Spirit Swap News

We have emerged! It’s now spring, and like the beautiful butterfly, we

Wait.

While yes, we are emerging like beautiful butterflies with lots of cool things to share, we also wanted to say that it’s been a while because we’ve been heads down developing Spirit Swap in addition to balancing our day jobs and Life(™).

We’re sorry for the quiet period, but happy to say that we’ve gotten to a point in the game’s progress where we’re able to hop back into sharing mode. We’ve got a lot, so let’s get started!

[h2]Polish Till It Shines! 👀[/h2]

Updated environments? IN!
World map? DONE.
Amazing emotes? CHECK.
Gradients for days? YES.

In addition to working on core features, a good chunk of time has been on polishing and making sure the game looks colorful, joyful, and full of that *special sauce*.

We could just sit here and describe it all to you, but I remember learning in 5th grade about ‘showing, not telling’ so why not show you a few gifs to illustrate what we mean?

Just as a reminder, check out our world map before:





And here it is NOW:



We LOVE how it’s turned out, and would love to know: where would you want to head to first?
All the environments and locations have also been updated and fully implemented, like Leon’s Tattoo Parlor:



And here’s the updated take on Ishk’s Beach!



Now that the world is all there, what we’ll be focusing on is getting all of the narrative in, and testing, testing, testing.

[h2]Once Upon a Time … [/h2]

Speaking of narrative! Alex has been finessing the story of Spirit Swap, and while we can’t tell you TOO much about the specifics (this is a spoiler-free zone!) we CAN share this:



Okay, jokes aside, we’ve been really pleased with how each of our characters have come to life -- in addition to getting the story into the game to playtest it, finalizing VO is also up next, and we can’t wait for that!

[h2]Versus Hype[/h2]

In addition to working on story mode, Versus has been getting lots of UI/UX love so you can swap your hearts out (either with a friend or with a CPU!)

Check out this character select screen!



And as you pick your characters, you’ll be able to customize how chill (or not!) you’d like your board to be.



[h2]Out on the Town[/h2]

Rejon and Jenny attended GDC!

Rejon gave an INCREDIBLE (actually got people teary) talk about Spirit Swap titled “Inclusive Nostalgia” as part of a wider panel titled “Game Design for Inclusive Representation”.



Jenny - along with the rest of the Wholesome Games team - talked about why wholesome games matter:



The SpiSwa team also got to hang out with Adanna and Jenna (members of the Spirit Swap narrative team) for the first time ever in-person, enjoying some delicious ramen together! ;-;
[h2]See you next month[/h2]

WHEW! We’re excited to really ramp up sharing news with you all now that spring has sprung. Thanks for all your patience, and we’ll be back with more dev updates at the end of May!

Until then, find us on Twitter, our Discord, or here in the comments if you have any questions. Stay hydrated and safe!


Love,

The Spirit Swap Team

We first want to share our appreciation for you all and hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and new year!



After the excitement of Indieland 2022 (thanks again to The Completionist and everyone who was a part of the team!) we’ve been hunkering down on Versus Mode, polishing the Endless mode even more based on the showcase and your feedback, and prepping for the end of the year!

[h2]SHINY TRINKETS FOR YOUUU[/h2]

Each of Samar’s friends has a trinket that you’ll be able to acquire as you get to know them, and we wanted to share a few of them with you today!

In game, each trinket will allow you to equip a different spell – each with its own effect on the board – but narratively, they also illuminate aspects of each character’s personality. We won’t share all the details today, but perhaps you’ll be able to guess who’s represented here in the three trinkets below?



Any guesses? Let us know what you think!

[h2]BEFORE AND AFTER: DEMASHQ EDITION[/h2]

We wanted to share a beauuuutiful before and after with you!

At the start of the year, we began with a general sketch of Demashq thanks to Alex (zoomed in to avoid some light spoilers ~ oh la la!) :



The wonderful Sam is bringing detail and dimension to the city with the final artwork for the overworld map, and (even without the color added) all we wanna say is… we’re ready to move. Our bags are packed. How do we get there?!

(Again, zoomed in!)



We hope you’ve enjoyed following along with development – we’re excited for 2023 to be the Year of Spirit Swap!

Love,
The Spirit Swap Team

It’s been an eventful time for the Soft Not Weak team! We’ve been busy at work polishing up some LOVELY snippets to show off, and we boy oh boy are we excited to show them off! In addition to that, we have an UPDATED DEMO for you all to try! Ready? Set? GOOOOOOOO:

[h2]Indieland 2022 and our UPDATED DEMO![/h2]

First things first! We’re lucky and honored to be a part of Indieland 2022!



Not only is this event an amazing fundraiser for a good cause, but Jirard and the team behind Indieland always curate a fantastic showcase filled with indie games to keep an eye on.

To celebrate, we’ve decided to release an updated Endless mode demo, chock full of polish and juice we’ve been working on to help bring Samar’s forest to life! Below we’ll break down a lot of the details that you’ll see, but if you’re itching to get going, you can start playing the demo now on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1592170/Spirit_Swap_Lofi_Beats_to_Match3_To/

A couple of additional notes about the demo:

• For MAC users: Some Mac users might encounter controller issues due to Mac driver compatability. If that occurs, please use the keyboard!
  
