Townseek News

Hey there! 👋 Long time no see! You might have noticed that we have been a bit missing-in-action in updates these last few months. You'll be glad to know that it's not because things have been slow on development, but in fact, much the opposite! Keep your eyes out, as we're about to unveil to you something about an early demo. 👀

Development on Townseek has been advancing at such an incredible pace these past few months that we've barely had any time left to write and make update posts! Dust is finally settling down now that we've finished some big internal milestones and big partnerships are starting to come together on the horizon! ⏱️

But, rather than having you wait or reading a news post to check on the status of the game, we're putting it in your hands instead! We're happy to announce that we've just released an Early Demo for Townseek available to download right now!



This early demo of the game features 5 different towns, over 20 landmarks to discover, and more than 120 items! It also covers some of the original jam version’s activities with fishing and mining. It also introduces new activities such as foraging and quests. While our internal development version has a lot more content at this time, like digging and more towns, we believe this is a good vertical slice of the game! It shows you what we’re up to without spoiling much of what we’ve got in the works!

While the game is still very much a work-in-progress, and there's at least one year of development time left on the clock, we consider that now is a great opportunity to check on the overall interest in the game! Since we won't be doing early access, it's important for us to use opportunities like these to collect feedback on what we can improve on the game. It also helps us understand what folks are looking forward to; gives the chance for players to see how the game plays out; while also providing us the opportunity to receive feedback on what we should balance and polish! 🛠️



The demo will be available until the 28th of June! It'll be available alongside Dreamhack Beyond, Summer Games Fest, Wholesome Direct, and while we're not participating on it officially, Steam Next Fest! We believe that's enough time for you to check on the game, especially as the demo should last anywhere from an hour or two for full collection completion.

Of course, if you miss the demo for any reason, fear not! There'll be plenty of future opportunities for a new demo and more showcases later down the road!



In case that you have some questions about the demo and what's to come, please check out our Townseek Early Demo – F.A.Q. and Feedback Thread! It should encompass most of the doubts that could rise. Naturally, feel free to let us know if you’ve got any further questions and provide any feedback about the game! 👍



On top of the demo, there's a lot more happening around Whales And Games! We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary soon! Look forward to it, as it will include more in-depth development details and insight! Five years, where does the time go?

We'll also be showing up on Wholesome Direct, this Saturday, alongside almost a hundred of other wholesome games. While our time-spot will be on the short-side, it'll include new footage of towns not included in the demo! 🔎



And that's about it for now! We wouldn't want to stop you from playing the demo any longer, would we? Take it for a spin, and when you're done, feel free to either use the Feedback Thread or hop into our Discord Server to share your findings, opinions and feedback about our game! And for more frequent updates and sneak peeks, follow us on Twitter!

We hope you have a whale of a time exploring this first look at the brand new world of Townseek! We'll be seeing you in the next post! Cheers! 🥂

– Whales And Games 🐳

Hey there! 👋 It’s time for another update on how the development of Townseek is progressing! As development on the full version continues, our focus has been on updating the content we’ve already got in-game. Our goal right now in early development is to keep improving on our existing jam game base, while we start to add some of the new content we’ve got planned on top.

On the last news update, we showed some early previews of our new art direction and some new locations. We showcased a new town, Burrowburg, and one of our new biomes, the Golden Forest. This time around, we’re creating brand-new areas, while also improving on the existing content! ✨

Bear in mind that all the placement of locations and how the game currently looks is not final! We’re still experimenting with some elements, and the final product might look different in some ways. But for now, we’d say that the direction is right on track! 🦈



Coming back from the original jam version, we’ve remade the towns of Meowosville, Driplands, and Lawride Town with our new art direction in mind!Since we want these towns to feel more like a natural extension of the world this time around, they actually extend beyond their interacting area, populating more of the continents where they reside. The Driplands extend towards the nearby swamp, complete with crocodiles and frogs. Meowosville has a denser forest than Burrowburg and is close to a familiar dog park. Lawride Town is beyond a mountain belt, surrounded by nature and bandits.

Aside from the towns and continents, we’re also focused on giving the ocean some additional personality! You can spot sharks, whales, and corals, and even some new landmarks! Given how important the ocean is to the world of Townseek, we felt it was necessary to spice it up too. We want there to be more ocean towns, and for the sea to add even more to the ambience of the game!



Another one of our goals for the game is to make as much of the sound design reactive and dynamic as possible. In addition to each town having its own set of instruments that plays when the player is in their proximity, we’re also adding in unique music tracks to each area of the map, giving each zone their own musical personality! 🎵

We’re also doubling-down on the unique ambient sounds and details for the new mini-biomes. In the Mossy Marsh that neighbours the Driplands you’ll be able to hear the sounds of the frogs and flies while flying above it. Likewise, you can hear a chilly breeze when you’re in the snowy-regions and mountain tops. We’ve also added an extra variety of forest and ocean sounds too!

