This is how we made our brochure for publishers

This is how we made our Trip the Ark Fantastic brochure for publishers and investors

In our last blog we talked about how we made our pitch video aimed for publishers and investors. In this blog, we are talking about something similar – a brochure.

For starters, you may ask yourselves: why would you make a brochure if you made a pitch video? Pitch video is much more cooler and, at the end of the day, way more dynamic. And, yep, we agree. That’s why we’ve made the brochure much before the pitch video. Look at it as the first step in getting closer to getting a publisher/investor.

If you’re an indie developer and looking into making your own brochure, here are a few tips ‘n tricks.

What to talk about in your brochure?

Sure, you decided to make a shiny new brochure that will blow away your potential publisher, but first, you need to know what will you talk about in it. So, here are a few bullet points to get you started:

  • What is your game about
  • Three to five key features in your game (and explain them a bit)
  • A bit about the story and lore (if you have any)
  • Gameplay mechanics
  • Your team
  • Your inspirations
  • SWOT analysis
  • Some facts about marketing you did by yourself so far (if you did, that is)
  • Details about your budget, e.g., what will you spend on all those millions you get from the publisher
  • Also, don’t forget about the timeline for the production of your game

We used only free and open-source software for the brochure

When you’re an indie developer, you’re always on the budget. Until you get the investment or a publisher, you’ll have to find a workaround for everything. Luckily, Gamechuck comes to a rescue!

For this brochure, we used three completely free and open-source software solutions. For image manipulation (and much, much more) we used Krita, which we already wrote about. Read more about Krita below.

Now, for everything design-wise, Inkscape is the way to go.

Basically, you’ll have to do the brochure page-by-page, and Inkscape is a pretty powerful tool for that purpose. Inkscape is made for designers, illustrators and magazine/newspaper publishing, so you may say it’s rather capable. The UI is a bit rough around the edges, but you’ll get the hang of it relatively quickly.

The software saves your progress as a SVG file, but it can export the page in various formats, as shown below.

Considering we use an open-source desktop publishing tool, Scribus, we have exported each page in PDF format.

Scribus is another neat open-source software, and pretty easy to use. Basically, all you have to do is to know the dimensions for your brochure, and you’re ready to go. Why the dimensions? Well, because you’ll also want to print your brochure for all the events you’ll attend when this pandemic goes away.

When you generate a new document, then you’ll just import all the PDF files you’ve made with Inkscape; page by page, of course. Like so:

And, that’s basically it. When you’re satisfied with the layout, just export the thing, and you’re ready to spam the publishers and investors about the awesome new game you’re making!

Does making a brochure take a lot of time which I could use for making my game instead?

Glad you asked that!

It definitely depends on how much you want to show in your brochure. It took us about a week of continuous work only on the brochure with additional fixes and updates. So, in total, we spent around two weeks on it.

Does it mean that you could have spent that time for game development instead? Well, yeah, but your brochure is definitely necessary as a communication tool you’ll use to reach the publisher and/or investor.

Or you could just ask your colleague/friend/family member to help you with it. It’s up to you.

But, before you go, here’s something really cool!

As a token of gratitude for reading this blog, you can download our Trip the Ark Fantastic brochure on this link.

How did you like it? Let us know in the comments below, or on our TwitterFacebook and Insta!

This is how we made our Pitch Video

This is how we made our Publisher & Investor Pitch Video

In our quest towards making Trip the Ark Fantastic an adventure RPG like no other, the development of the game is made on several fronts. The one of the key fronts is business side of game development.

Yep, we made a pretty cool brochure, too. Also exclusively for publishers and investors. BUT! We are going to show it to you in our next blog!

Basically, we are looking for a publisher that is going to help us with our vision for Trip the Ark Fantastic. But, you have to gain some interest from potential publishers, right? Sure, the brochures and Powerpoint presentations are cool and all, but the form of a pitch video is much more tangible and personal. So, we decided to do just that.

