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Come Back: Chapter 1 launches today!

by AnnouncementsCome Back

This is it! The Come Back: Chapter 1 release has come, after months of hard work!

About the game

This myst-like tackles the issue of domestic violence by telling the story of a person who wakes up on a beach with absolutely no idea on where he is. He finds out that his partner had left him puzzles and notes everywhere with indications about where to find her.

The game is available in both English and French, you can play it on a mid-tier computer as it is not really heavy in graphics. It’s a point-n-click game with a few enigmas to solve that sadly we can’t help you with! But keep trying, they are not that difficult…

A distressing story

We wanted to do a game about the issue of domestic violence to try to raise awareness on the subject, but we also wanted a game that is fun and interesting to play. To resolve this touchy equation we decided to tell the story through the prism of someone in a dissociative fugue state, so you can enter deeper in his blocked mind by solving puzzles and reading notes.

Dissociative fugue is a psychological state in which a person loses awareness of their identity after a sudden trauma and experience unexpected travels. This means that people who experience a dissociative fugue may suddenly find themselves in a random place, such as on the beach or at work, with no memory of how they got there.

With Come Back, we tried to make a short story-driven game that you can buy in chapters for cheap and complete each in a hour or less. You can play the first chapter just like you read that kind of short novels that are famous in literature.

Challenging Puzzles!

Players will have to solve the many difficult puzzles left both on Gull Island and Wrecked Island available in the first chapter if they want to learn more about themselves. This is the beginning of a tale about trust and identity where they will discover many original scenes drawn by two artists with a truly atypical artstyle that use only a few tints to paint this dream world.

It is a game with an eye-catching art style but it has a moving story behind the puzzles. You will discover that it’s a sad one therefore not really suited for kids… We really hope that you will enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed making it.

Where to get it?

You can get the first chapter for $4.99! It is available now on PC, MacOS and Linux of course. Check the widgets below or buy on https://www.team-nolan.fr/come-back/

Come Back Making Of

Come Back: the making of our first game

by Come Back

Hey everyone, let’s dive into the making of Come Back,

Today we are very close to finishing our first full game which will probably be out later this month. We all are very happy with the way things turned out, although it’s a really short game it has a bit of a challenge and some interesting artistic choices.

I decided for the first “real” article of this blog to go back in time. Let me explain how this adventure began.

The concept

The development started exactly two years ago, when we decided to gather a team to attend (and win of course) the Emotional Game Jam 2017 that was held by our school for us to make emotionally strong games in 48 hours. Our team was composed of me (Edwin), Axel, Yann and Pierre and this team is the heart of what became NoLan Games (but at first was called “Team Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch” 😅).

So before the game jam we wanted to do a story-driven game with drawings in two colors only but we didn’t know what type of game we wanted to do. Then came the theme: “Lost and Found.”.

Come Back making of PC

The very first sketches

Come Back making of PC

we did for the game

The bicolour game idea came at the beginning. We created a story around these first sketches where somebody was lost on an island. He didn’t know where he was but he found several notes everywhere on the island that hid a bitter truth.

Come Back making of PC

– First concepts for Gull Island –

Come Back making of PC

– Early Gull Island Overview –

This was the basic elements we used to create the game. Now we had to add an interesting gameplay revolving around the story. We found it interesting to create a point’n’click with enigmas left by the person who wrote the notes.

The first Come Back

After 48 hours of hard work (and not sleeping a lot) we completed the first prototype of Come Back and presented it on itch.io and the jury of the game jam. We were lucky to win the jam this year (tied with another great team), and the jury praised our art style and the coherence of our game/universe!

It really was overwhelming for the team to finish our first game that’s playable from the beginning to the end. We enjoyed as well working together and getting approval for it at the end. After the event, we decided to carry on making games together. A few months later, we started to work again on Come Back on a version that was improving on many points from the jam prototype and which felt more like a stable game. This was version 1.2 for us, it also gave us the opportunity to put the game on itch.io and to learn how to communicate on a released game.

The first version of the game on itch.io was much shorter with only Gull Island available.

Re-making of Come Back

As we learned loads of stuff in school about how to make video games, we realized Come Back had a lot of flaws that we could rather easily mend. We decided then to completely redo the game. We worked on a new engine (Unity). The graphic team made HD and improved graphics (the first graphics were not HD!). I also composed new music. The game is now two times longer but it’s still in the spirit of a short adventure. We kept the story and a few enigmas from the first prototype.

Screenshot 3 - Come Back Game

The general feeling is a sensation of great impovement upon the first version. As a result we are proud of this small game we will be launching. Whether or not you like this first experience, just remind that Come Back is the first try for Team NoLan. We have a huge deal of things to learn although we still have a lot of surprises for you to discover!

Here is the full story of the making of Come Back, I hope you will enjoy reading it!

Thanks for reading us, be fresh and never panic 😉

Edwin.