Townseek News

[p][/p][p]You’re going to need a big bowl for this salad! 🥗 Nature has a way of giving us some big surprises every now and then, and few things are bigger than the carrots that you can see in the horizon. In these forests, these vegetables grow very large. And if you stick around for dessert, there’s a lot of chocolate to be had as well! 🥕[/p][p]It’s time for our Tour of Explora to take a healthy stroll in the woods! If the bandits of Lawride Town were too rowdy for your liking, then you might want to meet some cuddly friends instead. And none are cuddlier, fluffier and full of life than the bunnies from Burrowburg! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Built alongside huge forests and farmlands, Burrowburg is a town where the residents' hearts are as big as their giant carrots! During the season, their crops grow to enormous heights, which allow the bunnies to carve them for materials, to make homes out of them and, of course, eat them! While they can quickly wither in winter, the fresh soil and water guarantee a bountiful harvest for the next season![/p][p]If you have a sweet tooth instead, then head up to the Chocolate River! Completely natural, safe and clean for the consumption of any species in this world (not for bunnies in real life), and, obviously, delicious! If you're lucky, you might even find a giant brown carrot roaming around! Isn't that sweet?[/p][p]But if you want some peace and quiet after a day of hopping around, head up to Nibble Grove, where Nibbles himself will give you a tour of his farmlands, where he grows, what else? Carrots! And if you go south west, you’ll reach the Stone Bunny. A natural rock formation in the form of a big bunny. It’s tradition to hop to the top, although not many are as nimble as the bunnies. Don’t try it at home![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You better like company, since the local babysitter, teacher and merchant Fluffyroll always has a party with her! Aside from keeping an eye on the kids and educating them, she somehow still has the energy to also run the main store for visitors and merchants from abroad. Always lively, always patient, always caring, that’s Fluffyroll! Make sure to check her wares for all kinds of bunny, plushie and carrot paraphernalia! 🐰[/p][p]Fluffyroll is very well educated in the surroundings of Burrowburg, so she’s a natural at teaching. Explora has a ton of different cultures and environments to explore, so she keeps the kids entertained with tales and stories that she hears from other merchants. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]While you’re likely to be fascinated by the Stone Bunny and the Chocolate River in Burrowburg, the rest of Explora is also rich with awe-inspiring sights! Previously on the tour, we’ve already visited the surface of the ocean, plains, farmlands and even a colourful swamp! If you want more than blue and green in your life, you can find the Golden Forest on this side of the world! Despite its perpetual-autumn vibes, its forests are flush with foliage and life. And bees have even taken home at its outskirts! Don’t get stung! 🐝[/p][p]At the west side of the Golden Forest, some witches have set up a firefighting base, known as Firewatch Witches. They’re allegedly preventing fires from happening in the zone. But if you’re lucky or rather, unlucky, you might see them at work, trying to put down a fire they very likely caused themselves. You might also sometimes spot a bee playing video games while resting atop the tallest tree in the forest.[/p][p]Those are only some of the various curiosities that can randomly occur around Explora! Keep your eyes peeled, for locations that you have seen before might change every now and then. Does the marsh frog play the banjo all the time? Can crabs take a rest and party down? Fun stuff is always happening all around the world. You just got to see it for yourself as you explore around! Don't forget to snap a picture to remember too! 🧭[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For our behind-the-scenes section this time, we're going back to the Townseek archives! For the first time, we wanted to show some concept art of our early character selection process. After we settled on the idea of turning Townseek into a full game, we sketched a bunch of characters and possible candidates for town hosts. We don't want to show all of them here, as to not spoil which characters did or did not make it in, as there's still a lot of surprises to come![/p][p]However, as you can see, we made concepts involving a wide variety of shapes, forms and races. We didn’t want to bind Townseek to a single concept like fantasy, furries, or magic. Yet, we also wanted everything to make sense and be connected in the setting and world-building, so a lot of our ideas for towns began with quickly designing characters and then figuring out their place in Explora’s vast setting.[/p][p]Fluffyroll was designed specifically as a “welcome to our game” character, without many design frills or narrative baggage. Given her simplicity, we needed to make her visual design say more at a glance. And unlike characters that immediately show their race and personality, she displays a lot more about her lifestyle thanks to the presence of the bunny children in the picture. Wouldn’t you think of her as a caring aunt? 