Making the storyboard

Every video out there starts with an idea. For our Trip the Ark Fantastic pitch video specifically, Alex, Gamechuck CEO, and the game’s project manager first created a storyboard that contained all the scenes. Then, we were ready for some rough sketches that looked like this. And, nope, we are not kidding.

In the first idea, Alex was supposed to stand near Gamechuck arcade cabinet, but we later changed that

This was pretty much enough to make a first rough draft, so we did just that. Igor, our marketing guy, and community manager powered-up his favourite video editing program and created the first version of the pitch video.

Our very first Ark pitch video draft!

Upon finishing that, we wanted to show that cool office dynamic!

Time for filming some scenes at the office!

Gameplay, artwork, trailers. Those are always great to see, although for this occasion, we simply had to catch our team on camera. Luckily, every month we have one of those major production meetings, so it was a perfect time to film people how they work, and catch some of the meeting itself.

Some casual photos of the team as they arrive to the office.

Also, seems like Matija wasn’t that amused 😀

Resemblance is uncanny.

One of the most important scenes to film was the one when Alex introduces himself, so we filmed several takes. The last one was selected for the pitch video.

Then, it was the time to get some videos and stills of people working. Granted, this was somewhat staged. Each team member has a role in production, so we wanted it to be obvious on the video. So, for example:

Piet working in Godot Engine
Jan using Ink for story and the dialogues
Ivana using Krita for some sketches and animations
Fenton working on the composition for the soundtrack

Finally, the meeting itself, where we talked about the next steps needed to be done for the game.

And, this is basically it. The next step was to put everything in the video editing software, record the narration, make several more changes and the video is almost ready for sending!

Do you have any tips or suggestions? Let us know in the comments below, on our Twitter, Facebook or Insta!

New Day – New Coder

New Day – New Coder

Since last month, we have a new coder on our team! It’s Krunoslav Gregorec, who has years of experience in several Croatian gamedev companies, including on his own hobby projects (such as Orc Dentist!).

Orc Dentist, Kruno’s hobby project

He isn’t a senior in Godot but has learned many engines during his career (including making his own engine at some point!)

He is currently learning the ropes and making some tutorial projects, and then he’ll move on to working in our shared codebase on Git.

Here’s a few questions we asked him:

Why did you decide to join Gamechuck?

Well, I loved your titles (even though I personally don’t play that kind of games) primarily because they show a lot of creativity from you guys, and an attitude, “We do what we want!”.

It shows you’re driven with a creative and artistic spirit. Additionally, Gamechuck is the only company in Croatia with this level of worker rights and everything around that.


What are your top 3 games ever?

I would definitely put Final Fantasy up there as the first. I literally named my daughter after the character from one of the Final Fantasy titles hahaha. It’s “Aeris”.

The other two? Horizon: Zero Dawn and Half-Life franchise.


What do you do in your free time?

I don’t have free time, I have kids hahaha. Jokes aside, I’m mostly watching YouTube and similar services for coding topics, e-sport, quantum physics and similar scientific topics. I’m also driving a bike, and one of my biggest wishes is downhill. I often find myself exploring interesting stuff in nature around Zagreb.

I also play guitar, and I even started teaching my kid to play the violin. In the past, I used to do handwork with wood or similar material.


How did you spend the quarantine time?

If you mean the lockdown period, well, at home usually coding stuff. When we were bored with everything, we’d take our kids to the nearest lake and have a picnic, somewhere with no people around, of course.


What do you think about the Godot engine and why is it the best game engine in the universe?

Well, I don’t have a complete picture about Godot since I’ve been using it for a short time, but what I definitely dig about it – it’s so lightweight! The whole engine can fit on a floppy disc haha!

Also, some things around the workflow are a lot better than in e.g. Unity. Those damned collision matrices. Although, it’s lacking in the scripting editor. Inability to natively open the project in Visual Studio, and that everything works like you’re using C# is slightly frustrating. Not being able to re-arrange the docking window is also a bit weird. But, the rest of it is pretty damn good.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years? In this situation around the world is very difficult to predict where the hell will I be in a year!


