Remember that stellar foray into flash gaming Where We Remain from the team over at Twofold Secret? Well they’ve been busy ever since creating their latest title called Sanctuary 17.

The game is a tile-based adventure game in the vein of some retro titles and the creators say it was “inspired by the classic Intellivision title Night Stalker.” You choose either the male or female character and wander through a futuristic world shooting robots and shielding yourself from danger. If your character dies, you must then restart as the other character.

The game world is randomly generated (much like Twofold Secret’s last outing) and players are tasked with finding six different items throughout the world that will help them along the way.

I only got a moment to check out the game world, but from even the first few screens I can recommend giving the game a try.

In addition, they’ve created a full-color, 12-page, printed manual which you can either get online or physically order a copy (all in the heart of supporting indie gaming).

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and play Sanctuary 17 already!

When hitting the web for free gaming, players generally accept that for the most part they’ll be pulling from a large library of bite-sized, casual titles; rarely does anyone expect to come across a flash game to grab them by the collar and really evoke an emotional response on some level. Twofold Secret is out to change that, with their goal to break the stereotype of the ‘play fast and forget’ style tied to the browser genre.

Recently, I had a chance to chat with TFS founders Chris Klimas and Joel Haddock about their work developing deep and engaging flash titles including the mysterious island adventure game Where We Remain, and their upcoming project Sanctuary (pictured).

DIYGamer: Indie studios come in all shapes in sizes, so first, tell us a bit about yourselves. You guys got day jobs? How many hours do you put in a week for development?

Chris Klimas: We both live in the Baltimore area — I have a day job as a Web developer. As for hours per week, I’d guess between five and ten? It’s tough to quantify because this is still very much a spare-time venture for us, so it depends on what is going on in our lives week to week.

Joel Haddock: By day I do Web Marketing/Content Management for a publishing company. The development hours are pretty flexible from week to week, but I’d say five to ten is a good estimate.

DIY: Chris you mentioned previously you had a bit of a development background before Where We Remain, what kind of games and projects were you working on prior to forming Twofold Secret? And, how did the dynamic duo come together?

Chris: I first got into games by creating a few text adventures. I enjoyed that a lot, but I was pretty terrible at designing puzzles, which are arguably essential to that genre, so eventually I drifted away from that. From there I tried writing hypertext — subtracting the puzzles from interactive fiction and focusing on just the writing. And that was a lot of fun, too, but I got burned out on it after a point. I just ran out of ideas that could take advantage of the medium.

There has been a long gap between when I was thinking about interactive fiction and when I started working on our current games, but more and more I’ve noticed how IF has influenced my design sensibilities. Well, first of all, I lean pretty heavily towards text when I’m trying to give a world depth, but it also relates to interaction design. The best IF gives the player a wide variety of possible actions and provides good responses to nearly anything a player will try — if only to tell him why what he wants to do isn’t allowed. So I certainly see that level of depth as a goal.

Joel: I’ve been fascinated by game design since I was in middle school, and I’ve been tinkering with it ever since. I am, to put it politely, a crap programmer, so most of my projects were usually with tools created by others; things like RPG Maker or GameMaker. Now, I know people can do amazing things with those tools, but I was using them at their simplest, “novice” programmer level, so I never was really able to get my designs to the full potential I envisioned. To give myself a little richer outlet, I’ve done a lot of board game design work, and spent a lot of time developing my own pen-and-paper RPG system.

I very much enjoy creating systems and mechanics for players to explore, and finding ways to harmonize those with narrative in ways that feel appropriate. I find that games with elegant mechanics meshed with wonderful stories are the games I enjoy the most, so that’s something I strive for.

Chris and I started designing games together back in college, actually, though our ideas far outstripped our abilities at the time. We had a lot of projects on paper, but not much to show for it when it was all said and done. After college, we kept bouncing around ideas now and again together, even as we each worked on separate projects. Once Chris became familiar with Flixel, we decided to scale down our goals and work on really seeing a project through to completion, and thus WWR came to be.

DIY: You certainly don’t come across free flash games with the depth Where We Remain has all the time, randomized cave entrances, multiple endings, plenty of storyline revealed in the dropped letters. I guess my question is what’s the motivation to make such deep games with high replay value for an area of the industry that’s mostly popular for its casual and bite sized products?

Chris: Thanks! Two things come to mind. First, the motto on Anna Anthropy’s blog: “We must make the games we wish to play in the world.” I want to have a longer relationship with a game than a few minutes. Ironically, though, by the time Where We Remain was ready for release, I was pretty sick of it from constantly playtesting each revision.

The other part of it is, I’d like to think there are the seeds of a backlash against superdisposable content on the Web. I was really excited, for example, to see longform.org launched recently. So I’d like to help that along if I can.

Joel: To echo Chris: we want to make the kinds of games we would enjoy. Short, bite-sized games can be a momentary diversion, but I’d much rather play something with some meat on the bones.

DIY: The goal of the game is fairly easy to grasp after a run through, but the relationship it revolves around is anything but simple. Letters of encouragement from your supposed love, mixed with your own poetry to her, mixed with other more alarming notes that piece together earlier struggles–even certain items that give the player a sharper perspective (glasses = the truth?). I almost want to ask if there were any girl troubles during the conception of the story…

Has the relationship portion itself produced any unexpected responses from players?–especially considering there seems to be no perfect ending.

