Probably Asked Questions

It’s difficult to predict what kind of questions people may ‘frequently’ ask. Below I’ve answered what I assume most people will want to know about Repella Fella.

• Q.

  'Repella Fella'? What's with the name?

  It is the name of the business the player operates early on in the game. It is a fictional pest extermination company.

• Q.

  Will Repella Fella be a Flash game?

  No.

  Using Construct 3, it’s made with a combination of modern web technologies (CSS, JS, HTML etc). It’s possible that the entirety of the game could run in your browser without the need for any additional software or third party players.

• Q.

  How would you describe the game?

  A choose your own adventure, a dark comedy.

  It’s set in Australia, it’s fully voiced (around 100 voice actors, mostly Australian), there are many choices to be made, and unless you play the game 2 – 3 times, you won’t see the full repercussions of your choices.

• Q.

  How many people are working on this game?

  For the moment, just me.

  When something in the coding realm is too tricky for me to figure out, or if my code is a bit of a mess, I outsource certain tasks to an incredibly talented Construct 3 developer called Stan.

• Q.

  Why didn't you make a third 'Ray' game?

  See this post.

  In combination with the above, I don’t own the rights to the South Park style I used all those years ago and I wanted to move on from that.

• Q.

  Why didn't you at least create something similar to 'Ray'?

  Because I am Australian and I have tried to stick to what I know.

  A lot of my inspiration for Ray came from the violence in Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt and television. I’d just be creating the same thing people have already seen a million times over.

• Q.

  How long is the game and how does the gameplay work?

  As of now, there is roughly 5.7 hours of animation spread across over 600 scenes.

  Most of the game consists of either making choices during cinematics or walking around interactive areas in order to progress through the game.

  There are various areas where you can explore, read things, listen to audio cassettes, talk to people, complete small quests and so on.

  One book in the game contains over 120 pages full of information, illustrations and photos. You can find smaller books, posters, notes and pamphlets too.

  If you see a door in an interactive area outside of the tutorial, you can open it and go inside. Many objects can be interacted with, and there are numerous objects you can find to use in your adventures.

  There’s quite a lot to do, but not everything needs to be interacted with, so your playtime will vary.

  On any one playthrough, you will not see the 5.7 hours of animated content. You will need to play the game at least 3 times to see the majority of what the game has to offer. There are also multiple subplots you can follow.

• Q.

  Will choices really matter?

  Some choices exist simply to pass an objective. Others are tied to future events and in several cases, future games.

  Certain choices carry far greater weight than others. Your actions can lead to people living, dying or the amount of post-credit cinematics you will see after finishing the game.

• Q.

  Who do you get to play as?

  There are two leads and one supporting character you get to play as. Each have their own goals and motivations.

  For the majority of the game, you play as the male character.

• Q.

  Can you die?

  Yes. If you do die, you are simply taken back to the choice menu.

  Initially you could die more frequently, but without more complex mechanics, the way you would die didn’t rely on any sort of skill. Only guesswork. It’s something I look to remedy in the sequel.

• Q.

  Will there be a sequel?

  If the game sells enough, sure. I’d love to have a decent budget to work with next time so that I can incorporate more gameplay elements.

  If sales aren’t so great, I will wrap the story up in a 5-10 minute video that will be included as a free update to the game.

• Q.

  What resolution are the cinematics rendered at?

  The game targets 2560×1440 (1440p).

  Since the visuals are all vector graphics, I could technically create an 8K version (or 1,000,000K version, I suppose).

  However, when scenes are being swapped out on the fly, it’s best to stick to a resolution that is going to cause less of a ‘hiccup’ on lower end hardware. As 1440p sits between 1080p and 4K, I consider it a happy medium.

• Q.

  What about the frame rate?

  My older games were created at 500×400 at 16FPS.

  All video content now runs at 2560×1440 at 30FPS.

  Initially I tried creating the video content at 60FPS, which seemed feasible, but the motion looked very… odd. 24FPS still seemed a little low whereas 30FPS seemed just right.

  The gameplay segments aren’t capped at all and are very smooth to play. The prototype I created years ago ran at over 100FPS on a 2017 Macbook. It was probably much more than 100FPS, I can’t accurately recall.

• Q.

  What kind of drawing tools do you use?

  Good old mouse and keyboard.

• Q.

  Did this really take 6 years?

  On and off, yes. The first 2 years were part time while I worked a full time job. The 3rd year was half and half. The past few years have primarily been full time. Most days spent working on the animation were 10 – 16 hours long.