🐇[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you enjoyed your visit to the Burrowburg and the Stone Bunny, then you’re going to love where we’re going next! Unlike the people of Burrowburg, don’t expect a fuzzy reception from our next stop, as the citizens of the rocky town of Stonehedge don’t really move that much to begin with. So let’s head over there, slow but steady! 🗿[/p][p]Before we wrap up the tour, we remind you all that our Art Quest is live on our Discord Server! If you got a knack for digital art, and haven't given it a shot, come give it a try and have your art featured in the game, credits and all! And, as usual, let us know if this tour stop had everything you wanted! Or let us know if there’s anything else we can do to improve the experience! 🖌️[/p][p]Well then! Time to head towards the stone metropolis next. Let's rock and roll! Cheers! 🪨[/p][p]– Whales And Games 🐳[/p][p][/p][h2]Check the Tour of Explora for other towns! 🗺️[/h2][p]Sharkdwell 🦈 • Meowosville 🐱 • Driplands 🌈 • Lawride Town 🍉[/p]

[p][/p][p]Artists, grab your drawing tools! 🖌️ North of Lawride Town, the latest town that we've featured on our Tour of Explora for Townseek, there's a Happy Tree landmark that pays homage to a well-known, beloved painter. Those who've travelled far on our demo might have noticed already that the tree's paintings and art change over time as you explore around. You might have spotted a friendly yellow labrador, our mascot, and even the cover art of the game itself. What's going on there?[/p][p]Turns out the paintings do change! Our team has drawn a handful of different paintings which change as you pass by every few minutes. We designed it as a fun easter egg, with canvas with different artworks, referring to the game, our characters, and various things from our past and present. However, like everything else in Townseek, there could always be more canvas being drawn by the happy tree. 🌳[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That's where you come in! If you're an artist or have a knack for digital artwork, we want to feature some of your art on the Happy Tree canvas! We've prepared a template for you to draw over on our Discord Server! Draw something on the small template, and submit it on the townseek-your-art-in-game channel, and we'll add it to the game! 🎨[/p][p]You can draw anything you'd like! It can be original characters, your sonas, something you've got close to you, a landscape of your country, your pets, or anything that comes to mind! Don't worry if you don't nail the Townseek style perfectly. It's not the easiest style to replicate! Once you submit your art to our Discord Server, we'll adjust it on our end. We'll pass it by you to make sure it's ready to add into the game, including making sure it fits the game's palette, art style, etc. The template and the assets themselves are small, but limitation often leads to creativity! 🙌[/p][p]There's only two guidelines that we've to ask you to follow. The first is that you can't draw something that doesn't belong to you. You can't draw, for example, a popular mascot from another videogame franchise. The second is that all art must be generally acceptable for everyone, meaning we can't accept suggestive art, not-safe-for-work pieces, or artwork featuring divisive or controversial content. If the artwork wouldn’t fit Explora or the tone of the game, it won’t make it in. We’ll evaluate each piece and provide clarification case-by-case if necessary. 🙇[/p][p]As examples, here's some examples that were drawn by our artist and by our community manager that have been turned into canvas already![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Artwork submissions are open until the 26th of October! 📌 Please make sure to submit them over on the channel on our server. No other channels or socials are applicable.[/p][p]Just like the pets contest, if you're not an artist either, there'll be more Townseek quests and contests! We'll continue providing fun activities that people can participate in, both for things inside and outside the game in the future. For now, look forward to continuing our Tour of Explora, as we head into the adorable bunny-hopping town at Burrowburg! 🐰[/p][p]Well then, we look forward to seeing your artwork and what you draw! Cheers! ✨[/p]

[p][/p][p]Whoa! Watch out, explorers! 🙌 As we approach the next town, you'll notice that life in the simple, rural lands is not as quiet as one would expect! With fishing bears, crow pirates, bandits and even aliens, you might get more than you bargained for! 👀[/p][p]But now that we're here, we've arrived at our next destination in our Tour of Explora! After the sharks, cats, and slimes, it's time we land at the otherwise normal and quiet Lawride Town! Its humble rural life has everything a seasoned farmer needs! 🍉[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]It’s time to slow down and enjoy the simple life! Lawride Town is well known in the zone for having everything that farmers need. Just head to The Farming Farm south-west from here and they’ll share some sowing lots with you! 