Chris: Ha! — I can say for the record that there were no girl problems going on during the game’s conception. I wanted the protagonist’s messages to come off as lovesick, even cloyingly so. I wanted people to think at least a little that he was an idiot — sort of that experience where you discover an old love letter from when you had a high school crush on someone, when everything seemed like it was the end of the world, and you cringe.

What threw me off was that some people felt the game was misogynistic. We ended up tackling the question on our blog, and certainly I see their point of view. But, all the same, it’s pretty horrifying to feel like something you created espouses a viewpoint like that.

Joel: I was also a little taken aback by the misogyny angle, but in retrospect I could see where some people were coming from. Every player is going to bring something different with them when they sit down to play a game, but you can’t let that prevent you from trying to tell the story you want to tell.

DIY: Regardless of whether they played through once or several times, was there any particular thing you wanted the player to take away from the game?

Chris: Hmm. That’s a tough one. I think one of the key parts of the game is the question of identity. Obviously there are a ton of games out there where the protagonist lost his memory before the game starts, and he turns out to be a hero. And there are also a ton of games (but maybe fewer than the first category?) where he lost his memory, turns out to be a villain, and then gets to choose whether to redeem himself. But, I’d like to think there are not very many where the player has to decide whether the protagonist was a hero, a villain, or neither based on sketchy evidence — and what the “good” thing to do is, going forward. Or, I don’t know, if the “bad” thing is more appropriate either to the story or the character.

A friend of mind said to me while we were beta-testing, about one of the tablets she found: “Is this about me? Because if so, I’m a JERK.” I think that’s the most succinct way to put it.

Joel: I really wanted people to just freak the hell out when Notus or Boreas first showed up. I’d like to think we achieved that.

DIY: So you guys are entering beta on a new game which looks to be quite a bit different from WWR. From the screenshots you’ve passed along it appears to be a puzzle shooter of some sort, let’s get some details! What’s it all about? Does it happen to have a title, and when can we expect a release?

Joel: Our current project, which is in beta right now with our incredibly helpful playtesters is called “Sanctuary,” and it started as an homage to one of my favorite childhood games, but at this point I think has grown into something much more. It’s a little more arcade-oriented than WWR, with a lot of cat-and-mouse action with mankind’s oldest nemesis, robots. Still, like WWR, we’ve tried to create a deeper story for the player to discover, and some richer gameplay experiences that they can keep coming back to. We’re hoping to release within the next few weeks, and we certainly hope people will enjoy it!

DIY: Is there any other projects or games that are in the works that you guys can or want to mention?

Joel: We’ve already begun some groundwork for our next project, but we’d like to get Sanctuary out the door before we let ourselves get too distracted!

Chris: One of the best parts of working with Joel, actually, has been that there’s never been a sense of “Well, what next?” We’ve been sharing a Google doc of game ideas that we want to eventually pursue, and it’s become rather gargantuan.

DIY: Sounds great! Can’t wait to check out Sanctuary in the coming weeks and look forward to seeing what you guys offer up in the future!

You can play Where We Remain now for free via Twofold Secret’s website.

Each Thursday Browser’s Best profiles a trio of web-based/flash indie games, selecting one of the three to spotlight as the week’s must play.

Join me for our inaugural Browser’s Best piece, where I try my hand at playing these little chunks of joy and subsequently recommend any I find with merit to you. Exciting! Well, perhaps not as exciting as the games themselves, but ultimately you can be the judge of that as each title mentioned below is linked to its proper game page.

This week’s picks include a simple platformer, a record scratching interactive maze with a soundtrack and a Zelda-type love story on an island as mysterious as it is dangerous. We’ve mentioned two of them before, but they are well worth another shout out.

One Button Bob – A classic bite-sized 2D platform title, where you take on the character Bob and his trademark one button dynamic to attack, jump and run deep into a treasure filled dungeon.

With 15 levels, some of which are just more difficult iterations of previous ones, there isn’t a ton of replay value but look no further if you’re looking for a fun, simple time killer. (Pictured: Bottom Left)

Record Tripping – This unique DJ maze game requires a mouse wheel which acts as a record scratcher of sorts. You start with a record player tutorial to learn how to use the controls and then you apply it on some very interesting levels. (The birds, the birds!) Each chapter contains an easy, medium and hard version that you’ll have to try and pass, and you’ll quickly realize what can be seen doesn’t necessarily tell the whole picture.

The negative that is a bit of a load time is quickly dismissed when you realize what the title really has to offer in terms of depth of design. The game looks really good and implements some nice, recognizable music over a British woman saying stuff–both of which can be slowed and scratched. Its a blast to play whether you have an hour or just a minute.  (Pictured: Bottom Right)

[Must Play] Where We Remain - The game is simply an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Alright, maybe not that insane but it is a very interesting experience that you don’t necessarily get from your typical free web game. You play as the hero trying to rescue the girl but familiarity with what exactly is going on ends there.

Imprisoned on an island by an unknown source, you must find a way off through exploring the region, reading the love letters and collecting the flowers you pass by. The island contains many dangers; you can’t dilly-dally too long outside, but the caves don’t serve refuge either as they pose their own threats. Truly, the most enjoyable part of the game is the fact that you never feel safe, a great element for any game to have.

In the end, three different conclusions can be reached depending on how you played through and what choices were made. The creator thoughtfully included a guide to prevent too much confusion over what exactly pick-ups do. No matter how bewildering it may be, TwoFold Secret’s creation is a must play. (Pictured: Top Center)