It's been a slow month of progress for PSI, mostly focused on getting the game to save properly. There's more testing needed, but we really wanted to make sure that a player could save the game mid-puzzle, as it can take 30 - 60 minutes to complete a single puzzle! But things are looking hopeful... So this month seems like a good time to talk a bit about the puzzle design in Puzzle Spy International. We (Talia and I) were first introduced to these brain-teasery puzzles by our good friend Jay. (He also introduced us to RL escape rooms and the monthly in-person puzzle challenges ofPuzzled Pint.) Jay has not only been a long-time fan of complicated paper puzzles and Puzzle Hunts but has also writtenquite a number of puzzles himself, for Puzzled Pint, Microsoft Puzzle Hunt and more. The original impetus for PSI came from our asking Jay for permission to repurpose his puzzles.Something along the lines of "Hey, we have this idea for a spy story, could we incorporate some of your old puzzles into it?" Jay granted permission and we've reused several of his puzzles in the game. In other places, we've had to write our own puzzles to dovetail nicely with our story and situations. We've leaned more towards puzzles that have longer solutions: The PSI puzzles needed answers that formed full directions like "Meet your contact next to Big Ben in London." (NOT an actual puzzle answer in the game!) Like puzzles from Puzzled Pint and similar events, the puzzles don't display their instructions up front. Part of the challenge - and, we argue, the FUN - comes from analyzing what little is given and figuring out what you're supposed to do. Here are a bunch of boxes that you can type in, but what goes in those boxes? Here are a bunch of letters or words, what's their connection? If we told you everything that you're supposed to do, that would be hand-holding your way halfway through the puzzle, and we want players to experience the thrill of figuring out those connections themselves. That's what leads to the fun A-HA moments that make puzzle-solving a joy. Of course not every puzzler can get into the mind of the puzzle creator so we've provided an EXTENSIVE hint system (and there is NO penalty for using hints!) The hint system ensures that no one will ever be in a position to not be able to finish a puzzle and move forward if the solution isn'tclicking. We're still planning on releasing the Puzzle Spy International: Prelude and Demo next month so stay tuned for the chance to try it and experience these a-ha moments yourselves!

Now that Im back from GDC the Game Developers Conference, where I had a lot of fun showing Puzzle Spy International at an indie showcase event at Syzygy in San Francisco its back to work on the game! This past month, weve been playtesting, adding coding to one of the newer puzzles, creating layout art for another new puzzle, working out how to save games mid-puzzle, and lots of drawing, including two new backgrounds (location: Classified!) and three new characters. As Im adding all of this art, this seems like a fitting time to talk about the art inspirations for PSI. As Im fond of telling folks, the story is set in the mid-sixties and so is the art and UI design. Ive been drawing heavily on the illustration style from the middle of the last century for this project, often referred to as mid-century modern. United Productions of America was an animation studio that was big in the 50s, and their work was heavily influenced by graphic design. Walt Disney films of the period had a great graphic sense as well, with 101 Dalmatians (1961) being a particular influence on my backgrounds for PSI. Many look at the art from the game and remark that it reminds them of 90s and early 2000s animation, like work by Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Wander Over Yonder) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexters Laboratory, Samurai Jack.) McCracken and Tartakovsky attended CalArts together, where some of the instructors were animators from UPA and both ended up drawing influences from UPAs animation So its not a coincidence, were just all inspired by the same earlier work! Im also drawing a lot of inspiration from other graphic design of the 50s and 60s, including fonts and logos from that period, maps, magazine illustrations, movie posters, and package design. Saul Bass, well known for creating movie titles and posters at that time, is also a great reference for 60s imagery. Ive also tried to absorb some ideas from contemporary artists whose work pays homage to the mid-century look, including Shane Glines, Derek Yaniger, Kevin Dart, and especially Satoshi Hashimoto. So thats where the art style of Puzzle Spy International comes from, as well as a not-insignificant helping of my OWN art style, having been a professional illustrator and creating art, animation and UI for games for several decades. I hope you like what youve seen so far!

Weve made some great progress refining several puzzles this past month. Ive done art for new locations and characters, and we attended two live playtest events. We got a lot of great feedback on several puzzles, and have been busy adjusting the puzzles (and some of the UI around them) to make them work better. Being part of the local game developers communities has been a huge help in making Puzzle Spy international happen. Were lucky to be in an area where theres a lot of indie game dev happening and Im fairly active in the local indie Discords as well as several other game-related Discord servers (for example, the two big ones where people are using and giving feedback on games made with the Renpy engine, which is what PSI uses.) My local indie Discord just hosted a live playtest at a bar/arcade in San Francisco last week, so Talia and I attended and got to watch a bunch of people play PSI. When something isnt working well, we get to see it with out own eyes and talk to the players about what isnt working. (And we also hear a fair amount about what IS working too!) That same local Discord hosts a weekly coworking/problem-solving night so last week I came with a problem that people noticed with one puzzle not accepting input when the shift or capsLock keys were on. Our own programmer couldnt find the problem, but a few folks offered to check through the code and found exactly what the problem was. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes! And with just a few lines of code changed, now the puzzle works exactly the way anyone would expect it to, and no one playing has to worry about whether they have capsLock on or not. Another great place to meet up with community are conferences: I dont attend a lot but never miss the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the big game industry gathering every spring in San Francisco. Ive been attending for years. Last year I especially loved the Thinky Games MeetUp in Yerba Buena Park in downtown SF. I met the makers of so many other fun puzzle games, including Mini-Metro, ViewFinder, A Tiny Sticker Tale, Surradia, and more. This year the Thinky Games folks told me that they wouldnt be at GDC so I offered to plan and host the Thinky Puzzle Devs Meetup so that it would still happen. They gave me their blessing so therell be another meet-up this year. If you happen to be around SF or the GDC, come by Yerba Buena Park (specifically the Stone Stage) on Thursday March 20 from 10-12. Ill be there talking about Puzzle Spy with lots of other game-makers!

A big thanks to everyone who wishlisted Puzzle Spy in the first month! We're going to use these regular new updates to let you know about what we're working on. First off, who's "we"? We're Mike and Talia, a husband-and-wife team from Oakland, California, USA. We're collaborating on all of the writing and puzzle design and Mike does all of the visuals. (He's been an industry game artist for several decades.) We get outside help for coding, music, and some puzzle design. The game is currently ~60% complete, both in terms of story and puzzles. We have 5 of the planned 8 big puzzles coded and are in the process of playtesting them now, Play-testing has included folks playing them over the internet and in live local game showcases. It's exciting to have people give us feedback on what is and isn't working, and for us to be able to look at the latter and come up with new ideas to make the puzzles easier to understand and play. (For instance, in one puzzle about punny names, two names were falling flat as they riffed on somewhat uncommon expressions. We replaced those with some much more "gettable" puns and have received appreciation for the new updates.) We got a ton of writing done over the New Year's break and have since added all the art and implemented the entire branching conversation for one entire new location. (Sorry, but which country this conversation takes place in is classified information.) We've got full sketches for another major character and plan to work on finished art for them soon. We'll also be doing some more live playtests of puzzles early next month... Look for a new update in February!