Overview

In May, our main focus has been on preparing Speed Golf Royale and Buy My Snake Oil for the playable prototype stage and submission to the Kiwi Game Starter fund.

Speed Golf Royale

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2294250/Speed_Golf_Royale

We are making excellent progress with the speed golf game, steadily closing in on finalizing the short game loop. The trickiest part is always the net code, getting everything to sync properly over the network. 

We're taking a leaf out of Voodoo's hyper-casual guide and prioritizing simplicity to ensure quick and efficient implementation of key features. "gameplay is always the most important thing. The visuals come second. In fact, everything comes second." Our target is to have a very barebones playable prototype ready for submission to Kiwi Game Starter by the end of June 🤞.

Once the prototype is ready and up to a good enough standard, we will make a post of closed beta access to Android, iOS, and Steam builds for your scrutiny!

During our visual style experimentation, we explored a higher-fidelity "Breath of The Wild" look for the game. However, we encountered technical limitations and experienced frequent issues with the ball getting stuck in the environment due to the increased poly count. As a result, we made the decision to embrace a low-poly style to ensure smoother gameplay. It also means the game will be more accessible on lower-end devices. Win-win.

Buy My Snake Oil

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2202980/Buy_My_Snake_Oil

Our recent efforts have primarily revolved around paper prototyping and brainstorming sessions to devise effective approaches for implementing gameplay features in Snake Oil. This month's key area of focus has been the development of the 'persuasion system', where we are dedicating our attention to refining its mechanics and interactions.

We have devised an engaging solution inspired by the card game Black Jack. Our dialogue system deducts from your total score with each choice, challenging you to strategically select dialogue options and aim for a score close to zero. Avoiding negative scores is crucial, as they result in an instant loss, adding an exciting dimension to the gameplay. To ensure a longer-lasting and interesting experience, we have opted for a partially constructed sentence approach. Players will fill the gaps by choosing from 3 randomly generated words. We are mindful of creating an enjoyable mini-game that won't become annoying for our players.

Out of Sight

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622570/Out_of_Sight

We've been working on the new ship tile set in Affinity Designer, emphasizing achieving consistency in perspective. By adopting a traditional top-down view and eliminating slanted walls, we are confident in significantly enhancing the game's visual coherence. Consequently, we are in the process of redesigning rooms to relocate all objects of interest from the sidewalls to the back walls. Although the room redesign has not yet been implemented in-engine, we are planning to import the tile set into Unity for further experimentation and iteration.

While the new tile set and character design will not be showcased at Steam's Stealth Fest, we will be adding polish throughout all rooms within the existing demo content and enhancing the "Boss Room" with an opening cinematic and 'game juice'.

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