How about in 55 years?

Oh, this is definitely much easier to predict! I’ll probably be dead hahaha!


Follow our progress on this development blog, on our Twitter, Facebook and Insta!

Naming places for our fantasy game

Naming places for our fantasy game

How to name things in fantasy is always a tough one. On the one hand, you don’t want to sound too mundane, and on the other, crazy hyphenated and apostrophated names like Gi’zzor the Terrible and Duke Belerofont are done to death. Tolkien did it in a nice way – as a linguist, he made up entire languages and then emulgated the names for things he needed from these languages. For example, Gandalf means elf-friend in elvish, but humans call him Mithrandir, meaning Grey Pilgrim, and his original name is Olorin, which translates to “dreamer” in the Quenya tongue.

Naming places
Our version of Gandalf??? No, but almost.

However, we’re not Tolkien, and also we’re leaning heavily on not inventing languages but just treating the game as translated from the animal languages to modern English for the player. So when they use a latinised word like Superb!, we don’t imply that there was a Latin language that the Animals spoke, it’s just our translation of their animal word for this language.

On the other hand, personal names and city names need some thought. Our idea was to make the locations correspond to the group nouns for the animals that live there. For example:

– A group of lions is called a Pride of Lions, so the city of lions is called Pride

– A group of squirrels is a Scurries of Squirrels, so the city of squirrels is called Scurries.

Naming places
Does this look like The Scurries or what?

The same with Flocks, Skulks, Packs et cetera. Most of these cities are not going to be accessible to the player in the game as they are far away and not related to the plot, but we’d like the name itself to explain the city. So, for example, when you hear of the count Urlich von Packs, you should immediately summon forth an image of a wolf nobleman, as Packs is a group name for wolves.

We use group names for other things as well, because they fit so well in the context of the animal kingdom. For example, in the case of the Scurries, their elected “mayor” is called The Dreymaster, because another group noun for squirrels is “a drey of squirrels”, so a ruler of squirrels could be called a dreymaster.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/619813078636429322/707978360051073134/ograda_copy.jpg
The noun for a group of tigers is – Streak of Tigers, so… Welcome to the Streaks!

Of course not all cities are called by these group names. There are cities whose names bear historical significance in the game, such as Valencia, the colonial city built by King Valent.

We believe such things will resonate well with the players. What do you think – let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook, Twitter, and Discord!

Art in Our Art III: The Last Interview

This is the third and final in a series of art talks with our painters. As you might have read, our game will feature paintings from acclaimed Croatian young artists. For example, when you enter Orville’s mansion, he has pictures hanging on his walls, from some of our finest fine artists (pun very much intended) as seen here:

Orville’s mansion features artwork from some of the best young Croatian painters – Tara Beata Racz and Luka Kusevic.

Today we interview Tara Beata Racz, whose pictures grace many of the Burrows interior, including the Badger portrait in Orville’s office:

Pomposity.

Tara Beata Racz holds a masters degree in painting on the Academy of Art in Zagreb in 2019 in the class of Ksenija Turčić, as well as a masters in psychology from 2016. During her studies, she received two Dean awards from the University of Zagreb and exhibited on many galleries including the Zagreb Biennale of Painting in 2019. She also finished a two-year program of Clinical Expressive Art Therapy, which combines her two interests – psychology and painting. Here follows an interview with Tara, who does paintings for many different interiors of the Animal Kingdom (and beyond it).

Bol je katkad lakše naslikati nego izreći: Mlada psihologinja i slikarica  objasnila nam je kako funkcionira terapija umjetnošću - tportal
Picture of Tara in her element, found somewhere on the world wide web.

How did you decide which animal portraits to paint and which style to paint them in?

