Wow. It sure has been a long while since I've given an update on One Night 4, hasn't it? According to the information on the title screen, the last demo was released in April 2013 -- over one whole year ago. In the meantime I made the move into commercial game development and even released Legionwood 2. I've received emails from worried Indiegogo contributors, wondering if One Night 4 hasn't just died off and been forgotten.

Let's remedy that. Take a look at this nifty teaser:



Yes, One Night 4 has changed into something quite different. One Night: The Beginning is a brand new chapter in the One Night series that serves as a prequel to the entire series and explores the origins of the deep backstory introduced in One Night 2: The Beyond. Unlike the previous games in the series, The Beginning is a fully fledged horror themed RPG (ie. not a "survival horror" game, but it will still have horror elements) that allows you to create your own character and build up their stats and abilities as you investigate the origins of a Lovecraftian nightmare at the dawn of the 20th Century -- complete with dialogue trees, experience points and dice rolls.

While I'd rather not say anything about the storyline or gameplay concepts at this point, as New Beginning still has a long way to go until completion (I still intend to finish writing Blood Lake first for one), I'm sure some of you are wondering why I've made the decision to make such a drastic change to One Night 4. There are a couple of main reasons.

First of all, I was, to be honest, unhappy with how One Night 4 was turning out. The gameplay, which involves basically solving puzzles while running from an Ao Oni style stalker enemy, doesn't really add anything new to the series. Back when the original three One Night games were released, survival horror was a rarity amongst RPG Maker games, and indie development in general. These days, there are plenty of horror games similar to One Night, and first and foremost, I want to do the series justice and make the latest game stand out from the crowd. With The Beginning's new focus on RPG elements, I can "reboot" the mechanics of the series and reinvigorate an old, tired formula.

Secondly, as some of you may be aware, I've recently made the move into commercial game development. I completed and released my first commercial game, Legionwood 2, and thanks to commercial distribution channels such as Steam, I've discovered a new audience that were previously out of my reach. I would love to bring One Night to this new audience, too. That said, the main thing I've learned from Legionwood 2 is that it's hard to market a sequel. I'd hate to think how hard it would be to convince people to buy a game that's the fourth in a relatively unknown series (which potentially requires the knowledge of three games worth of backstory to play properly), but with a standalone prequel I can reach out to people who've never even heard of One Night, One Night 2 or Full Circle.

So yeah, part of it comes down to selling out. But the good news is that One Night 4 isn't dead. It's turned into something altogether more awesome, and it's going to take the series to new heights. Survival horror has almost become a cliche these days in the indie community -- One Night: The Beginning needs to be something fresh.

The horror begins soon.

Hey everyone, guess what? I'm resuming development on One Night 4! Well, kinda. See, there were a number of reasons I cancelled the project (just one of them being a lack of time) and most of them were related to me being unable to finance a couple of resources I need to push the game through to completion. These are things that I really couldn't find anywhere else, such as a complete custom soundtrack, scripts for the stealth and monster AI systems I wanted to implement and a bunch of graphical resources such as monster and character sprites and edits, and the new modern/futuristic tilesets for RPG Maker (and subsequent changes I need done to them, such as bloodying them up and making them a little more dilapidated).

However, I noticed that quite a few RPG Maker games of late (and many more indie games in general) have been turning to fans to finance their production, and it seems to be doing well, so I've decided to do the same thing and have set up and Indiegogo campaign for One Night 4.

The fund raising goal is $2000 (plus $100 to cover Indiegogo + Paypal fees) -- I've managed to cobble together most of the game's assets myself and have made a start so I don't need a full game's worth of resources and this amount would be more than enough to secure the last few materials I need to polish the game and finish it off. At the moment, the game is roughly 50% complete, but I can't push forward until I'm able to implement the missing systems and many of the later areas of the game rely on this stuff. As such, I'm pretty much making a plea to all of you to help me make the completion of this game a reality.

As usual with these campaigns, there are several perks you get in return for your contribution, such as getting to be in the game and getting access to concept art and design notes. They're not much (as again, I have limited funds and this isn't a commercial game either, so free downloads and boxed copies are worthless perks), but I want to make One Night 4 the best game in the series and a worthy addition to the RPG Maker horror canon, so I'm trying my best to make pledging your support worthwhile. If you're an existing One Night fan, or just want to champion the revival of classic survival horror mechanics a la Resident Evil and Silent Hill, please consider making a donation. Every little bit helps, and you'll be doing your part in helping me complete a project that wouldn't otherwise advance.

Indiegogo Campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/332547?show_todos=true