welcome to my game development blog to follow the creation of an isometric point and click adventure game!

Synopsis

Trafficking is an adventure game that takes place in New York in 1990.

You play as a detective solving a mystery trough series of interviews, with tens or hundreds of lifes at stake.

These interviews play out as flashbacks, where you get to be the interviewed person, giving you more insight into the events.

Your actions during these flashbacks affect the storyline and the ending of the game.

Features

• Classic point & click gameplay
• Branching storyline
• Multiple endings
• 10+ playable characters
• 10+ hours of playtime
• Modern low polygon graphics
• Open world
• Vehicles for fast travel

Crash course

Get to know the basics fast.

September 10, 2020

The journey begins!

For years I have been talking about this game I am going to make. What the gameplay will be like, how the story will unfold, what locations would be cool, what king of experiences I want to craft…

September 10, 2020

But what is the game about?

The game is a mystery adventure. You are investigating what happened during a span of time through a series of interrogations. All of these interrogations you experience as gameplay flashbacks during which you will play as the interrogated person.

September 12, 2020

Art style guide

Now that I have been working on the project a while, a set of rules for the art has started to formulate in my brain. I will attempt to externalize it as much as possible.

October 20, 2020

Discord

I know it is early, but I still already set up a Discord server for the project. The server is sure to come in handy for gathering ideas for plot points and puzzles!

December 19, 2020

The origins of the game

This is the story of how the idea for the game came to me during an 8 year period.

Recent posts

Read about the latest happenings

February 24, 2021

Planar Reflections and Patrol Boats

After modeling a small patrol boat I realised that I need real reflections in the water!

February 15, 2021

Isometric, large location learnings

After working on the ship location for a while, I ran into some issues that came from the fact that I was working on a game that had fewer spatial limitations than adventure games usually have.

February 12, 2021

Very early gameplay

I started to work on the actual story content after making the first script for the opening act. I captured some footage of that progress.

February 8, 2021

Procedural tools introduction

I added procedural level creation tools into the mix and set up the ship level to test them!

December 26, 2020

Uncharted charts

Creating a vertical slice of the game with around 1 hour of gameplay is my goal for 2021!

December 19, 2020

The origins of the game

This is the story of how the idea for the game came to me during an 8 year period.

December 14, 2020

Ship location update 2

I did a quick pass on the ship location populating some areas.

December 13, 2020

Evaluating asset packs

I stumbled upon some high quality asset packs that were close enough in art style to what I was going for that I figured I'd try them.

December 8, 2020

Apple Silicon M1 vs Intel i5 & i9 vs AMD 3960X

I decided to get the new MacBook Pro M1. Here is how it compares to the Mac it is set to replace and my Threadripper.

December 4, 2020

Finding reference for a Hongqi CA72

One puzzle in the game revolves around a classic chinese car Hongqi CA72. So I will need to model it for the game.

Project progress

Project overall progress.

The project is still very early. I have decided upon a general story idea and main character. I have already settled on most of the tools for the project and the 3D modelling style has been locked.

I have also outlined the first 2 episodes of the game and already know the locations (police station, cargo ship, beach under a bridge and harbour back entrance), the characters and main puzzles.

The whitebox version of the first location is around 70% complete and I have made a first pass of all of the puzzle design in that location.