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Finally, but not least, we had the pleasure to sit down with João Correia from Indie X, Portugal’s biggest indie game showcase, for a first look at the full version of Townseek! While most of the gameplay so far is based on the jam version of the game, we invite you to watch the recording of the stream! 🎥

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
During the stream, we talk about some of the gameplay work we’ve been doing in the background. These include improving our codebase and some of the new systems we have implemented in the background. Our goals for the next months are to continue implementing some of the new systems, features and side-activities we’ve got planned!



And that’s it for this update! The holidays are practically here, so put your jolly face and join us at our Discord server to share the holiday spirit! And make sure to follow us out on Twitter for more Townseek previews!

December will be packed with things to do, but we’ll do our best to make this into a memorable end of the year! If we don’t see you until then, then have some great holidays! Cheers! ⛄

– Whales And Games 🐳

Hey there! 👋 Since it’s been a while since the game’s announcement, we wanted to begin providing some updates about how development of the full version of Townseek is progressing! While we normally post full Status Reports at our studio’s blog that cover everything we’re working on across projects and our community, our news posts here will be exclusively focused on Townseek’s development, unless one of those additional projects or community events happens to involve the game as well!

Our goal is to post these on a regular monthly basis! Sometimes we might take a bit longer or an extra month, but rest assured we’re always working our hardest and giving our best on the game! 💪

There are a lot of new features we want to include in our new full version of the game that we’re currently developing. These are even more apparent if you’ve played our original Jam Version of Townseek. One of these is a new, colourful art direction that’s accompanied by a much larger and interesting world to explore! Today, and to get started with one of these news posts, we wanted to show you a peak of how that art style is coming along.



At this time, we’re currently working on blocking out our new world map and detailing our first continents and areas. We’ve had the chance to experiment with our new art direction by designing a new continent that is host to the town of Burrowburg and their adorable bunny inhabitants!

Our end goal is to take the same soothing and curiosity-inducing feeling of the previous sepia-style map from the original game Jam Version and translate it to this brand new colourful art direction. We’re aiming to give more charisma to each individual location and make each place you visit a memorable one!

Speaking of locations, in our previous version of the game, you could come across landmarks that were independent points of interest, like a big character or some interesting monument, spread across the map that you’d stumble upon and discover. In the full version, however, we want to have groups of landmarks that are part of larger zones all-together.



One of these new landmark areas we’re currently working on is the Golden Forest, an area filled with autumn and maple coloured trees. Despite being its own big area, it is also the host to its own smaller landmarks like a Beehive Colony. 🐝

Of course, that’s just one of the many areas that we’ve got planned for this full version! From snowy and icy peaks, marshes and beaches, there’s a lot of new stuff to love in this map of the game, and we hope that you look forward to exploring it!

In future updates we also hope to share some more insight on how some of our game mechanics are going to come together. Up until now, towns in the game were mostly trading outputs, where you could sell and buy items to have enough gold to purchase balloons and tools. We want to increase the protagonism of towns and we have some systems designed through which we hope to achieve just that!

For now, make sure to add the game to your wishlist! It really does help us out!



While the holiday season seems to already be quickly approaching, we’re still celebrating our community’s Whaloween event until next week! Make sure you keep your spooky costumes on and join us there! You can also follow us over on our Twitter where we frequently share Screenshot Saturdays previews of Townseek!



As we continue developing our art style and as we have more progress to share, we hope to see you in future posts! Cheers!

– Whales And Games 🐳

Townseek, our exploration-trading game, is coming to Steam with a bigger world, a new main quest, new activities, new towns to seek, and more! 🧭

Tasked with re-assembling Sir Reginald Sharkingston’s journal, you must travel far and wide and discover what the world has to offer! Trade merchandise with towns and complete their requests. Fish, mine and farm to complete your collection! The whole world is your sea now, so be sure to see all that it has to offer! 🦈

Make sure to wishlist the game and follow us for more news, sneak peaks of the full version! ✨



After many years working across several game jam projects, our team at Whales And Games is proud to be announcing the first upcoming full version of one of our games!

Townseek was originally created in a game jam, during Global Game Jam 2021. While we were expecting a quiet release, the reception we received on the jam version blew away our expectations. We received many comments with praise for the game and suggestions for more features and town! It became clear to us that players wanted to continue exploring this world we’ve created!

Building on top of the latest jam version, there are several new features we’re working on for this full-version for Steam. These include a new colourful art direction; a new main quest featuring the journal of Sir Reginald Sharkington; new-side activities such as farming and digging for treasure; and of course, several new towns and townspeople to seek!



If you have any questions regarding this new full-version, we’ve prepared a discussions thread with a FAQ with most answers you might be looking for!

Over the next few months, we will continue sharing news about the game here on our Steam Announcements! We will be going deeper into new features as we design them, and, of course, you can be on the lookout for regular Status Reports. And of course, we'll also be updating the store page regularly!



Finally, but not least, you can also follow us over on Twitter where we share progress frequently! We also invite you to join our Discord Server! We've got dedicated Townseek channels for general discussion and suggestions there!

We hope that you follow us for this new voyage into Steam, and that you look forward to seeking new towns in this new full-release! Make absolutely sure you have wishlisted us, as it really helps! Cheers!

– Whales And Games 🐳