🌱[/p][p]Life is good and straightforward, until you step out of the town that is. If you want to get your own fish, travel south to Minty Bear’s Lake. Who is more professional at fishing than a bear? Go even further, and you’ll reach the Pirate Cove at the beach. That place should be self-explanatory. And if you head north, you might see some Crop Circles in the wheat fields. Those were written by aliens. It’s kind of their thing, you know.[/p][p]But while Lawride Town is good at growing crops, the local group of bandits is great at stealing them! The town is regularly terrorised by a group of meddling hooligans in masks that raid the place and bring chaos to its inhabitants. Or so they say. They mostly do petty crimes like taking vegetables and the occasional graffiti. At worst, they’re a minor inconvenience. 😅[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Since everyone else seems to be busy, you will have to take your business to The Mayor. After such curious folks in previous towns, it's almost weird to see a human around! Given that the town basically runs itself, he’s been re-elected mayor multiple times, mostly as a formality. But with age, he’s got experience to spare, so listen to the elder, and you might learn a thing or two about life. 👴[/p][p]However, he’s also known to have a very frail backbone. He'll be the first to hide at the smallest sign of a bandit raid. It’s almost as if they got into robbing specifically to tease him. So try to not make him worry, alright? He's trying his best, even if some of his quests and ideas for the town can sometimes be a bit dubious.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]While we’re visiting the farmlands, let’s talk about farming! Once you get the proper equipment for the job by purchasing a Hoe, you can plant any seeds, which you come across in towns and earn from town quests, in different farming spots all across the world. Like we mentioned before, there are some spots available at The Farming Farm, so feel free to help yourself![/p][p]Farming is quite easy, but you’ll notice that seed packs work in different ways. Most farmers in Explora sort their seeds in four different groups: Crop, Exotic, Extravagant and Bizarre. Whatever type of seed you intend to plant will grow differently depending on where you plant it. For example, the Crop Seeds that you plant to grow a carrot in one place might grow a melon somewhere else. 🍈[/p][p]Once you have your seed packs and a suitable farming spot, just plant it and wait for a while. Go for a trip, keep doing trades and quests. After a while, the crop should be ripe and you can simply come back and pick them up! It's that easy! Also, just between us. There are rumours about some special water that can make the seeds grow faster. One has to wonder if there’s any truth to that...[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As for our behind-the-scenes this time, we get to highlight another game of ours, The Farming One! Made back over ten years ago in RPG Maker, it was the first game our team ever worked together on, and it was the first time that we mentioned Lawride Town in a game. As the tour continues, you'll notice that we actually lifted some more towns and landmarks from our previous projects. For us, it's a fun way to expand our cast, while also paying homage to how we got here. 🐳[/p][p]The Farming One was a hybrid of incremental and farming games. Our idea was to turn otherwise calm, cosy experience into a frenzy of automated growth, taking staples of the farming genre and distilling them to their most basic aspects. Despite being developed in a single month, it included several upgrades, marriage candidates, and even multiple endings![/p][p]Up to a point, we consider Townseek feels like its natural evolution. After developing The Farming One, we wanted to develop a game where you could meet different species and characters while doing various activities. While we never quite nailed down the game design we wanted at the time, mostly due to the lack of experience and know-how, we feel that Townseek has captured a lot of the same vibe that we wanted from that concept. Creative ideas are always shifting around! 🧭[/p][p]The Farming One is available on Steam Workshop. We plan to preserve it in more ways in the near future, as there's not many ways to play it right now.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Check for your belongings before we depart towards our next destination. If the bandits took your carrots, let it slide this time, since we’ll be heading next towards Burrowburg, the land of fluffy bunnies and gigantic carrots! 🐇[/p][p]We’ve also got one more surprise incoming. A new community quest will soon be upon us! While the previous one appealed more to pet owners, this new one is more aimed towards artists, though everyone can participate. We can't tell you just yet about it, but let’s just say that you should get your creative engine roaring up! Keep an eye out on our Discord Server on how to participate, and let us know what your thoughts were about this stop of the tour![/p][p]That’s all this time around. See you at the bunny burrows! Cheers! 🐇[/p][p]– Whales And Games 🐳[/p][p][/p][h2]Check the Tour of Explora for other towns! 