Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story - The 'AAA' Audio Game

Get ready to usher in a new era of audio games.

Kickstarter -  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pitchblackgame/pitch-black-the-aaa-audio-game   

The game has been in development for a while, and has just entered Kickstarter! Please considering visiting the page, trying the play-test demo, and supporting the project by backing.

The Game
Pitch Black is a narrative driven, 3D binaural audio game (entirely accessible to the blind and VI community), featuring explorable, immersive sound worlds, a complex dramatic story and multiple innovative audio mechanics based on psycho-acoustic principles. It's an ambitious project, that has a scope larger than anything of its kind. It's set to release in October 2020, for PC/MacOS/Linux, and for iOS/Android. The Kickstarter campaign, nearly funded after 5 days, is in full flow right now.

Features
A 5-6 hour, fully voice acted narrative  

- A Story told through characterful, wonderful voice acting. From market sellers in the City, to Guards at the gates, to Ghouls in the sewers.  

An Expansive and Richly Developed World! 
- Pitch Black is set in a fully developed alternate world, and this narrative takes place in and around the densely populated City of Dusklight. (see the narrative overview below!)

Unique Audio Mechanics based on Psycho-acoustic and Physical principles
- Auditory Focus Mechanic (enhanced cocktail party effect)
- Audio Sign-Posts (aiding cognitive mapping)
- Activated Distance Sonar (for use when navigating confined spaces)
- Cognitive Biasing (directing attention through evolutionary importance)
- Audio Occlusion Puzzles (using partial and total occlusion)
- ..and many more.

3D (Binaural) Audio
- Complete 3D Audio featuring state-of-the-art spatialisation.

Dynamic Replayability Model 

- Three fully voice-acted versions of each main character in the game!
- Unique, emergent soundscapes at each play due to randomisation.
- Procedural generation of occlusion puzzles in-game.
- Audio-based arcade mini-games, featuring audio versions of classics like pong, and space invaders.
- Dense, and rich, fully explorable sound worlds, with hidden world building to those that venture off the beaten-path.
- Additional Soundscapes within Soundscapes through in-game simulations.

Who are Purple Jam Ltd?
Upon reassessing our omnidirectional lives, we decided to gather our intellectual resources and create the game of all games; Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story. Harry Cooper, commonly known as ‘The Mastermind’ in a flash of inspiration, had the idea of creating a binaural based audio game. Naturally, Connor and Jordan were instantly on board. Using our past experience in sound design, composition, game development and narrative construction, we combined forces to create the company that we are today. With an unprecedented desire to excel in creative industries, we set upon our journey to create a diverse, deep and exciting journey through our dark and eccentric world.

Tech Demo Gameplay by YouTuber 'Illegally Sighted' -  https://youtu.be/pLGWFGdn_e0

Binaural Trailer - https://youtu.be/ZDvv7O-LD7U

Character Trailers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPlJqS3bqM&list=PLPKODfyzE5oJHTD0mH2_B0fEwZyN5ggHg

Narrative Overview - https://youtu.be/QJbNNGLuGx8 

Development Vlogs - https://youtu.be/h2yKZTmTd8M?list=PLPKODfyzE5oKldssJcw5Q9npg2q7-RuxC  

Twitter - https://twitter.com/dusklightpro
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PitchBlackADusklightStory/
Discord - https://discord.gg/mvaxWrj

Over the past month Pitch Black has been developing a great deal!

You can keep up with via our VLOGs, our view our development more closely via our Discord!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxBMqvb6o4&
https://discord.gg/khUSJdq

Voice Actors, we need you, STILL!

We've filled all our paid roles but would love more contributions for our city dialogue! We've had so m any incredible individuals getting involved with the project so far and we're always looking to add more of you to this incredible emerging world and story.

Submit!

http://discord.gg/e8xb2b4
#IndieDev #GameDev #VoiceActing #VoiceActors #Dusklight #Submissions

More updates !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRSUX-9zNco&

There have been numerous updates with the game, make sure to stay up to date via the YouTube and  Discord.

