Devlog#9

Howdy to all who stop by and take a read, as usual!

The dev showcase has slowed to a trickle for showing stuff off in the past two weeks, and here’s why. Put simply, we have a really nice version of the first major vertical slice level. And I personally want to showcase it in as much glory as we can. So, instead of revealing more tidbits through screenshots and GIFs, I want to make an entire playthrough of our team going through it together for the first time. And we want it to be as polished as possible for the hype.

So, what does it mean that it’s a vertical slice? Why does that matter? Well, for one, a vertical slice acts as the barometer for all future levels in terms of art and atmosphere, implementation speed, early mechanics testing, and multiplayer testing. This will tell us if half of the game design is even fun or worth doing. The gameplay loop boils down to something like this: NAVIGATE MAZE-LIKE SEA > ARRIVE AT MISSION LOCATION AND DO MISSION > COMPLETE MISSION FOR MONEY TO REPAIR/UPGRADE/BUY > DESCEND DEEPER. So, most of the game will be set in either sub/sea or mission locations.

If we succeed in making it even halfway interesting, this will be a huge win. We’ve spent maybe a month or so, or less, on this level. It ended up being far bigger than we initially wanted. But a month of work for everything we have so far, for perspective, is amazing (for us, anyway). As a reminder, we have a brand-new, built-out codebase for this game and all future products, a nearly finalized game hub, and a nearly fully built-out world lore that is honestly some of the coolest and most interesting I’ve ever been a part of. Character designs are fleshed out, rigged, and modeled, all while I think every single one of us is learning new tools.

Just bare with us for a few months longer and I think you'll see we have quite the gem on our hands!

Most importantly, I want to say that this log is one of the few ways I can express how much passion we have in the team right now—excitement that we sometimes forget we have. Sometimes in life, we let a jaded outlook get the better of us, burnout sets in, you lose your motivation and inspiration. And sometimes, you have to remind yourself that the fight for something hard is what makes life worth living.

Thanks again to those who read to the end. As always, we really do appreciate all of you who love our game and believe in us!