I am currently exploring animal themes in my work so this task was an opportunity to expand on it. However, I decided to try a different style, inspired by the works of Franz Mark and Wassily Kandinsky. I wanted to combine the figurative visages of animals with the abstract shapes and symbols. Special importance and prominance in my paintings is given to strong use of colors and powerful expressive gestures. The choice of style for each animal depends on the symbolism of each animal. For example, I have decided to paint foxes because they are one of my favourite animals; they are the protagonists in many folk tales and fables, and they are described as quick, cunning, ingenious, shrewd, and excedingly intelligent animals.

Philippe, is that you?

What do you think about combining the modern (video game) and the old (painting)?

I find it interesting when artists combine a classic traditional medium such as painting, sculpting or graphics with modern expression or new technologies. Many of such interesting examples could be seen last year on the Device Art festival with the theme “Machines Are Not Alone”.

On the other hand, video games are a medium in itself with its own set of rules and aesthetics. It is genuine art to create a good video game. I especially enjoy good concept arts and character designs, or when the aesthetics of the game is based on a painting aesthetic, for example Okami which was inspired by the works of Katsuhika Hokusai or Ori and the Blind Forest which was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki, or Ico which was inspired by Giorgio de Chirico…

The Bates family is a relatively wealthy family in the Burrows, so they could afford this big piece.

What is your general interest in art and painting?

Some of my favourite paintes are Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Mark, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard and Henri Matisse. Even though their expressions vary, they are connected by their relationship to color. I am interested in the psychological effects of colors and their symbolism. I am also exploring how different color contrasts can be used to express certain emotions and moods. I believe art and painting can have, beside the aesthetic, also a therapeutic function. I love the whole creative process of painting as well, because through it I can surface certain subconscious conflicts and express what is unexpressable through words.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/598181987252961282/749554853872795688/IMG-20200317-WA0004.jpg
More foxes!

What else is there to be done in this project, in your opinion?
I find the idea of characters in the game nurturing culture and art fascinating. I also believe it is commendable that the company supports young artists and works with them to create paintings for use inside the game. I would be especially happy if the game space would expand to other continents with animals who have different cultures, such as the southern colony where there is the Monkey Civilisation. Their artistic expression could be very different from what we saw till now. It would be interesting to envision how their paintings would look, and I already have some ideas, and am waiting for the chance to realise them.

And what else are you doing? Where can everyone see your work?

I am planning two solo exhibitions in early December. The first will be in the Zlati Ajngel gallery in Varaždin. There I will exhibit my Transanimalia cycle where I showcase various fantastical animal creaters, who are transformed under the influence of their surroundings and this transformation reflects their inner and outer metamorphoses and mutations.

Raznolikost generacija i poetika - vizkultura.hr
Tara on the Zagreb Biennale of Painting in 2019, picture from somewhere on the internet.

Painting animals today is a way to give them a voice because, as we live in civilisation, we forget about the wild, we are often unaware and indifferent to the fact that species are dying out. Did you know that among all the mammals on Earth, only 4% are still wild animals? Besides this, by painting animals, I can explore the animal in man as well as the human in the animal, questioning my own identity in the world around me and inside me.

The second exhibition will be in the Kaj Gallery in Zagreb. For this, I am preparing a series of nudes made from motor oil on jute fiber. This series is about the dark nature of human psyche known under the jungian concept of the shadow archetype. In this period of crisis, pandemic and quarantene, many changes are happening that affect the human mood and behaviour. We have never participated in such a global experiment that forced us to physical isolation, closing in appartments, stopping of many activities, introspection… In these circumstances we turn more toward ourselves, submerge within ourselves and meet our own shadow. Still, this is a chance to bring our shadowy places to the light.

It will be great to see these ideas in reality in December. Thank you for the interview!

Also, if you wish to follow Tara, she has an Instagram account. So do we!

Art in our Art 2: The Return of the Artist!

This is the second in a series of art talks with our painters. As you might have read, our game will feature paintings from acclaimed Croatian young artists. For example, when you enter Orville’s mansion, he has pictures hanging on his walls, from some of our finest fine artists (pun very much intended) as seen here:

Orville’s mansion features artwork from some of the best young Croatian painters – Tara Beata Racz and Luka Kusevic.