This is our latest roll-out.

Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story is an audio game and we're looking for voice actors!

We’re loving the amount of submissions we’ve had recently, and our community has grown substantially because of it.

We're looking for anyone of all talent ranges including background conversations, anyone is welcome.

Submit! http://discord.gg/e8xb2b4

#IndieDev #GameDev #VoiceActing #VoiceActors #Dusklight

Dear lovely game developers.

We’re making a game called Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story.

This is an audio game that uses Binaural audio. This series of blogs is going to be a light-hearted look at the philosophical and mechanical ideas behind making an audio only game.

The directionality of an audio source is fundamental to navigation within an explorable, 3D audio game. With that in mind, it’s important to remind ourselves of how humans hear-

‘Directional information can be picked up because we have two ears, and each ear a complex, direction dependent filter (the pinna). This allows sensitivity to the timing differences and spectral shifts that specify direction. The pattern of radiant and reflecting sound can further aid localisation. Moreover, the auditory system is mobile. We can turn our heads to pick up shifting inter-aural patterns and to orient towards a sound, further improving localisation.’ (Gaver, 1993)

So now that’s established how do you make game mechanics from it?

Here are a few ideas-

• Move Precision Required

A smaller entry point into a building, for example, requires more precision than a larger point. This can be implemented by having very generalised targets early on, with an ever increasing accuracy required later.

• Object Occlusion

With moving objects in a scene changing occlusion adds increased difficulty as sources are becoming occluded.

• Reverberant Spaces

A more reverberant environment makes a source more difficult to position. With this in mind one can increase difficulty by increasing the proposed size of the room, reducing its navigability. In technical terms, this means that the direct sound/reflected sound ratio low.

• Soundscape Busy-ness

The more sounds in an area the more difficult it will be for the player to locate their intended location. A desert like soundscape with few sources will be far easier to navigate than a city at midday. Because of this auditory busy-ness one has to rely somewhat on the Cocktail Party Effect (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect).

A final thought should go to what abilities the player may get to aid their navigation throughout the sound world, these are our ideas so far..

• ‘Zoom’ Mechanic

Allows the player to ‘zoom’ from 0 to a set distance forwards, imagine an ‘auditory scope’.

• Right or Left ‘Sonar’ Mechanic

Useful in small corridors, plays a bleep to the right/left, increasing/decreasing relative to the distance of the wall.

• Leaving Auditory Signal Cues

Allows the player to sonically mark where they have previously been so that they don’t go back on themselves.

If anyone has any ideas for what a AAA, audio only game might look like tweet us here- @dusklightpro, and join our discord- https://t.co/ffb1345KhC

Up to the this point we currently have a number of informal VLOGS which highlight the processes we've been going through, and also some more in-depth Blogs technical and narrative.

These can be found via our Discord and also via our YouTube where they will be updated weekly on the continued development of the game.

Hello there! We at Purple Jam Limited are currently developing #PitchBlack : an original, immersive #audiogame project which features a complex, dramatic story-line told through the binaural medium. #indiedev #unity

We're very keen to build a community for our game through our #Discord which we will link with our other socials at the end of this post!

The aim of #PitchBlack is to deliver something which has rarely been seen by the gaming industry; an audio only game which features an immersive open world created with binaural audio.

We're very excited about the project which has already received a substantial backing in various forms, including support from the UK's leading blind charities upon the release of a Kick-starter for the game in September.

Our two main objectives are this; to create a compelling and gripping narrative driven by a lore rich universe, and to build a community which includes all of you in the creation of this undertaking.

You can find out more information at our Discord, which has feed links to all of our social media. Thank you for taking a read!

https://discord.gg/e8xb2b4
https://twitter.com/dusklightpro

Thanks for the info! Like I said I'm new to this scene so it's great to get feedback like this. Thanks for taking the time :).

