"You have had quite the career. Your time in the Suppression Bureau, in the Légion du Seuil. That regrettable business in Poland.... And then you disappeared. Where did you go?"
Travelling At Night's first ever public demo is now live!
Explore dreams! Unearth secrets! Drink alleged coffee and regrettably diluted pastis! Wear old and meaningful military uniforms! Wishlist and tell your friends! Oh, and here's a brand-spanking-new trailer to mark the occasion: the HUNTED trailer. Watch below!
OK, I'll calm down now. Or try to. Here's a rundown on to expect from Travelling's demo, and what's coming afterwards in the full game...
People to meet
You'll be able to charm, antagonise, help or hinder over twenty characters in the demo. Here are some to look out for, in order of appearance:
Antibes
Sanitarium Aujourd'hui
Andrée, the libraire of the Librairie des Heures
Léon, a devoted servant of the State
Father Jaume, parish priest in the church of St Reparata
Janvier, Spencer's tailor before the Wars. Much older now, but still a man you could trust with a needle, even where a gentleman does not generally permit needles.
Linou, the tired, laconic, watchful patronne of Chez Felix
Pompon, a somnolent dangle of a cat
Aristide, full of craggy cynicism
Jean Bernard, a poet and car mechanic, skilled in dejection
Leopold, an avant-garde painter. Not a nihilist: a realist, or at worst an existentialist. Not a Russian, a Finn. Always argumentative.
Philomele, a lady of diffident elegance
Zélia, a grande dame of the old school
Mathis, a burly gentleman in orderly's whites
Dr Aubiere, the sleekly smiling director of the Sanitarium Aujourd'hui
Fraser Strathcoyne, philanthropist, collector and former Librarian of Hush House. He has long wished to embrace his inner Cross-nature. Now his wish is granted.
Khione, a cat of striking size and vivid presence
Bessy Bloom, always in graceful motion; always, softly, humming
Rodia, a smiling woman with a tendency to greenery
Vincent, an old comrade-in-arms from Spencer's Légion days. Almost irrepressibly cheerful.
I have not included at least two semi-secret characters in the list. Find them if you can!
Places to see
The demo starts as you step off the train at the Gare d'Antibes into a dark and rainy perma-gloom. You'll explore both sides of this quite literally war-torn town, interrogating its citizens and hiding from the rain (or the sunshine) in the Librairie des Heures; the Church of St Reparata; the tailor's, Janvier et Fils; the local candle-lit café. From there (or possibly before, if you have a difficult conversation with Léon), you'll enter the Sanitarium Aujourd'hui, the Incorporate-sponsored private retreat run by Dr Aubiere, who has a particular interest in people like you.
There is at least one more rarefied location that I daren't mention here. You'll get there if you follow your heart.
Key mechanics
Well, you can run around and talk to people, using skill checks to navigate your way through the story. That's basically a CRPG finished, right?
OK OK there are some other things in there TOO I guess. In Travelling's case, you can use Spencer's lifetime of occultery to craft items at certain locations that may help you: a Midnight Mark, for instance, to taint the dreams of a victim; or the Rite of the Ascending Sun, to manage your own Dread. Crafting venues are places where the skin of the world is thin - you'll know them when you see them. Crafting will be a pretty core mechanic though the full game, and you'll get a taste of its lower-level capabilities here.
There's the Passion system, where you can evolve Spencer's character through the game based on the kind of dialogue choices you want to pursue, and the kind of man you want to be. This was a tough one: everyone knows that you get the 'best' ending if you always choose the good or evil path through a game, but what if one day you're feeling whimsical, but the next, angry? What if you are more than just your primary personality trait? We're not quite so delusional as to attempt to reconstruct the infinite variety of the human soul in this game, but we hope the Passions help you build a multifaceted personality rather than an altruist/villain dichotomy.
In another part of the game, you'll see AK trying to wrangle seeming irreconcilables: the specific details of lore and practical setting information, vs the numinous intrigue and mystique of the Secret Histories. The choice of wrangling weapon is Travelling's Footnotes system. This is our hybrid, more interactive solution to the traditional CRPG codex. Rather like in BOOK OF HOURS, you'll be able to make choices through these footnotes about interpretations of History or personal preferences: like a personality quiz that gives you flavoured experience points.
Finally, you'll also be able to try out a truncated version of the Outfit system. As with any CRPG, what you wear has an effect on your skills and how people respond to and feel about you. It differs in that the outfits are all one 'set' rather than individual pieces you put together yourself. We didn't want people to constantly be forced to change individual items to maximise their chances of success on a skill roll, and we wanted Spencer to remain stylish at all times - no 'I am wearing a collection of things I found in a bin' for him. In this demo there are six different outfits you can wear. In the full game, there'll be nineteen. (Outfits also affect how people react to you - Strathcoyne prefers Respectable clothing - and gives you bonuses/penalties from weather conditions - a trenchcoat is good for rain, not so good for the Riviera sun.)
What's *not* in the demo
The game's called Travelling at Night, but most of the travelling comes later. We've deliberately limited the demo to the first area in the game, and it ends when you step on the train at Antibes Station and journey to Mimata. In the full game, of course, you'll be able to travel (at night, for instance) to more than a dozen fully fleshed out locations, from the arcadian calm of Hush House in Brancrug to the abattoir-ice of east Berlin.
There's also a lot more polish to come - UI improvements (anyone who saw the state of the Recipes menu at the start of beta can attest to real and noble progress on the UI front), a smoother dialogue window, improved animations and sound effects, and far fewer instances of Spencer being able to enter a void through the fridge or stand on stop of a palm tree while wearing his uniform back to front.
There's a long way to go, but we're so proud of how far Travelling's come. We hope you enjoy the new trailer, the new demo, and the new incarnation of the Secret Histories. If you do, please wishlist the game and tell your friends about it! And try not to fall through any holes in the world when you do.