• For Keyboard: You can use WASD or ARROW keys to navigate as well the inputs described in game!
  

Otherwise, read on to learn about what we’ve been working on, and tune in to Twitch on Saturday at 7 PM PDT to watch as Jenny (our producer) chats with the team at Indieland about Spirit Swap!

[h2]Polish Based on Your Feedback![/h2]

Okay, so first thing is we’ve been doing a lot of UI/UX polish (major shoutout to Réjon for all of the work designing this and to Morgan for hooking it all together). We really wanted to make sure that different elements of the game, different states of play, all of it will be communicated to you as clearly and quickly as possible.

This began with the game board! Because your eyes will be focusing on the spirits, you need to be able to, at a glance and with your peripheral vision, be able to determine your health and general status. Here, we have our latest iteration of the board:



You’ll be able to tell when it’s getting a little hot and you’ve gotta make some matches and quick, as well as see when everything’s a-okay and you have time to chill.

Elements like the SpellMeter have been updated to also more clearly indicate as segments fill when you make matches:



Even the spell bubble has some extra polish so you know when it’s time to cast!



[h2]Press ESC to pet the Frog[/h2]

We’ve also been working on dynamic button prompts, which was another big feedback point during our previous survey and demo (thanks, y’all!)



We now have the ability to make those buttons match whatever controller you’re using, and it’ll switch to match dynamically as well! Catch how this dialogue looks in action with a few snips from our revamped “How to Play” section of the Endless demo:

[h2]Take a Breath in the Endless Forest[/h2]

You’re familiar with the Endless Forest, as it’s where our demo takes place… but you haven’t seen it quite like this!

The original background is beautiful, but with just a little bit of parallaxing, and some time and energy, we’ve got it looking more in-depth in time for your eyes to enjoy -- huge thanks to Abelle for adding that extra magic and style to the woods (and our other backgrounds).



[h2]Vibe? Chill? SHEEESH?![/h2]

Here’s a more comprehensive look at the settings in our Endless mode. When you’re getting ready to swap forever, you’ll be able to adjust the speed level, difficulty, and spell loadouts before you play, to ensure it’s exactly the experience you want.



[h2]AND MORE![/h2]
There’s even more to enjoy, like a brand-new song from the ever-talented meltycanon, additional VN UI/UX updates to make our cast *pop* during narrative scenes, and (if you’d love to help us) a brand new survey you can fill out to let us know what you think of the polish after you play!



[h2]What do you think? [/h2]

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing everything we’ve been working on! We love sharing with you and are so excited to hear what you think about the polish we’ve added to the Endless mode demo. If you’ve got any questions or just wanna say hi, find us on Twitter (@softnotweak), our Discord, or here in the comments!


Love,

The Spirit Swap Team

[h3]Things have really started ramping up over the summer![/h3]

In addition to going full steam ahead with implementation (we went in-depth with Versus and Endless modes this month but don’t quite have anything we’re ready to show… yet), the main thing we wanted to share is that we’re participating in a couple of events coming up this weekend!



We’re participating in two events! The first is PAX West: Alex and Jenny are both taking part in the panel, “A Case for Cozy: Why we (really) need wholesome games!” This panel will be live-streamed on the Twitch channel for PAX, so be sure to tune in on Sunday if you’re interested in hearing more about why we should celebrate the gentler side of the game industry.



In addition to two of our team participating in PAX West, we’re also showcasing Spirit Swap at the Gayming Live Indie Festival! From Sept 2 - 16th, Spirit Swap (along with many other wonderfully queer games) will be highlighted: be sure to check it out!





We’re so excited for Fall to begin! We’ll have even more game updates next month as we’ve winded (wound?) down from event prep and showcases. Got any questions? Find us on Twitter, our Discord, or here in the comments!


Love,

The Spirit Swap Team

But really, we hope you're staying hydrated and cool! We've had mini heat-wave hit the Pacific Northwest, and we've been WARM to say the least.

In the meantime, we've been dreaming what the weather would be like in the beautiful city of Demashq, and thought we'd share a few more peeks at the background visuals that we've worked on!



We’ve been polishing up the environments for each of the characters over the last few weeks, and WHEW, things are looking good! From the beautiful sunset of Ishk’s Muscle Beach to the neon lights (and probably cool temperature!) of Kedsi’s LAN cafe, the world is starting to come together beautifully thanks to the efforts of Sam and Abelle!

Here’s a peek at the line art (by the wonderful Sam) for Kedsi’s LAN Cafe (we’re saving the finals for the future!)



Kedsi’s LAN Cafe is inspired by the LAN cafes Alex used to go to as a teen in Lebanon!. While Kedsi doesn’t work there, they’re unofficially considered part of the team because of how much time they hang out.

The other background we wanted to share is Mo’s Luxury Apartment! You saw a peek of it in the Narrative Demo that we released earlier this summer, but it wasn’t quite finalized!

Here’s the before:



And here’s the after!



Thanks to Abelle for helping bring Mo’s beautiful abode to life!



We’ll be back with more next month. For now? Find us on Twitter, our Discord, or here in the comments if you have any questions.


Love,

The Spirit Swap Team