Townseek News

In a surprising double-combo, at DevGAMM Lisbon, our team at Whales And Games won the award for Studio of the Year during the Spotlight Awards by Game Dev Lisbon! The very next day, Townseek won the prize for Best Game from Portugal at the DevGAMM Awards! 🏆 Receiving both these awards fills us with immense honour, and we're incredibly proud to receive them as a team! 🐳

To commemorate the occasion, we've drawn a special artwork to celebrate both of these awards! Whalechan, Capt. Jawline and Watt Zapp dressed in their fanciest outfits and were overjoyed to walk on stage to receive the awards! ⚡



To explain the background to these awards, earlier this month, our team attended DevGAMM Lisbon, a local conference focused on talks, networking, and its award show! Being two days long, it was a fantastic couple of days where we got to hang out with our colleagues, friends and meet even more developers from all over. It just so happens that networking with other developers is one of our favourite things to do! We also took the opportunity to attend some talks, take notes, and play some games. ✨

This year, our team was nominated for two different award shows happening during the event. The first of these was the Spotlight Awards, organised by the local collective of game developers at Game Dev Lisbon. In previous years, Townseek and our team received nominations in different categories but didn't win any awards. This time, our team earned the nomination for Studio of the Year. Alongside us as nominees, were the talented teams at Massive Galaxy Studios, Funcom ZPX and Digitality Games.

Much to our surprise, Whales And Games won Studio of the Year! 💡

Being around our local community for many years, we're really grateful for the jury for having picked us among our colleagues! Until our nomination, we hadn't stopped and reflected on the amount of work our studio did this past year. Between our trips and booths at GDC and gamescom, to the continuous events we put together, to all the work we've been doing towards bringing Townseek to its completion, we've really had a packed year! We're proud to be part of the Portuguese community and grateful for its vote of confidence for the year ahead.

The second award show of the event was the DevGAMM Awards, put together by the conference's main organizer. Being an international contest, this marked the first time we participated with Townseek in an award show of its scale. We were very surprised when the international jury nominated us as one of the candidates for Best Game in Portugal. Alongside us, we shared our nomination with the excellent ARC SEED, Demon Spore, Gloomy Juncture and The Night is Gray, all of which have their own Steam page! Our bets were on some of the other games receiving the award, as all of them rightfully deserved to earn it themselves.

Against all our expectations, to the point it left us shaking in shock, Townseek won Best Game from Portugal! 🏆

We're incredibly thankful to both the judges and event organisers for considering our game a worthy winner. We also really appreciate the feedback they've shared with us! Likewise, we also have to extend our thanks to Associação de Produtores de Videojogos Portugueses and Scorewarrior for delivering and making this award possible.

If you'd like to review the award ceremony by itself, you can watch the video here! You can also read a recap of the event by the organizers through this post. You can spot the photos featuring us because of our Whales And Games themed hats! 🎩

Lastly, but not least, alongside the Spotlight Awards and the DevGAMM Awards, another long-running Portuguese showcase, Indie X Online, now in its sixth edition, also nominated us for Best Portuguese Game earlier this month! For that showcase, the award was won by Digitality Games for their upcoming game Floatylands. Still, we're thankful to Indie X and once again to Associação de Produtores de Videojogos Portugueses for including our game. It's been quite an eventful month!

We're truly at a loss of words to express the gratitude we've felt over these past weeks. With everything that happened this year, we're privileged to have such overwhelming love and support from our friends, family, peers, colleagues, community, supporters and from such a diverse industry. These awards inspire us to push forward with our work. We aim to make the industry and the world a better place, even if just by a little. ✨


While we have one last surprise related to the events we've attended throughout the year that we'll be posting on our social media channels fairly soon, this pretty much closes out our event season for the year. It's time for our team to prepare for the holidays. We want to take some time to focus primarily on the game and on our community. ☃️

Finally, we wanted to close with a note for what's ahead, and we can confirm that Townseek will release in 2025! 🧭 As we head into next year, we'll confirm a proper release date. We would rather not go through the irony of submitting our game to these award shows again next year. 😅



We've been wrapping up pending tasks for the game and made great strides despite some challenges these last months. From improving the narrative, improving mouse controls, adding achievements, random events, and overall rounding off the game, we've been really busy! We're also addressing some of the last issues raised in previous demos. We're really thrilled with how the game has been shaping up!

