DW Innovation Play
Darren Wilden

DW Innovation is my independent studio. Every project here, a game, a model, a score or a story, is designed and finished by the same hands, rather than handed between specialists.

The writing, concept art, 3D, animation, music, voice over, sound design and code all happen at the same desk, from the first pencil sketch to the final mix. This is the order it happens in.

  1. Write

    Every building starts as a page. The narration, the thought bubbles that greet you inside, the Gazette's stories and the notices pinned to the walls are all written before anything is modelled.

    E. Marsh, Clockmaker. The narration.

    "This whole shop is full of clocks. But really, it's full of time. And time, more than anything else, is patience."

  2. Sketch

    Characters and poses are worked out on paper first, a pose study before anything is modelled.

    A pose study sketch of two figures, one reaching for a box

  3. Model and paint

    Buildings go up as plain blocks first. Then every sign, brick and window is painted by hand as original artwork, in the town's own low-poly style, never a photograph.

    An early blockout of a brick street
    An early blockout
    The finished Free Library on North Street, in the game
    Finished, in the game

  4. Animate

    Walk cycles and movement are posed and timed frame by frame, the same character all the way through the town.

    Four frames of the character's walk cycle

  5. Score

    Original music is composed and written from scratch for the places that need it.

    A page of original piano sheet music

  6. Record

    The narration is recorded in my own voice, room by room, in the clockmaker's shop, the schoolroom and St Mary's, at the Post Office writing desk and at every one of the Free Library's shelves.

  7. Sound design

    Then the town gets its sounds, recorded and placed one by one, so a street sounds like somewhere and not only looks like it. These are some of the sounds you will hear.

    • Footsteps, walking and running
    • A van passing by
    • The steam train
    • The church bell
    • Birds by day
    • A hum on the bench
    • The circus band
    • A bite of an apple

  8. Program and integrate

    Every model, texture, recording and trigger is wired together in code, system by system, until the town behaves like one place, and runs in an ordinary browser on an ordinary phone.

    • Day and night
    • Doors and interiors
    • Rooms that talk
    • The Gazette reader
    • Seats to sit in
    • The town map
    • The taxi
    • Gold arrows
    • The satchel
    • Seven keepsakes

  9. Test and iterate

    Each feature is walked, tapped and listened to from end to end on both phone and computer, released, checked again live, and fixed again the moment it does not hold up.

    Mill Street on a computer screen, the train at the level crossing
    Mill Street on a phone screen, a street at night

See the result for yourself

Free, in your browser, on your phone or computer.

Play Mill Street