You can only have two rules to make this fine:

1. Show something that the people don't expect. If you hear scratching, don't show a creature with claws. This way you never try to reach the player expectations.
2. Mix with unconscious fear symbols. Like blood, fangs, sharp pikes, hidden things...

This way you will show dangerous things that the player can't understand, so they will be scared by them.

Chico: So if I put a... giant chorizo with legs... mmmm... with a big knife... Does it work?

Totally sure Chico.