October 2021 Dev Update
Welcome to the very first development log for A Little to the Left! October’s been a very busy month for us and we wanted to take the opportunity to share some progress with you all before our memories blur. We will try to keep up with monthly development logs as it’s a good way to track our progress and keep you all in the loop.
[h2]Whoosh goes October[/h2]
When our trailer for A Little to the Left was featured in Wholesome Direct back in June, we had announced a release date of October 21st, 2021… and well, here we are at the end of the month and the game is very much not released. What happened? Simply, we had no idea of the visibility/interest the game would receive from the event, and when it took off as it did we were shocked. We started getting contacted by publishers, media outlets and enthusiastic fans, and we were so pleasantly surprised; video game development has been a dream of ours since we were kids, and with this traction we were afforded the opportunity to focus on development of A Little to the Left, full-time. Yay!
With the success from Wholesome Direct, we saw the opportunity to make a better, larger game. We decided to conceptualize more levels (40 to 55+), some really fun and surprising game modes (more on this soon!) and a wider release (more platforms, languages and territories). And with the scope increase comes not only additional development, but there are a number of business requirements as well. It’s just the two of us doing a whole team’s worth of tasks and as a result we just couldn’t meet the October release date. Luckily for us, our community is amazing and has supported us every step of the way, and so thank you all for being so patient!
[h2]Systems shock[/h2]
We’ve been a bit quiet on sharing our progress lately for a few reasons. One being that we’ve been working towards finalizing the game systems. This isn’t flashy work and it doesn’t look great in gifs, but oh does it add to the feel of the game.
With systems comes boring stuff like menus, settings, languages, UI, game state, save data, controls and transitions… but there’s also a few features that came together this month that we’re really excited to share.
[h3]1. Level Select[/h3]
Oh what a joy (and challenge) the Level Select has been! Personally, we really love creative Level Select menus and wanted to try and capture the magic you feel while playing the game and to apply it to the Level Select. There’s so many aspects that tie into a Level Select- it really is the cross-section of the game and the players interaction with it. In the end, the Level Select code has more lines than any other part of the game and touches almost every corner of the codebase. But it’s all worth it, because we’ve been cruising around this menu non-stop! It’s a lot of fun and we can’t wait to see it grow alongside the game.
[h3]2. Controller Support[/h3]
I’m going to let you in on a secret… we love playing games with controllers. Yes, A Little to the Left really shines with point-and-click and touch controls (it’s very tactile!) but we wanted to make sure that controllers were considered from early on so that we could tailor the experience so that it’s not “best on” any particular platform- we want it to be “great” everywhere! So we’ve spent time this month prototyping and optimizing for controllers. Yes, it’s a slightly different experience with controllers, but we’re really happy with how it feels, and honestly, may even be our preferred way to play! But we’re not going to go into detail about how controller support works here in this newsletter- we’ll have a devoted post that outlines that that for you soon!
[h3]3. Chapters[/h3]
We always had the idea that the game would be split up into segments that were defined by puzzle mechanics and mood, but only this month did we formalize the chapters as a thematic structure. With this came an explosion of ideas and we’re having fun conceptualizing the chapters and how they can drive the game’s arc. The game will have 5 chapters, each with over a dozen puzzles and unique vibe. Check out a work-in-progress chapter title screen below.
That’s it for this month, but we’ve really hit our stride over here and are cooking up all kinds of fun things for you all. Make sure to follow us on Steam or Twitter to stay in the loop!
[h2]Whoosh goes October[/h2]
When our trailer for A Little to the Left was featured in Wholesome Direct back in June, we had announced a release date of October 21st, 2021… and well, here we are at the end of the month and the game is very much not released. What happened? Simply, we had no idea of the visibility/interest the game would receive from the event, and when it took off as it did we were shocked. We started getting contacted by publishers, media outlets and enthusiastic fans, and we were so pleasantly surprised; video game development has been a dream of ours since we were kids, and with this traction we were afforded the opportunity to focus on development of A Little to the Left, full-time. Yay!
With the success from Wholesome Direct, we saw the opportunity to make a better, larger game. We decided to conceptualize more levels (40 to 55+), some really fun and surprising game modes (more on this soon!) and a wider release (more platforms, languages and territories). And with the scope increase comes not only additional development, but there are a number of business requirements as well. It’s just the two of us doing a whole team’s worth of tasks and as a result we just couldn’t meet the October release date. Luckily for us, our community is amazing and has supported us every step of the way, and so thank you all for being so patient!
[h2]Systems shock[/h2]
We’ve been a bit quiet on sharing our progress lately for a few reasons. One being that we’ve been working towards finalizing the game systems. This isn’t flashy work and it doesn’t look great in gifs, but oh does it add to the feel of the game.
With systems comes boring stuff like menus, settings, languages, UI, game state, save data, controls and transitions… but there’s also a few features that came together this month that we’re really excited to share.
[h3]1. Level Select[/h3]
Oh what a joy (and challenge) the Level Select has been! Personally, we really love creative Level Select menus and wanted to try and capture the magic you feel while playing the game and to apply it to the Level Select. There’s so many aspects that tie into a Level Select- it really is the cross-section of the game and the players interaction with it. In the end, the Level Select code has more lines than any other part of the game and touches almost every corner of the codebase. But it’s all worth it, because we’ve been cruising around this menu non-stop! It’s a lot of fun and we can’t wait to see it grow alongside the game.
[h3]2. Controller Support[/h3]
I’m going to let you in on a secret… we love playing games with controllers. Yes, A Little to the Left really shines with point-and-click and touch controls (it’s very tactile!) but we wanted to make sure that controllers were considered from early on so that we could tailor the experience so that it’s not “best on” any particular platform- we want it to be “great” everywhere! So we’ve spent time this month prototyping and optimizing for controllers. Yes, it’s a slightly different experience with controllers, but we’re really happy with how it feels, and honestly, may even be our preferred way to play! But we’re not going to go into detail about how controller support works here in this newsletter- we’ll have a devoted post that outlines that that for you soon!
[h3]3. Chapters[/h3]
We always had the idea that the game would be split up into segments that were defined by puzzle mechanics and mood, but only this month did we formalize the chapters as a thematic structure. With this came an explosion of ideas and we’re having fun conceptualizing the chapters and how they can drive the game’s arc. The game will have 5 chapters, each with over a dozen puzzles and unique vibe. Check out a work-in-progress chapter title screen below.
That’s it for this month, but we’ve really hit our stride over here and are cooking up all kinds of fun things for you all. Make sure to follow us on Steam or Twitter to stay in the loop!