Back to the Otter

Hey everyone!! This is going to be a longer update about the state of the game / the upcoming demo, so please take some time to read through it. In the interest of releasing something worthwhile as soon as possible, I'm changing my game plan a little and want to make sure you all know what's going on.

So - before I took that break for Halloween stuff, I was still plugging away at designing and modeling the tutorial level. Here's some updated shots from it, including a cool new vertex-painted skybox model:

This tutorial level is huge, completely linear, and I've been working on it since August, which is kind of a while. Part of this is because the game is still early in production, which means I've still been busy creating all of the core systems that comprise it - dialogue, menus, characters, etc. - as opposed to being able to focus solely on content, which is usually what you do near the end of a dev cycle.

The other part is the level's linearity. Unlike the rest of the game, this level is a linear sequence of tutorial challenges, so it's mostly a bunch of single-use rooms and hallways that all need to be artpassed and conjoined together. As a developer, it's basically the most effort you can spend on the least amount of actual gameplay (whoops.)

And while I know (hope?) that playtime isn't equatable with game-worthiness, I was starting to worry that I've been spending months making... ten-or-so minutes of gameplay that isn't a great representation of the actual game loop (namely, getting badges for doing missions and 'sploring), and that people wouldn't be into the end result. :(

So, what do? Coming back from the Halloween break, I felt like I had fresher eyes as to what I want out of this game, and what would make a good demo of it. I've decided to shelve the tutorial area for now, and work on a new, smaller, more nonlinear area that more efficiently captures the pace and feel I want from the full game.

Welcome to Lighthouse Rock!  (maybe working title)

Climb up the cliffs to repair the old lighthouse, or take a swim for hidden treasure!

This is obviously still untextured / in blockout, but you'll notice it's a pretty finished blockout after only a few days of work, which feels... reassuring. My goal is to make something more like a Banjo-Kazooie level, with different paths to follow and a collection of tasks overlaid within the same space. This is more in line with what I want out of each area in the final game.

With all that said, a demo "before the end of the year" doesn't feel as feasible to me anymore (and to be completely honest, it was already a pretty big stretch before the change of plan.) I don't want to promise another firm deadline and consequently have to expand it, so I'll just say that it'll be a few more months from now. I hope this isn't super disappointing, but you'll be getting frequent updates and previews of everything either way.

So, stay tuned! And thank you again for all your support. 💜