The birth of a pencil - Dev Blog #1

Intro

Hi everyone, I’m Stefano. I’m the mind behind The Perfect Pencil and this is the game's first development update.

I wanted to open up a dialogue about the game’s development and keep you updated with exclusive insights and informations.

If you are interested in knowing more, you can also join our Discord server, where you can engage with the developing team!

This game was born from the need to tell a story. The story was inspired by a personal experience of mine that I believed was worth sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6grvfQyIRw

The videogame medium was chosen because of its interactive aspect, which is crucial when it comes to involving the players and engaging with them. I wanted to offer a specific type of experience where narrative and gameplay would merge together.

In this game you will be invited to explore a peculiar world, where you can choose your path based on what you observe.

The game started from humble beginnings but I and the team are very proud of the progress we have made since then.

Early concepts

Actual game alpha

Why a metroidvania?

I chose the action-adventure/metrodvania genre because it offered the possibility to create a complex exploration experience, where the backtracking and the labyrinthine navigation of the environment would help represent the intricacies of the paths of human and psychological development.

While you explore The Perfect Pencil’s surreal kingdom, the gameplay will shift constantly between fights, quests, secrets, encounters and mini-games.

But I needed to add a second element to this structure in order to create the experience I had in mind: the narrative exploration.

Mainly provided by the Analysis ability, this type of exploration will let you uncover useful information, hidden secrets, paths, interactions and choices that will eventually shape your journey and its ending. This second aspect of the game was also inspired a little bit by old graphic adventure games such as Monkey Island.

Art direction

Artistically speaking, the game took shape starting from the characters that I used to draw and paint and that always ended up portraying bizarre but meaningful situation.

I really loved the idea that you could interact with them and explore a world that - to me - was like a big painting containing many different layers, each representing something different.

Since I’ve never painted environments or landscapes, it felt natural for me to take inspiration from personal favourites like Magritte, Lynch and Wes Anderson.

Magritte, the Belgian painter with his surreal but very defined imagery, is one of the main references for the artistic direction of The Perfect Pencil.

I really liked the sense of familiar mixed with the unexpected that he endeavours to create. This tendency also defines the work of the American director David Lynch.

This direction is something very important to me and we are doing our best to recreate it in the game. Wes Anderson, with his formalism (intended as the opposite of realism), is another big reference I used for the artistic direction of game.

I really admire his visuals and his overall style of communication, because they manage to create a cohesive atmosphere around his storytelling.

This process is especially interesting to me because it approaches themes that are subconscious and out of focus, and it brings them to light, representing them as formalized and standardized processes. John, the protagonist of the game, is a bizarre young man who fell into this world, and is struggling to find his way out of it.

Our protagonist: John

He is portrayed using two peculiar elements:

• A camera in place of his head, which will be the channel for John’s projection and record abilities

• A pencil as a weapon (a sword), which will be used to face difficulties and to survive (thanks to the healing attack) through his journey.

These two elements will have a great importance both for the narrative and the gameplay of the game, they will be instrumental to John’s journey through the kingdom of the white beast.

About Us

The team was born in 2019 and it has slowly grown since then. It is now composed by 10 people: programmers, artists, game designers, a social media manager and a psychologist. Plus an external studio for musics and sound design.

We are all based in Italy, and we love what we are doing!

If you want to try The Perfect Pencil & support us...

You can download the demo and play it right now! It works also on Steam Deck!

If you want to support us just wishlist and follow the game page in Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1858810/The_Perfect_Pencil/