We'll be diving back into action and showing you more of the characters, locations, and details we have spread across Explora soon! As always, you can keep up with us by joining us on either our Discord server, through any of our social media channels, or by following us here on Steam!



Well then, it's time for us to respond to these awards in kind, seek onwards, and finish charting Townseek! Cheers! 🦈

– Whales And Games 🐳

We're excited to have Townseek as part of this year's line up for the Indie Arena Booth at gamescom, flying the game all the way to Köln in Germany! Starting on the 21st until the 25th of August, we'll be showing the game at the world's largest gaming expo. 🌭 We'll be showing the game as part of the Indie Arena Booth at F010G - E019 on Hall 10.2, alongside many other stellar games. In the case that you're visiting gamescom in person, we'll be distributing cards and stickers featuring Capt. Jawline, Whiskey, Fluffyroll, and more familiar hosts from the game, so please stop by and grab some! 🎉

This will also be the first time all of our team at Whales And Games is together at one event! ✨ We've always been partially as a team at different events we've had the game at since the beginning of development. Yet this will be the first get-together where all three of us are present! We'll be sharing photos of the trip and gamescom on our social media. And of course, we'll also share our adventures through our Discord Server! 🙌

Finally, as you might have realised by now, we've drifted a bit from our original release date in Early 2024. While we're still checking on a new release date we're comfortable with, we've decided to change all of our banners and release date to reflect the game is Coming Soon again. ⏳ We're still hard at work with Townseek, but some things have required more time than we're originally expecting. Continents are much more detailed than we ever thought they'd be, and we've almost doubled the game story-wise.


We know many of you have been waiting for the game for a really long time. We really can't wait for you to get to visit Explora! We'll have to ask you to wait just a bit longer, but with us being at such a big event such as gamescom, we promise more regular and exciting news in the coming future!

Thank you for sticking around and for waiting! Cheers! 🦈

– Whales And Games 🐳

Discover some of the towns you can trade with in Explora! 💰 The Steam Capitalism and Economy Fest has just started and with it, we're launching our new Townseek – Economy Fest Demo to go alongside it! 🙌

Fly at your own pace, trade over 200 items between five different towns, upgrade and customise your airship, discover landmarks, find random events, and much more! If you missed the demo during Steam Next Fest last year, this is your best opportunity to get a taste of the world and the characters we've got to offer, in an almost finished and polished state now! ✨

If you're a returning player, this demo introduces many quality-of-life changes suggested over the previous demos, and introduces much more personality to Explora. You can now talk with town hosts to learn more about the world. Landmarks you discover might be a bit different due to random events. Your journal now tracks various stats and records of your voyages. There's new accessibility settings to help with motion sickness. And of course, we've improved the overall performance of the game by a lot, among numerous other changes!


Not only that, we expect this to be the last demo before the game releases. The demo will be available during the duration of the Economy Fest, so make sure to play it while it's available! ⏲️

Given that, we'd love it if you'd share your feedback with us on the Steam Forums! 🧭 Regardless if you're an invested trader, or a casual explorer, we would love to know your thoughts! We'd like to know about the quality of life tweaks or any other features you'd like to see, either when the game launches or in patches afterwards! 🫡

Additionally, if you don't follow us on socials yet, we highly recommend that you follow us at our studio's Twitter account! We'll continue sharing teasers and previews of the game, both through there, through news posts here, and of course, through our Discord Server! 🦈



Townseek's development has been a massive journey for us. It's hard to believe that we will be releasing the game in a few months' time. There are still a few more features and locations we want to make sure are in the game before we put it out, so we're quite not done yet. However, as soon as we're ready and settle on a release date, we'll make sure you know! 🫡

Now then! Get trading and fill your bag full of coins by trading among the many towns Explora has to offer! Cheers!

