Hello!

Now that my newest project is released and out a few days, let's talk about stuff.

Postmortem, then game secrets!

AFTER FINISHING THE GAME

First of all, I am proud of me managing texturing a whole game again, as well as in the amount of 5 floors, each with many props, some with unique texturing as well. I have around 10 unique textures I use in the game and one very prominent with a trim texture I managed to make in Adobe Substance Designer. It was my first experience with the program. 

Second I am proud of the knowledge I gathered over the project about the engine I continued to use: Unreal Engine (5.2.1)
A lot of know-how, especially about level sequences and video/gif components as you can see on the office cell floors with the work traffic you can stop and continue with the break bells.

Finally I am proud of staying mentally sane over the course of this project. The hardest part was after the start, around the finishing of prototyping, where I asked myself, if I can achieve what I want to do in the amount of time given. Near the end an unavoidable crunch MONTH as it feels like (retrospecively I worked a week really much, but the main challenge comes from the mindset. I couldn't think of much else the closer the deadline came) hit the nerves and I still managed to stay motivated somehow, but I also feel like I need a very long break now and a month might not even be enough.

Next game will be a bit tamer hopefully, I have already some ideas, but I now try to rest a bit.

But lets come to 

THE SECRETS

Clerk has a handful of secrets you can encounter

Artist Eastereggs

This game is made by me D-Draco, but this project I had help again from my friends, who are way more proficient in music production than I am, so I learned a thing or two about organization and management in return of custom tracks and a cool learnexperience for the artists as well. I asked them about something they want to have hidden in the game and so they gave me something you can find. It is a bit tricky, because it needs to break the game a bit, but if you hug walls and look down, the first person camera will allow seeing things, which were hidden at first. With this knowledge I will just say: Every floor with a custom new track, will have a easteregg in regards of the corresponding artist. 

Plushies and the ULTIMATE item

You may have noticed the plushies (or "Thing") around the building and the notice of the CEO on the final floor.
There are 9 optional and 1 necessary plushy to collect in the building.
One is on the Office Cell Floor, you need to collect to progress to the next floors, but after this point in the game you can encounter more. Collect every one of them to get something ultimate on the final floor. When entering the CEO room, turn right to see a machine. Interact with it and see what is coming.

New Game+

Yes this game has somewhat a new game+ due to how I designed it. After finishing the game once, you can click on new game again, starting on the first floor again, but with all items in your inventory you collected in the previous run minus important key items, like the NDA and the correspondence. Means you still need to complete the first floor normally, but after that you are free to do what you want. You can collect plushies to get the ULTIMATE item easier (which is helpful for the next secret) or see how fast you can bring the letter. Feel free to experiment!

True "Ending"

This game has a final secret of completion, if you want to see everything I put in it. For seeing this, you need to find a specific coworker on the office cell floor. He will say something about a room and the requirement of something ULTIMATE (you see what you need here?)
Long story short, try the previous secrets and bring this person what he wants to see a small but true extra for completing the game. 

Note: It is not an extra cutscene like an ending, but a little something for completionists.

And with that I will finish this little blog post and I hope you can look forward for what comes next!

Thank you very much

Draco