Prerelease:Tsioque

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Tsioque.

On July 15, 2015, the game was announced on Facebook and a demo version as well as the Kickstarter page were linked.

On July 23, 2015, the Kickstarter started and ran until September 05, 2015. It reached $39,156 of the needed $35,000 and so, game creator Alek Wasilewski and his team continued active development. After a few setbacks, the game was finally released on Steam and GOG on November 07, 2018.

The developer released a lot of footage detailing the development process of Tsioque in the form of many Facebook, Kickstarter and Steam update posts. This page will cover content from these posts. The digital artbook that contains even more sketches, which is up for sale on Steam, will not be covered here.

To do: Add details where possible

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Interviews

To do: Interview with Review Fix (August 08, 2015)

To do: Interview linked here with an unknown party, in Polish (January 07, 2019)

Alek Wasilewski has given a number of interviews, revealing his motivations behind the creation of Tsioque.

In an interview with examiner from August 27, 2015, he revealed that the game was heavily inspired by his daughter and that it is meant to be a present for her once it is completed. He explained that he hoped to finish the game regardless of the Kickstarter's success, having worked on a lot of "low to no budget" projects before. Alek had an idea for a game and through a lucky circumstance, when discussing a minor Flash-related issue, a collaboration between him and OhNoo Studio started. Alek mentioned that he lacked experience in creating games and wouldn't have been able to work on a game without OhNoo Studio's skills and knowledge in game creation. He also mentioned that he finished 2 years of work for the game before starting the Kickstarter.

In an interview with IGN released on the same day, he reiterated the above and added that the decision to start the Kickstarter came hesitantly, after noticing progress was going too slow despite working day and night with the help of assistant animators. Alek explained that hand-drawn frame by frame animation, a core element of the game, is a time-consuming and tedious task, but worthwhile as it makes the characters "have soul" and he needed to find a balance between that and cheaper methods in order to stay within the budget and to get the game done eventually. Alek explained that he expected most of the animation work to be done by himself.

Media

First Trailer

This reveal trailer was released on July 24, 2015, 9 days after the game was announced.

Second Trailer

This trailer was released on August 19, 2015.

Third Trailer

This launch trailer was released on November 07, 2018, the same day the game was released.

Animation Timelapse

This is a timelapse video by the game's creator, Alek Wasilewski, showing how he takes a little more than 2 hours to create 1.2 seconds of animation for the game.

Characters

Princess Tsioque

These images were posted on Facebook and on the Kickstarter page, respectively:

These sketches for Tsioque's animations in the dungeon were posted on Facebook:

The Good Queen

The development process of the Good Queen has been explained in an update post on Kickstarter.

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  Figuring out the base design

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  Final base design

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  Adding armor

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  Final battle design

The Wizard

The development process of the Wizard has been explained in an update post on Kickstarter.

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  According to Alek, thanks to these first sketches he did, he immediately knew how he envisioned the Wizard to look.

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  Below left design was inspired by The Witcher 2, but Alek decided to not follow into that direction.

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  First colored sketches

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  Figuring out the hair and if the Wizard should have an outline.

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  Final design

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Kraken

The development process of the creatures appearing in the game, including the kraken, has been explained in an update post on Kickstarter.

As explained below, a different update post explains that it was background designer Michał Urbański's independent choice to add a Kraken monster to the floor in the dungeon, leading to the addition of this character to the game.

Zebra

The development process of the creatures appearing in the game, including the zebra, has been explained in an update post on Kickstarter.

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Duck

The development process of the creatures appearing in the game, including the duck, has been explained in two update posts on Kickstarter.

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Rooms

Dungeon

The creation process of the dungeon, the very first room in the game, was detailed in an update post on Kickstarter. Alek Wasilewski explained that he worked with Michał Urbański - who created all the backgrounds in the game - and another arist, Karolina Jędryczka.

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  A quick proof-of-concept art. According to the developer, Tsioque is blurred out because he feels embarrassed about her early design.

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  Early sketch by Alek Wasilewski

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  Concept art by Karolina Jędryczka.

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  Near final design by Michał Urbański. According to Alek, he felt this was a better fit for the game's genre. It was Michał's choice to add the Kraken on the floor who would eventually become an actual character in the game.

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  Final design

Sewing Room

The background for the sewing room was created by background artist Michał Urbański. The creation process was shown in an update post on Kickstarter.

Great Hall

This animation showing the creation of the background for the Great Hall was shown in an update post on Kickstarter:

Guard Room

This image showing the early stages of the guard room was posted on Facebook twice.

Cave

These animations were shown in an update post on Kickstarter:

Sketch

Final version

Tower Stairs

The development process of the minigame from this room was detailed in an update post on Kickstarter.

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Wizard's Room

The development process of the cutscene from this room was detailed in an update post on Kickstarter.

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  This image was posted on Facebook.

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Final version

Cover

This image showing the creation of the game's cover poster was posted on Kickstarter. The developer explained that the poster was worked on by 3 people and the Photoshop file takes a long time to load, having about 307 layers in it.

Promotional Banners

To do: Add unused promotional banner sketches.

Sketch	Final
This image was originally mirrored.

Developer's Workspace

An update post on Kickstarter from August 2016 describes that the developers were working on the game separated from each other and sometimes gathered in the middle of Poland to discuss their work, the image below depicting such as meeting:

In October 2017, the developer showed this image of OhNoo Studio's "new interior" in an update post on Kickstarter:

This image was released on Facebook, showing the software used to create the game, Adobe Animate:

Kickstarter-related

When there were 68 hours remaining until the Kickstarter would end, with 92% of the goal reached so far, the developer asked people to help "make the game come true" along with this animation of princess Tsioque imitating the "just do it" meme.

When the goal was reached and the game funded, the developer released this image, thanking the Kickstarter backers. Tsioque does not do this pose in-game.

Misc.

This image was shown on Facebook while announcing that the game would be released in 32 days. It doesn't appear in-game, but was possibly intended to appear at one point in development.