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It might sound strange, but we don’t have any intentions of developing this game for another decade.
So what is the core of Militsioner? It's an immersive-sim about a relationship with the Law. So at that time, actively in development were: an open dialogue system with voice input, a tamagotchi-like mood system for all npc’s, a dynamic time system and a law system.
We had to abandon the voice recognition system. it was inevitable that some features we had initially aimed for would be cut. It’s natural for every project. While such decisions are typically made behind closed doors in most studios, our commitment to open development means that you get to witness it in real time. But we feel like it's crucial to maintain transparency with you about these unavoidable decisions.
To pull that off, you gotta figure out his routine. The LAW needs to sleep too. Time is a key element, everything in the game world operates on its schedule.
It's very important for us that the player experiments and finds their own way to solve each task. But such an approach is very labor-intensive. Typically, in games like Dishonored, each path is crafted separately and represents a complete segment of the game that the player will never see unless they choose that specific route. We can’t afford such expenses. How to maintain freedom without adding years to the game's development?
It's up to the player to decide how to get through. Each door may look the same but offers entirely different solutions depending on whether the player has a lockpick, is on good terms with an NPC who can provide a key, or if the player has swiped it from that NPC. Or even wait for the night time and discreetly break the lock with a brick.
One of the recurring issues was that people were avoiding the game's mechanics all together. Players struggled to grasp what they needed to do in the game at all, leaning towards tactics they had already seen in other games. They were playing someone else's game.
After spending several months testing and making fixes, we found ourselves with a demo that felt completely different – more like a real game. We significantly changed the overall loop, tossed in heaps of new content, characters, and details to spice up the game.
Hey, this is nowhere near the final cut of the game. The tamagotchi thing still needs some tinkering, the dialogue system is on a quest for a new direction and, honestly, the game's a bit of a walk in the park right now. It's tough to be super objective – our eyes are a bit foggy, but overall, we received very positive feedback. The demo has bloomed into something way bigger than our original plan for these two years, even with the inevitable cuts. Most importantly – we've figured out where to steer this ship next.
The player had to sneak in the streets, hiding behind houses from the giant’s gaze and from his giant hand. But in reality, it turned out to be less fascinating than just talking and having a simple eye contact. But how do we make an interesting gameplay out of communication if we’re not writers and we don’t want to make a text based game?
To find an answer, we decided to redesign the basic dialogue tree that we’re used to seeing in games and look into using free communication via microphone, as in the game - Phasmophobia. This kept the focus of the game on exactly the very contact that we wanted to capture, adding an incredibly uncomfortable feeling of real physical interaction with a person. And the very peculiarity of the method will save us from the messy text that we’re inevitably going to write.
The reception was a blast
Having decided on the direction of the gameplay, we started to improve the overall quality of the visuals. Starting with a Lawman. 
For the new appearance, we began to experiment with more detailed animations, behaviour and emotions of the Lawbringer.
Summing up the results of all the work done, we recorded a small video, together with which we announced the opening of the Patreon…
Luckily, we’re believers of an open development process, so thanks to our audience feedback we can instantly see our mistakes. 
Regarding locations and props - the work never stopped. It is a very long process and step by step we’re getting closer, filling necessary gaps. Lately we were researching the idea of the giant pushing the ground underneath him so the city ends up on a slope. It’s a little bit of an abstract concept, but visuals seem promising and interesting to try.
We understand that not everyone will be willing to play our game with mic, and we’re not even speaking about limitations in the recognition language. So we’ve developed an alternative system of free communication. The player can use suggested phrases from the context menu, alongside with the ability to pour out his soul writing his own phrases.
Despite all the difficulties, this year began with a success and ended up with one! Our game has won the most awards at the Unreal Engine Dev Contest. Feels great to have some acknowledgement in our work.
Aaand, that's it, thank you for watching, if you are interested in a longer format like this, we’re planning to release devlogs in the future. You can also look at our Patreon, we’ve already posted a bunch of videos, where we talk more in depth about technical difficulties, design, art and modeling.
Urban suburbs at night and an escape attempt by train:
Ingame look:
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