Happy 8th Anniversary for Broken Hammer Games! We have much to celebrate and a big new announcement on Project 2!
For the VLOG version of the report, click below!
From our early days in 2016 till now, we committed ourselves to seeing Dust and Air completed and we've accomplished the initial introduction story with work into the first story arcs underway. While it hasn't been the best process over the years as we've dealt with engine problems, porting problems, and the occasional real life happenings, today marks a major milestone as we formally announce Project 2 and reveal it's full name:
In the end, our internal code name won out and we're happy to announce that The Father's Story will be heading towards it's Steam release. While we won't set a release date just yet, we're far enough along where we feel it's time to put up some details and get the wishlists rolling along.
The story will be our second title and while it was very much a side project, it's a full fledged visual novel in it's own right. Developed with Unity, it's bringing about the future of our development studio moving forward.
So what is The Father's Story? Well, to put it simply, it is a story of a child born disabled and set during the first century in Roman Palestine. It does take place during the Christmas Story but focuses on more of the normal people living during the era, as well as attempting to fill in some gaps in the classic narrative. Do you need to know the story? No. Is this going to deliver a heavy handed message to make you feel bad about yourself? No...We hope not. That really isn't why we made it. In fact, our own writer is very much put off by entertainment like that and he wants this to focus more on the characters and the encounters they have.
Why did we pick this instead of other possible stories? We actually did have a few other side project stories that were sitting on the back burners but in the end, The Father's Story won out. Stuff just came together for it more than the others. It also was a simpler project. More contained than our expansive Dust and Air. And also, our founder just wanted to do it.
Aside from the lead writer, this is a new small team project with different team members who have different art styles than we have used in Dust and Air. The story has been on the back burner since 2017 and it wasn't finally completed until 2019. Concepting for it began around that time and it was mostly just a slow process building ideas while we focused more on Dust and Air.
Development picked up the most in 2022 with the brunt of assets built in 2023. In 2024 we've still got some work to go and music production to get started so announcing now is mostly just to benefit the later release with giving this a better lead up than we did with Dust and Air.
When will we release it? We're within 6 months to 1yr on that front. There are many variables and ultimately it comes down to finishing up the music assets and getting the final polishing done in the new engine. Why our release page will remain "To Be Announced" for awhile until we get closer. We will update the page and our blog/social media when we take it to the next step.
Aside from that, Steam Summer Sale is here! May everyone find a good deal this summer on the games they want. Dust and Air is of course on a big deal for the sale!
We hope everyone has a good summer. To those in the north, stay cool. To those in the south, stay warm. July will be a hot month for us as we're heavily into expression work for Father's Story. June did see some extra additions on both key images and touch ups by Vergara.
Alright, that is it for this report! Thanks for joining and we'll see you in the skies!
Steam Page for the Father's Story: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3049110/The_Fathers_Story
Comments