🗺️[/h2][p]Sharkdwell 🦈 • Meowosville 🐱 • Driplands 🌈 • Burrowburg 🐇[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hey there, explorers! While our Tour of Explora continues, we also continue participating in events! Townseek has been going on quite an adventure and we're not stopping any time soon! ⛵[/p][p]This time, we're having the opportunity to feature the game in three amazing events at once! All these events are happening at the same time over this week and the next, so please, check out the sale pages for each of them. You might even find something you could play while waiting for Townseek! 🧭[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]First up, we're participating in the Mexican Entertainment System! If you've been around a while, you'll know that we've already participated in it a few times already. Our team is half Mexican and half Portuguese, collaborating from across the ocean and in-person at times. Add in our publisher and media partners, and the game truly is a multicultural effort, just like the game portrays! 🪅[/p][p]The event is a perfect way to celebrate Mexican culture and its indie scene! While we haven't reached the stop that represents each of our cultures as developers in the game during our tour yet, rest assured there's plenty of inspiration from Mexico, Portugal and a bit from all over the world throughout it! We can't wait to show you those towns! ✨[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Next, we're participating in the Six One Indie Showcase, a big celebration of indie games! Our publisher at Super Rare Originals is debuting some exciting announcements including a first look at Moros Protocol! It's a fantastic opportunity to see Townseek alongside other amazing indie games and get a taste of what's coming next in indie games. 🐦[/p][p]Finally, we're also heading to the Tokyo Game Show, where our media partner at Gamersky is taking us! While we'd love to visit the city in person, they'll be handling the showcases of the game for us there. We're still confirming the details with them about how the game is going to be presented in person at the event, but if you're headed to Tokyo, you have the chance to try out the game for yourself too! 🗼[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]While we're participating in these events, the Townseek demo continues being ready for you to play on Steam! Explore new towns, trade over 200 items, upgrade your airship, discover landmarks, encounter random events, and enjoy all the new features we've been working on. Your demo save will carry over to the full game so you'll be able to pick up right where you left from! 🦈[/p][p]Like we've mentioned in previous posts, we continue to work on implementing some new features and language support in the demo. That update is coming really soon, so thank you for waiting so far! 🙏 Meanwhile, like always, you're free to share your feedback or reviews here on Steam, or join our Discord Server and tell us what you think, or what you're looking the most forward to![/p][p]Set sail, explore and look out for the adventures that await you this week. The whole world is your sea now! Cheers! [/p][p]– Whales And Games 🐳[/p]

[p][/p][p]Hop onboard, as it's time for us to continue our Tour of Explora! Now that we've visited the underwater town of Sharkdwell and the furry settlement of Meowosville, we're heading towards a colourful, majestic swamp! Watch out where you land your ship. The swamp water can be hard to wash off![/p][p]This time, our stop is at Driplands, a place that is a town as much as an endless, rainbow swamp! 🌈 The lands around the town are covered in very colourful goop. You'll know you're there when you see a giant iron water faucet on the horizon! Even if you're travelling on your own, you can't miss it.[/p][p]Put on your best raincoat, some tall boots, and let's meet the locals![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]When the goo from the Pastel Falls merged with the Mossy Marsh, the first slimefolk were born! With time, they learned that the substance that gave them life had a lot of handy properties, like solidifying, medicine, jewellery, and more, and built their own town from it. To control the flow more properly, they built the Giant Faucet, placed right in the middle of their town. You'll find them to be a creative bunch. They have experts in art, fashion, cooking, and all sorts of creative works they make from slop.[/p][p]More to the south, where the colour stops and the vegetation starts to become denser, one can find the Mossy Marsh! It takes some time to get used to the smell of nature, but just because it’s slimy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its charm. Crocodiles, flies and even a frog playing a banjo are proud of calling it home. [/p][p]And if you’ve got a Pickaxe, you can help yourself to some minerals at the Boggy Quarry, where gold does grow on trees! Oh, and there's gems and artefacts to find too, but we didn't want to ruin the punchline. ⛏️[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you want to trade and do business at Driplands, you should go see Blubbie! As the owner of the rapidly growing goo fashion brand Bubbline, she's usually busy making