– Whales And Games 🐳

Hey there! 👋 Did you watch our new Townseek trailer during Wholesome Direct today? It was wonderful to have Townseek featured in our favourite cosy game showcase alongside so many amazing uplifting games, for the second time since we've started development! As we've premiered a new trailer during the direct, we wanted to break down some of the highlights of what we've shown today! 🌻

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First of all, we're happy to confirm our release window! Get ready to travel the picturesque world of Explora when Townseek comes to Steam in Early 2024! ⏰ We'll announce a specific date as we approach the end of the year. But first, we need to ensure every nook and cranny of the game is filled with delight and polished to perfection! We know that many of you have been eager to play it for a long time. We'll make sure to make the wait worth your while! 💪

After a long wait, we have finally unveiled some things that have been holding on for a while! ✨ We'd like to start by introducing you to the nomadic town of Vushkaar! Nested within the ice continents of Explora, these tough dwarves are quite adventurous and restless! Be on the lookout, for they might abandon the area and pop up in some unexpected places! Vushkaar is also the last town from our original jam release to be adapted into the full game, and we couldn't be prouder! ❄️

In addition to the new town, we've also been hard at work crafting an engaging narrative for Townseek! We're thrilled to finally introduce you to Sir Reginald Sharkingston, the first shark to take to the skies and explore the world! Put together the lost pages of his journal and discover his captivating adventure as you discover new towns and learn more about the world!

Where did he go? What did he learn? Did he leave any treasure behind? And how did the different towns of the world change him as a shark? We can't wait for you to find out! 🦈

Lastly, if you've played our previous demos, you know that we've got special companions joining us from other games! However, we've kept some of our most celebrated guests a surprise until now! We're proud to collaborate and bring Lil Gator from Lil Gator Game, The Lamb from Cult of the Lamb, and Claire from A Short Hike into the world of Townseek! If you're an indie game enthusiast like us, you might see even more familiar faces in the future!

Besides our special guests, we've got many companions unique to Explora who can accompany you in your travels! From floating jellyfish, racoon rascals, to airplane kiwis, there'll always be a companion alongside you as you travel the world. 🦝

Aside from these highlights, the trailer also included more shots of the game's exploration and trading! Since every trailer is someone's first time getting to know Townseek, we always like mixing it with clips old and new! From exploration, trading, to all of the different activities, there'll be something for you to enjoy in Explora! 🗺️

Speaking of collaborations, there's one more thing! Wholesome Direct has once again teamed up with The Yetee to release shirts themed to the event! And the shirt featuring many of the games that have appeared on the event also features Townseek's iconic airship! These shirts will be on sale until the 30th of June, so go ahead and grab them while they're available! We'll make sure to grab some extras ourselves! You can find them in this collection! 👕

We're currently knee-deep in development and making great progress! Even so, we'll continue to update you with more news and development updates they come up. For now, if you'd like to support us, you can do so by wishlisting Townseek! Your wishlists are a tremendous help, both analytically and on a personal level! 💖

Whales And Games, along with our publisher at Super Rare Originals, is humbled by the reception, kind words and enthusiasm that Townseek has received! If you'd like to continue sailing with us, consider joining our vibrant community at our Discord Server! Not only do we share more news and sneak peaks of the game's development, but also hang out, talk games, share artwork, and occasionally play games together! You're more than invited to join us!

Time to sign off! Thanks again for everything and to Wholesome Direct and Wholesome Games for once again having us in their showcase! We hope you've enjoyed the news we've put together, and that you look forward to the game arriving early next year! Cheers!

– Whales And Games 🐳