Hey up everyone, I'm new to the forums and launching a binaural audio based game on here pretty soon. I managed to wrangle one of my University essays to being about Itch.io's position in the industry, but I'm pretty new to the scene so there's probably a lot I've missed. I'd dig it if some of you hardened indie devs could critique :D.

1.   Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a means of analysing a business’s current position by determining how strong of an effect each of the following five influences have, and how that affects the company in question (Cadle, Paul and Turner, 2010).

1.1.                  Competitive Rivalry

The independent game distribution market is becoming highly competitive, with an average of 21 games releasing on Steam (the largest online distribution website) every day in 2017 (Steamspy, 2019). This saturation of the platform does provide a motivation for developers to explore other release platforms and therefore may be more of a benefit than a detriment to itch.io. 

1.2.                  Supplier Power

One of the main issues with independent game distribution, and a more general issue in the creative sector, is the devaluation of the product provided. Sites such as the Humble Bundle, infamously cheap Steam sales, and general large reductions on price of indie titles has meant that the pricing of independent games typically needs to stay relatively low (around £11) to do well. This leads to a perceptual shift in the minds of the general public who now expect cheap or free content (Bycer, 2017)

1.3.                  Buy Power

The humble bundle offers ridiculously cheap bundles, and Steam sales are notorious for being incredibly cheap too. This hurts first day sales of both AAA and indie releases as many fans just choose to wait until the game is on offer rather than buying on launch day. To counter this argument however, these sales may happen months or years after a game releases, bringing in otherwise untapped revenue.

1.4.                  Threat of Substitution

The most obvious threat of substitution facing Itch.io is from fellow game distribution platforms (discussed in greater detail later). A broader level threat however is that of console and mobile gaming taking a larger percentage of the market, although statistics say the PC sector of the gaming market is closer than ever to that of the console market, taking up 25% of the total market share (Strickland, 2018).

1.5.                  Threat of New Entry

Due to the constant array of new titles released by game developers worldwide there will always be a demand for new distribution platforms, as such the threat is that should a AAA games company such as EA and Ubisoft start expanding their online offering to support indie games, the marketing budget available to them may threaten to smother the smaller distribution platforms. Secondly, new companies may be able to offer better perks due to fresh technology. Their website might be more appealing to developers or to fans, because of being easier to use, offering quicker download speeds, or some new way of better engaging fans with the game development process.

2.   Itch.io

Itch.io is an innovative game distribution website that is created for developers to have more control over their content and release strategy, and also includes community building tools such as development blogs and forums. These tools can be vital for creating a community for an indie title, who will then become your main customer base come release. With that being said, there are a number of competitors that offer online distribution, each with their own strengths and weaknesses (Tavrox, 2018).

2.1.                  Main Competitors

2.1.1.                                Steam

Steam is by far the largest online PC game distribution website. This means that it has the most traffic of any of the below companies, as well as being a trusted and well regarded service. Its size is also its main weakness from a publishing perspective, as it’s incredibly easy for new releases to get lost in the deluge on new titles released every day. It costs developers $100 to get published on Steam, who then receive 30% of all sales revenue (Steam Direct, 2019). This 70/30 split, whilst previously industry standard has now been undercut by other sites looking to attract developers.

2.1.2.                                Kartridge

Kartridge is relatively new to the marketplace (going online in 2018) and allows developers to have complete control over their game pricing, including supporting pay-what-you-want models. Secondly, for every sale leading up to $10,000 the publisher keeps 100% of the revenue, after $10,000 this reverts back to 30/70 split that is the industry standard (Costa, 2018).

The tone of Kartridge is far more indie friendly, with the website having a ‘retro’ feel, which tends to align with the style of game found on there. One interesting difference is the inclusion of a website interaction based XP system, where players can level up their account and earn free tokens (worth $5). This is a very interesting way to improve player engagement with the rating system and community as a whole and is unique to Kartridge (Kartridge, 2018).

