Job Redux 'Back Garden'- Dev Log 50

Hey everyone - welcome to dev log 50!

Last week we shared insights from Dan, our Lead Designer, on how the economy is being tweaked with more multiplayer and repeat play rewards. More on that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3133949262585464694

This week we preview improvements coming to some of the earlier jobs!





We've been busy putting older jobs under the microscope, which has led to many tweaks and changes and, in some cases, overhauls of the entire levels. We also had guidance from a feedback form we released months ago where over 3500 people rated levels on a scale of 1-10.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/2992066214554670810

Four levels have received significant changes: the Back Garden, Playground, Shoe House, and Storybook Cottage. The changes are often threshold tweaks, splitting large parts into smaller parts and visual improvements. There are other levels with some of these improvements, but these four are the most striking.



We'll be highlighting more of these Redux Jobs in future dev logs, but we want to stress that this is not yet in live PWS but is coming in a future update!

Dave from the design team has these insights to share on the changes coming to the Back Garden job:

Dave:

Originally posted by Dave

It's been over a year since PowerWash Simulator was released in Early Access. Since then, we have learnt a lot! As the jobs got more elaborate, we looked back at some of the levels initially released and formed a list of things we'd love to improve about them.

We're pleased to say that we have had the opportunity to return to these jobs ahead of the game's full release.

The Back Garden is the first big job players encounter in the game. To help players progress, we've broken down some of the objects into smaller parts and changed their names to indicate better where they can be found.

Also, to further improve the sense of progress and satisfaction we've made some colour changes. From the floor and trims to the trellis and shed, everything has been given a brighter coat of paint to improve the contrast between dirty and clean areas.

We've rebalanced some cleaning thresholds too. Everything should DING when you expect it to - no more hunting for tiny specks of dirt or having large patches simply vanish before your eyes. Cleaning the Back Garden has never been more satisfying, and we can't wait to share these changes with the community to see what you all think.

The Back Garden, in particular, is heavy on visual changes. Dennis from our art team has been working hard to make the level even more satisfying and has this to share:

Dennis:

Originally posted by Dennis

Me and the art team thought that some of the earlier levels could be brought in line with how our newer levels look and feel. The older levels were much colder in colours, which detracted from the colourful, happy vibe we're going for and want the players to experience. This rings true not only for the washable assets themselves but also for the environment!

Originally posted by Dennis

The colours on the washable objects in the improved Back Garden were chosen with particular care to give maximum contrast when washing. All in all, the whole level feels more cohesive and unified now!

Another thought we've put in was the dirt, which focused a lot on looking realistic in some earlier levels. That doesn't always translate well to great washing satisfaction, so we were keen on updating that on the backyard to be thicker and contrast better with the underlying object colours.

The Back Garden is one of the first levels players come across, so we hope that the improvements will make things more satisfying and better set the tone for the rest of the game! We also hope that it will give players more of a reason to go back and replay these levels again! Will you be returning to these redux levels?

Again, we have much more to share, and it is coming in a future update.



Today is April 1st. Do we need to say more?

Warning: it's probably wise to turn the volume down if you want to watch the below spoof!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We warned you!

Also, did you spot the improvements to part of the Playground at the very end of the video?



Each week we release a PowerWash version of a popular meme format. This week it was the T-Pose PWS meme.

Here's the base image:


An easy template is here, too: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/380129083/TPose-PWS

Have fun!



Thank you to everyone for reading, have a fantastic weekend, and we hope you will tune in next week! :)

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