Update #3: Logos!
I was feeling stuck with the layout of the new websites, so I turned to something more interesting: designing logos. In order to make the corporations in the game look more...believable, I decided to give them some "professional" identities.
I did hop around finding inspirations, looking at some real-life firms for reference, and testing out with some fonts and ideas (these logos are mostly letters and random symbols; choosing which font to go with is probably the hardest thing). While I would not say that I'm great at designing logos, I think it's safe to say that these look somewhat believable, to some extent. What do you think?
There will be more but I'll save them for another day, when I get stuck with something else, again.
Update 4: New Website Added!
Every puzzle-solving game needs a "hint system", which will come in handy when players get stuck at some point. I was also wondering how to add one into my game without making it too obvious. Besides, the main story of the game mostly revolves around a stolen laptop, it would not be convincing if players are able to get the "hints" too easily as well.
Then this came to mind: a note-sharing platform. Something like Privnote in real life, where you can write a note and share the link to your note with others. The notes will be "destroyed" after being read. I guess I'll just do the same, and to add an extra layer of inconvenience, I'll encode the hint and make them spend a few more seconds decoding it 💀 Sometimes the hint will be somewhere else instead of inside the note, sometimes it will be just a decoy.
Apart from acting as a guide, this platform can be a means of communication occasionally. A really fun fact is that players are able to create notes as well, and they can send the link to any NPCs (though receiving a reply is uncertain).
Again, I don't want anything I've created so far to be one-time used. So in some cases, some specific NPCs might require players to communicate via this platform. But I can't say for certain, I might think of another use for it in the future.
That's it for now. I'll be back with more websites...every week?