2.1.3.                                GoG.com

GoG offers a typical 70/30 split to the developer, and whilst does offer new games, its niche is making old games run on new PCs and Macs, and selling those to a very nostalgic and therefore typically older audience. It does however have a curation process which acts as a quality control and stops an over population of games, which is an issue for any non-curated platform (GoG, 2019).

2.1.4.                                Game Jolt

Game jolt is another distribution platform that consists of mainly free games. This, similarly to Kartridge and Itch is a great place to grow a community via providing regular updates to your game and asking for feedback via development blogs. Along with Kartridge it also has a retro feel, although is perhaps more developer focused than the player focus of Kartridge (Game Jolt, 2019).

2.1.5.                                Epic Games Store

Epic Games offers an 88/12% spit to developers, besting that of Steam and GoG. It’s also new to the market place and is a curated service, meaning that it avoids the issue of saturation that plagues none-curated platforms (Steam, Kartridge and Game Jolt). In doing this it does position its curators as gate keepers, but also keeps the standard of games very high, and the number of games manageable (Epic Games Store, 2019).

3.   SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is (Pietersma, et al, 2008) an evaluation of the internal strengths and weaknesses a business currently has, and what external opportunities and threats may affect it in the near and far future. This is an important method of analysis as it gives an over-arching view of how strong the position the company is in currently, and where it may be in the future if the company doesn’t adapt.

3.1.                  Strengths

Itch.io’s strengths lie in its reputation as an excellent place for developers to grow their communities via development blogs, and due to the blogs providing interesting content, is frequented by other game developers creating a very supportive community for new developers to grow their skills and refine their game. It is also unique in allowing developers to determine how much of the revenue Itch.io received from sales. The default revenue split is 90/10% but developers can alter this so that they receive 100% of sales revenue.

3.2.                  Weaknesses

3.2.1.                                Community

Itch.io is seen as a developer focused community. This means it attracts mostly developers and so is always going to be a much smaller market place than a player focused platform. Secondly, there are very few wealthy indie game developers and if they’re the target market, this is going to generate fewer sales than targeting an average member of the public, or indeed an average gamer who is used to spending $60 on a release.

3.2.2.                                Inconsistent Game Quality

The fact that anybody can upload a game for free means that not all content is of a good quality, this may create a bad user experience with new players having to trawl through a lot of bad quality content to find the gems. Luckily there is a ‘curated’ page on the website where itch.io owners find what they consider to be most interesting uploads, which goes someway to negate the issue.

3.2.3.                                Relatively Unknown

Itch.io is not as well-known as Steam, unless you are a fan of indie games of looking for new release platforms you are unlikely to come across Itch, whereas Steam is the first place you’d find. For those who do follow the gaming industry however, itch.io is slowly becoming more commonly known and is regarded very highly by those who do know about it.

3.2.4.                                Low Budget

It doesn’t have the budget the Epic Games Store, EA’s Origin, Steam’s Valve or Ubisoft’s Uplay stores do, as it isn’t backed by a multinational AAA game company. Therefore it may not be able to compete when it comes to paid advertising and exclusive release deals. It does however fill a different niche than these larger platforms.

3.3.                  Opportunities

More and more independent games are being developed, all of which need to hosted somewhere. As Steam becomes ever more crowded developers will look to alternatives to launch their game. Likewise, as independent games become more popular consumers may look further afield than Steam for their gaming content.

3.4.                  Threats

The main threats facing itch.io are those from competitors such as the ones mentioned above, but more specifically those that fill a similar niche such as Kartridge and Gamejolt, as they may pull developers and therefore traffic from Itch.io’s website, limiting its viability as a release platform. 

Copied from the work document, hence the fancy numbering, thoughts?

Keep is greasy (so it goes down easy), 

Harry x

Hey up gang!

I'm new to the forums but will be starting to post devlogs any day now.

I'm working on a game based solely on binaural audio (demo soon), so far I've been using resonance audio from Google, in Unity 3D because it seems like it's the most straight forward to use, and equally effective, but does anybody have any experience with the other options, or with binaural audio generally? It seems like a fascinating area.

All the best

Harry