Weakless News

Back in November of 2016 two introvert roommates have clashed. That was us - Ania Kowalczyk - the graphic design student - and Agnieszka Wlazły - the sound design student. We both thought that it would be a nice opportunity to create a game together. We started to think about a game where there is more than one playable character. We instantly came up with the key idea of Weakless - switching between visions of Blind and Deaf.



We slowly started to design the world and overall mechanics, when in January of 2017, the first edition of ARP Games acceleration programme was announced. We decided to take part in the competition with our brief game pitch and guess what? We've made it! Our team has grown a little and we've continued to develop the game under the mentorship of ARP Games. After a while we were able to showcase our first build, gathering as much feedback as we could.



During the next year we've focused on redesigning the visions, which were the hardest part of the design. We had many issues with showing sound sources in Blinds vision. We were experimenting with Deafs world perception, because we really wanted to make both visions unique. We also came upon many level design problems, since we tried to build our gameplay only on audio and visual complementarity. Unfortunately our team has fallen apart, the game itself had many design issues and overall group morale was very low.



And then, a breakthrough has happened. Punk Notion, a trio of experienced animators, came up with an idea of uniting both of our teams and develop Weakless. Together with their crew we finally had enough people to continue the development. The next year was all about finalizing the game design, creating new features and polishing both puzzles and visions of the heroes. Later on more and more people started to follow the game progress and Weakless started getting awards.



Hard work pays off. And here we are, Weakless is now available on Xbox One and will be available very soon on Steam! We are really thankful to all the people who were with us during this journey. We would like to invite everyone to explore the adventure of Blind and Deaf on their own. Cheers!

Ania & Aga

Hi!

This is getting serious! We're in the Top 100 on Indie DB! Thanks to you❤️

Now it's time to show how 💪 we really are and vote our way to the Top😀

If you want to make Weavelings even happier, please vote for Weakless in the Upcoming Games - Adventure category👇
https://www.indiedb.com/groups/2019-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100

In just a few days Weakless will be released on the Xbox One consoles! December 13th - mark this date in your calendar!

Weakless will be released on PC in early 2020. Be sure to wishlist the game on Steam so you won't miss anything!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072620/Weakless/

From the very beginning, when the idea to consider our characters not in terms of their abilities, but disabilities emerged, we tried to base their design on their personalities. From the start Blind felt like a rather serious character with a lot of self-control; a bit isolated from the rest of his village, the kind that enjoys peace and quiet. Deaf, on the other hand, was supposed to lighten the mood: a light-hearted character, both interesting and interested in the surrounding world — the kind that noses about whenever they can, closely observing everything around them.



As we had our basics down, we faced the problem of conveying who is who. The idea of covering Blind’s eyes was simple, but Deaf was more of a challenge. On early concept art he sports a variety of hats and other covers for his ears, but we felt it didn’t create a clear message. That’s how I arrived at the idea to take something away from them, instead of adding elements. Since they were supposed to be heavily stylized I didn’t have to limit myself.

Early in the project, both characters were dressed in various robes with tribal ornaments; Blind’s staff was supposed to be made of metal, so he could sense vibrations. Then, I realized that there were already many wonderful characters whose design was based on being wrapped in curtains, and I started to look for something more personal. We wanted to make the entire race unique, so we focused on the organic feel of the world — and that’s how our critters got their antlers that allowed them to hear, and little lights on an antenna, responsible for their sight. This allowed us to better communicate the disability of Deaf and give Blind an interesting twist.



The next breakthrough came when I started to sketch characters woven from roots. We loved their openwork feel, so I added a glowing heart to stress it; additionally, it went well with the lights on the antennae and the antlers. Moreover, now their silhouettes are filled with resin, being the source of their life energy.



Since then, we saw the birth of Weavlings — wooden humanoids that coexist with nature, sometimes sprouting a leaf or being a home to a tiny mushroom.

Author: Ania Kowalczyk - Lead Artist (Weakless)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072620/Weakless/

Once again, we are very pleased to announce our presence at PGA! This will be the last opportunity to play Weakless before the release, so we encourage you to visit our booth!

📍 Pavilion 8, Booth no. 6
🗺️ MTP Głogowska 14, 0-734 Poznań
📅 18-20.10.2019

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072620/Weakless/