Bonus: Sandbox Concept Images

Hi all!

You may recall a while ago I said I was playing around with a sort of "sandbox" game to test new ideas, code, and exercise some rendering skills. Playing around with this sandbox has directly helped development of BBN, even if some of the benefits are yet to roll out. (More on that below.)

That said, I've spent some time working on an outline, script for a first couple of chapters, and renders for the prologue and a little bit of the first chapter, and thought I'd share some of that with you, along with the concept I have for the game. However, before you read much further, I want to emphasize this is something I'm only doing in my spare time when I just don't have the mental energy to work on BBN, or I want to test a concept or idea I want to try in BBN. (In case you're worried BBN is going to be delayed by this, please don't.)

Alright, so the concept writ large is as follows:

• The Main Character ("MC"; default name is Tommy but you can change it) is the estranged son of a mafia kingpin.
  
• The father is murdered in a gangland style assassination, and MC flies home, notionally for the funeral, but primarily to be there for his brother and mother.
  
• The brother winds up as the acting-boss. When they reconnect, he hints to the MC that something is rotten within the family business, but doesn't share much more as he doesn't want the MC involved and put in danger.
  
• During the funeral, the brother is shot in a second attempted assassination. He survives, but falls into a coma.
  
• MC is thrust into the position of trying to investigate who killed their father, who tried to kill his brother, and who their next target may be.
  
• There are four possible suspects, three of whom are potential love interests.
  
• The twist is the murderer can change with each playthrough, and you can influence the likelihood through a series of flashbacks from the brother's perspective while he's in the coma.
  
• As you go through, you can take steps to undermine or neglect the family's criminal empire, or embrace your family dynasty.
  

Anyway, when I need a mental health break from BBN, Mayhew, Alex, Nick and the gang (as much as I love them, variety is the spice of life), this is what I've been playing around with and it helps me try new things with renders, code, etc. Working on this has helped me find a way to get a music room into BBN, made me take the plunge on hiring an artist for a custom GUI, and experiment a bit more with lighting scenes.

So, that's it! Since I had these renders done, I thought I'd share them with you. Whenever this is in a semi-playable, demo-like state, I'll share it with folks, though it will likely be months away (if ever).

Cheers!