Hi BeyondTheBark, i was wondering if there were any major influences that led to the game being made with stop motion animation. Looking forward to this and all the best ~ Stella

Is the stop motion being done in 3D programs like Blender then built upon in engine (Unity or Unreal as an example) or is it shot and hand animated then used in game similar to a cutscene you would see in traditional video games?
Love the concept so far and seeing you guys work with Will is awesome!
Cheers~

@SaltHuntress - Stopmotion is the only form of animation I have a reasonable amount of skill with, so a big part of it was that it's the toolset I have available to me for telling stories. It started with me wondering if I could somehow get an interactive experience going where I'd post one short animation at a time on a social media platform, ask people to suggest & vote on what happened next and then animate what they voted for. That experiment didn't turn out how I expected, which led me to wonder if making a game would be possible, & if it would be a better way to create the story and experience I was hoping for. Luckily I have 3 wonderfully talented people who have joined me to do so!

In the realm of sources of inspiration for me as an animator, the works of Lotte Reiniger, Jan Švankmajer & Phil Tippett influenced me pretty heavily on this project.

@Just Dusk - It's the latter - everything is hand animated and photographed. Like you suggested, our game is essentially entirely made out of short cutscenes which are sequenced in Unity by what the player clicks on next. While waiting for the player to click, a looped animation of the mouse rocking back and forth in the scene plays. Then, when they click on an object, door etc. at the end of that looped animation the animation of what the mouse does next plays. I created the animation clips so that the last frame of the previous animation matches the first frame of the next one to achieve a fluid transition between clips.

Hi BTBT, will this game be an interactive re-imagining of the Tomcat Disposables music video, or will it be a new story entirely? And what's it like working with Will Wood? Can't wait to try Éalú! Cheers

@CampingCarl Sorry for my very delayed response! Ealu will tell a new story, but it can be seen as a spiritual sequel to Tomcat Disposables and the mouse is the same character. Will is a delight to work with; we're very lucky that our little team all get on so well with each other!

Hi!

I’m wondering what inspired this game as a whole. Did you reach out to will following the release of the Tomcat mv or did he reach out to you guys with an idea for the game?

This looks super cool! I’ve never played a stop motion game and I’m excited to try this one out :)

-Finn

add some will wood achievement

引用自 grunchyno：

Hi!

I’m wondering what inspired this game as a whole. Did you reach out to will following the release of the Tomcat mv or did he reach out to you guys with an idea for the game?

This looks super cool! I’ve never played a stop motion game and I’m excited to try this one out :)

-Finn

Hi there Finn!

I'm glad you're excited for Éalú, and my apologies for the delayed response.

The game as a whole was initially inspired by my deep feelings of confusion surrounding algorithm based applications & how they influence us to engage in repetitive, sometimes harmful behaviors and how I often feel like a mouse in a maze when interacting with them. The mouse therefore felt like an appropriate character for the story I wanted to create.

After Ben and myself created an initial proof of concept for the game, I showed it to Will and he took an interest and joined the project. It's been a delight to work with everyone on our small team to make this!

引用自 Ali：

add some will wood achievement

We're absolutely looking at creating achievements for the game 😀 got a few in progress already!

Hello, just wanted to drop a little feedback, maybe a bug as well

- On a puzzle with 5 rotating circles, sometime the circle on the right will transfer 4 levels of ink, but also keep 4 levels, I don't think it's meant to happen, they should be moving from one circle to another right, you get 8 lines instead of 4

On the same puzzle, the game does not recognize input if you clicking too fast, which is a bit confusing because it still triggers animation, but not the effect.

- Perhaps replace the white point mouse icons with something that matches the look of the game, they stand out. For door icons, maybe something that shows direction or just movement, and perhaps a different one for interacting with puzzles, will look more intuitive.

- Death should not reset any puzzles

- There is too much loading time, I know it's only like 2 seconds between rooms, but it adds up

引用自 American Dove Mitten：

Hello, just wanted to drop a little feedback, maybe a bug as well

- On a puzzle with 5 rotating circles, sometime the circle on the right will transfer 4 levels of ink, but also keep 4 levels, I don't think it's meant to happen, they should be moving from one circle to another right, you get 8 lines instead of 4

On the same puzzle, the game does not recognize input if you clicking too fast, which is a bit confusing because it still triggers animation, but not the effect.

Thank you very much for flagging these issues! We'll look into it.

引用自 American Dove Mitten：

- Perhaps replace the white point mouse icons with something that matches the look of the game, they stand out. For door icons, maybe something that shows direction or just movement, and perhaps a different one for interacting with puzzles, will look more intuitive.

- Death should not reset any puzzles

- There is too much loading time, I know it's only like 2 seconds between rooms, but it adds up

This is great feedback, again - thank you! The only thing we're unlikely to change is the mechanic that resets puzzles after a death but I promise it's not just difficulty for difficulty's sake, but is related to the story/philosophy the game explores, and we've taken care that once players have died once or twice, the pattern of danger is clear and death becomes a choice :)

will (wood) uhh... there be mac support? if possible? (sorry if this is late to be asking questions, i just... dont currently have anything BUT a mac...)

引用自 Dish：

will (wood) uhh... there be mac support? if possible? (sorry if this is late to be asking questions, i just... dont currently have anything BUT a mac...)

Hi there! It's absolutely not too late to be asking questions. Getting a version out for Mac users is a goal we have our sights on. How well the game does after launch will impact how fast/slow we're able to achieve that (i.e. how much time we can take away from our day jobs to make it happen) but it's something we really care about doing!

hey i got one of the steam keys and so far I'm loving this game. However on the black paint wheel (the area where there's the five circles and three of them are filled) it sometimes just stops letting you rotate it. I'm wondering if that's a feature or a bug cause it's really annoying when you're so close to completing the puzzle but it just stops working. The other buttons work. I couldn't leave a review (it wouldn't let me) so i thought I'd let you know here. The room is down three rooms from the heart puzzle in the first zone

i don't know how to spoiler text :( never mind figured it out :)