new designs, but she'll make some time for you! Her Rainbow Necklace goes with anything, her Bath Bubbles are very relaxing, and if you're hungry, treat yourself to some Slopsagna![/p][p]But don't forget that she is a visionary! Blubbie's designs are rainproof and waterproof, yet it’s never enough! She's always looking for more ideas and inspiration to craft her art. ✨[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The reputation of the Bubbline fashion brand didn't build overnight, and neither does yours! As with any other town, Blubbie is always on the lookout for people that would accept some quests and odd jobs from her, in exchange for money, rewards and, of course, Town Reputation![/p][p]Town Reputation is a special value for each town that tracks how much you've interacted with each town. From selling new items, to completing town quests, towns will track how much you've done for them. As you accumulate Town Reputation, you'll level up your Town Rank. Doing so, will unlock you new items, like cosmetics for your airship and extra upgrades, alongside even more quests. Later quests come with extra-valuable rewards such as Stardust, Super Water, and even more special resources we'll talk about later.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Town quests can also be repeated and will replenish over time! Unlike the story quests where you seek and fill the lost diary of Sir Reginald Sharkingston, these can be done multiple times for more reputation and rewards. You'll have a limited amount of town quests you can take at each time. As you increase your town rank, you'll also be able to take more town quests. Hurray for interconnected systems! ✨[/p][p]At Driplands, Blubbie will often ask you to get materials for her designs. And if there is some demand, some slimefolk might want to hitch a ride to visit a tourist spot! Most importantly, since Blubbie herself rarely has any chance to leave her workshop, she is likely to request from you some photo shots of amazing places for inspiration! Grab a Camera from her inventory and go snap some photos! 📷[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For this week's behind-the-scenes and with such a unique species of townsfolk, we've got to talk about how we go about creating the fantastical but believable characters that populate Explora! Very early in development of the jam version, we created Blubbie to showcase that this wouldn't just be a game about anthropomorphic animals. Rather, we wanted to show we could have all kinds of species if we wanted, even magical ones. However, we also wanted them to feel like they could coexist, while still having quirks that separated them from one another, to further differentiate their cultures.[/p][p]Blubbie, for example, was originally created to parody the anime slime girl archetype. Throughout development, as we explored that slimefolk were mostly liquid that changed shape and form at will, we made her design more gooey and unique. For their world building, we also figured that this meant that slimes could be whatever shape, form and gender they wanted at any given time, appearing as they saw fit. There are other characters in Explora whose design also allows exploring how the characters approach their identities.[/p][p]This approach also created a lot of fun challenges and domino effects that impacted the world. For example, like we've talked about in Sharkdwell, instead of creating anthropomorphic sharks that had legs and could walk on land, we designed sharkfolk to need mechanical legs to do so. Later down the line, there are more characters whose physical design or species allowed for more storytelling opportunities! We hope you get to meet them soon! 😊[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you've been keeping up with the posts we've been making, we've recently hosted a pets quest on our Discord Server! 😺 Folks had chance to submit their pets, and we'd pick a few to adapt into the game. We've got a lot of submissions! These are some of the pets that folks submitted and made it in as part of a first batch. Don't they look cute? 🐶[/p][p]We'll continue going through the submissions and picking some pets to add to the game as we carry on development. If you've missed participating in it and didn't submit your pet, you can share some photos of yours! We've got a brand new Discord Server channel for pets and friends, where pets are a part of the community all the time! 🐩[/p][p]You can also be on the lookout for more Townseek activities! We know that not everyone has a pet, so we have more activities planned that will be more accessible for people who want to leave their impact in our game! 🌳[/p][p]Now, dry yourself, since we're continuing the tour! Things got a bit too energetic with the fuzzy cats and the splashy slimefolk. Let's take it easy and visit the calm farm lands at Lawride Town next! It's just a rural town, so it should be a relaxing stop. What could possibly go wrong? 🍉[/p][p]Have a rest, enjoy the voyage, and eat your veggies! We'll have plenty of them next time! Cheers! 👋[/p][p]– Whales And Games 🐳[/p][p][/p][h2]Check the Tour of Explora for other towns! 🗺️[/h2][p]Sharkdwell 🦈 • Meowosville 🐱 • Lawride Town 🍉 • Burrowburg 🐇[/p]