Today we interview Luka Kusevic, the painter behind the pictures you see in Badger Orville’s hallway in the gif above. Luka was born in 1993 in Zagreb where he finished the School of Applied Arts and after that the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of prof. Zoltan Novak. His work was exhibited in the Gallery of Matica Hrvatska (Matrix Croatica) as well as the 5th Biennale of Painting in HDLU last year, and may more.

5th Biennale of Painting – Luka showcasing his works

So, Luka, what attracts you to art?

The reason why I paint is because I am Fascinated by how dead matter (in this case – color) can produce something alive – a visual sensation. The contemplation done over a particular picture or other work can awaken unexpected horizons which throws a man out of his ordinary everyday life.

How about games, do you think they can also be art?

I’d agree with an older painter colleague that today’s view of art needs redefining because practically every witch doctor shaman today can proclaim themselves an artist. Art in general has lost the power of transcending its own pitiful “ego” – in other words, the ability to change the perception of a man from his sluggish viewpoint.

As for games, I think they transcend art – because the virtual perception of the video-game mixes with the everyday perceptions we bring ourselves. Games could be the future of the cyborg-man but it is clear that total assimilation into virtuality will not be attained, due to the arrogant way we treat our lives and bioms.

So how did you go about making the paintings for our game? What do you think of the game aesthetics in general?

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/619813078636429322/695699068369764382/unknown.png
The Scurries impression by Luka

The biggest challenge was to translate my current ductus (or: my style of painting) to fit the form of a squirrel, beaver, and so on. What fascinated me with the Ark characters was their lucidity, the intelligence of dialogues. As for the visuals, everything is clear. The animals have the ability to create and move in spacetime – this is a world of the surreal, of fantasy… Visual elements should therefore be more dispersed. Not abstract, but definitely more fleeting. Man should be in a constant state of feeling that things are continually changing. If I were creating visuals for the entire game, I’d play with the light of the vegetation, the structures (mills and fortresses), I’d create visuals of bugs and bats to complicate things further. It is, for me, too simple – easy. I would personally take hints from the aesthetics of Monet or Rousseau.

Dabrovit impression by Luka

And for the last question – what are you doing aside from this?

I’m working on a series of large format paintings where I’m continuing to develop landscapes as a mental space. I want pictures to burn the inside of the man who watches them. So they extinguish themselves i let go to the sensation. Not neccessarily enjoy but at least for a moment to jump out of their own skin.

Charles’ father Herbert

And currently where can we experience your art?

Currently, I’m exhibiting on a group exhibition “U ljetnom kodu” (In the Summer Code) in the Kranjčar Gallery in Zagreb.

Great! Everyone from Zagreb – feel free to check it out!

Gamechuck at Indie Arena Booth!

Gamechuck at Indie Arena Booth!

Even though there aren’t any physical conferences lately due to issues, there is going to be one this year! It’s even going to have booths – virtual booths! And Gamechuck has a virtual booth on it:

Here’s a sneak peak of one part of the booth with a large (plasma?) tv and arcade showcasing our upcoming title Speed Limit.

It’s the Indie Arena Booth, and you can see the Gamechuck page on IAB here for our game Speed Limit, but to take a virtual walk on the booth itself, you’ll have to wait for 27th of August when the event starts!

In case you didn’t know, IAB is an interactive digital place with a festival flair where independent game developers showcase their games. They attended multiple conventions in 2019, including gamescom and MAG Erfurt. Their mission is giving the best opportunities to reach an audience and publishers for indie devs (like us).

Here’s a trailer for the IAB, :

Great trailer full of great games!

Hope to “see” you there! Till then, jump on our Discord for some virtual hanging out as well!

Art in our Art: an Interview with Jurica Pusenjak

Our game will feature paintings from acclaimed Croatian young artists. For example, when you enter Orville’s mansion, he has pictures hanging on his walls, from some of our finest fine artists (pun very much intended) as seen here:

Orville’s mansion features artwork from some of the best young Croatian painters – Tara Beata Racz and Luka Kusevic.

So let’s talk to the first one of them – Jurica Pusenjak. Who is he? Well, Jurica Pušenjak was born in September 13 of 1996 in Zagreb. After finishing the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb in 2015 he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he is currently finishing his master’s year in the class of Zoltan Novak.

jurica pušenjak – NACIONAL.HR
Some picture we found online of Jurica Pusenjak in his element.

During his studies, he was awarded two Dean awards and one Rector award for a large scientific-artistic group work. From 2018 onward he is active in a series of exhibitions including the 5th Biennale of Painting in HDLU, co-authoring and exhibiting in the “Tartaglias Shelves” exhibition in the Forum Gallery and “They Are Leaving” in the HAZU Glyptotheque.

We talked to him about his work on Trip the Ark Fantastic art.

What are your interests in painting?

JP: I am interested in painting itself – its possibilities and its limitations… What enthralls me the most in art is the expression through painting. The same thing can be expressed in a myriad different ways. It’s beautiful!

How do you envision the eagle you painted, Coriolanus?

Coriolanus in flight, Jurica Pusenjak, painted on wood

JP: Coriolanus is a revolutionary leading the people to a new era. This is the narrative of his character and that is how I painted him – as a revolutionary!

I can connect this to my own work easily – you see, apart from art, I am interested in the revolution. I keep fantasizing about some anonymous showing up with a message that will change the world.

The first artwork you see is the young eagle in his full strength soaring high in the sky. The ideas of revolution are sparking within him but he still doesn’t know how to ignite them…

And this one?

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/619813078636429322/720316177745838172/104087392_3024895807590387_7115173615101284400_n.png
Oil on canvas

JP: The same eagle is now more mature, stronger, like a real revolutionary. We can see the artistic influences of Russian socialist realism as well as Nazi-Kunst, which are on the formal level identical, and held together by the idea of art in service of the regime.

What else are you cooking?

JP: There is the project I’m currently working on, an exhibition called “Heroes” where I will exhibit my portraits of around 1300 war heroes of Yugoslavia.

NFOTO - Jurica Pušenjak
Some of the 1300 heroes in many different art styles – in a way, it’s a monument to the heroes and to art itself.

What drew you to work with us on Trip the Ark Fantastic?

JP: The collaboration was exciting perhaps because I have spent my childhood in the late 90s playing similar games, those were point-and-click classics such as Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Sanitarium, Broken Sword… I am curiously happy that this genre still persists. I would love to work on this project some more!

Thanks, Jurica Pušenjak! And thanks dear readers! Till next time, make sure to follow us on our various channels, or subscribe to our newsletter, or whatever tickles your fancy!

Gamechuck is looking for a Godot programmer!

Gamechuck is looking for a Godot programmer!

Today we are posting this short blog/announcement because we are hiring! Gamechuck is in a need for an extra Godot programmer.

If you like what we do programmatically and are open-source oriented, check out the call:

Gamechuck is hiring a Godot programmer

Ideally you would be Croatian or willing to come to Zagreb so we can hang out in the office (that is why the ad is in Croatian actually).

If you are interested, send us a mail at info@game-chuck.com and be sure to check out our About page there as well.

While you’re updating your application form, check out our Godot Engine-oriented blog posts below.

Art re-evaluation time!

We’ve been working full-time on Trip the Ark Fantastic for almost a year now! It’s a large undertaking for a small indie developer such as us so we decided very early on we’d like to find a publisher to help us out. For this reason, we’ve been sending our Trip the Ark Fantastic brochure to a lot of publishers these past months.

The good news here is that literally everybody loves the idea of the game. We sent the brochure to almost 30 publishers and everybody was enticed by the atmosphere, themes and gameplay decisions!

Continue reading “Art re-evaluation time!”