Momento News

How are you doing? We’ve been neck deep in work and swimming! 🏊 We’re in the midst of a sprint to get a build to play at some of our local showcases and working towards our Beta! We haven’t locked in a date yet but we are hoping to share it with you later this year. Here’s what we’ve been doing!

Julian has been putting together a first build of our Creative Mode! 🤩 It’s super early on but essentially this will be part of Momento where you’ll be able to create and decorate your own rooms. So far you can bring in different furniture, objects, and change the walls and flooring! 🛋️ You’ll see we still have quite a few things to implement but it is so cool to see this! 🔥


Jasmine has been working on some new rooms and interval puzzles based off of some story-lines. ✏️ Here’s some really rough concept sketches of just two of them (don’t want to spoil the rendered versions for you just yet!) Can you guess what kind of rooms these are?? 🤔





I’ve been working on so much story stuff that I have spreadsheet eyes. 😵‍ 💫 I’ve also been making Momento inspired ✨friendship bracelets✨ (we might have them available at events at some point!) and writing up some documentation for the overarching story 👀 which I am pleased to say I can share the cover art with you!



Annnnnd that’s our update! Hope you have a lovely week ahead of you!

All the love, 🥰
Jess and the Momento Team

Current Goal: Experiment and playtest choice mechanic and narrative mechanics.

I’m back from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco! It was a wild time. I met so many super cool people, listened to a lot of informative talks, showcased the Momento demo at the Australian GDC Reception, and lost my passport 😱 (don’t worry I found it again!). 😮‍💨


Here’s Momento and I at the bar, just grabbing a drink together at the Australian GDC Reception y’know. 🍻

We also got Screen Australia funding recently as announced here! 🎉👯
So now that I’m back, we’re doing a huge overhaul to our build, implementing new systems and experimenting with some new mechanics. ⚙️ We have a few design choices to figure out and a whole overarching narrative to implement, and a lot of assets to make. You know when you want to share your ideas but you don’t want to give anything away?? That’s my current conundrum right now, writing to you. 👀 Thus, unfortunately we don’t have a lot of new things to show you right now but I can share some art from the past couple of months! 🖼️


An example of one of the smaller levels. What do you think is happening here?


The lab at night with the concept of notifications!

What’s been going on? It has been a bit slower this month due to the team being away from the office for GDC and parenting commitments.
Jasmine

• Concepting UI for game play systems.
  
• Concepting new gameplay mechanics.
  

Julian

• Refactoring prototype systems into proper game code.
  
• Prototyping new gameplay mechanics.
  

Jess

• Mapping out narrative story branches.
  
• Concepting narrative endings.
  
• Designing overarching narrative.
  

Hope you have a very fine day!
All the love, 😍
Jess and the Momento Team

Current Goal: Showcase Momento at GDC and keep polishing our current build

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? March is going to be very busy for us, but first things first:

Happy Birthday, Momento! 🎉🎉🎉

It’s been almost a year since we first came up with the idea of Momento and we’ve come so far in a year. Thank you for your continued support and interest in our cozy little game! (Also it’s Issy’s birthday in less than a week too! Happy birthday, Issy - I don’t know how you’re already one year old but it feels like it’s been an entire lifetime!)

Momento will also be part of the Women Led Games Showcase on March 8-10! Celebrate International Women’s Day with us by watching the live show on Twitch or Youtube on March 8th 5PM EST!

I (Jess) was selected to be part of the Future Leaders’ Delegation organised by the games section of the Australian Government - so I will be headed over to San Francisco to showcase Momento at some events during the Game Developers’ Conference. Jasmine and Julian will be manning the fort!

Back to the game’s progress! What’s been going on?

• Testing how best to structure our naming conventions so we don’t have to redo it a million times
  
• Freshening up our pitch deck for GDC
  
• Lining up meetings, and meetings, and more meetings…
• Polishing the latest prototype build
  
• Fleshing out the narrative branches and story item descriptions
  
• Exploring gameplay mechanics for choosing key objects
  

What the team has been up to:

Jasmine

• More Interval Puzzle art
  
• Polishing main rooms
  
• Conceptualizing GUI elements
  
• Streamlining the asset export process
  
• Building Momento’s visual art guide for future-proofing
  

Julian

• Importing all the new assets into the current build
  
• Building a dynamic tutorial sequence
  
• Implementing a basic level transition system
  
• Building tools from scratch to streamline importing assets into Unity
  
• Polishing and bug fixing on the GDC build
  

Jess

• Pre-GDC preparations
  
• Mentorship and networking as part of the Future Leader’s Delegation
  
• Creating more story items and objects
  
• Writing item descriptions
  
• Conceptualizing gameplay mechanics that better supports the story
  

Thank you so much for your support and interest in Momento! We can’t wait to show you more soon!

Cheers,
Jess and the Momento Team 💖

Current Goal: Prepare a build for GDC.

We are back, everyone! We’ve been back for a little while now, but January was so flat out with deadlines and back-to-back illnesses that newsletters and blogs kind of got left by the sidewalk for a second. Amazing news: Momento has over 80,000 wishlists on steam which is INSANE! We couldn’t have done it without the amazing community around us.

What’s been happening?

• Preparing to head to GDC in San Francisco in March
  
• Trying to dodge daycare sickness bullet-hell
  
• Ticking off grant milestones and funding applications
  
• Prototyping UI items and task-lists
  
• Mind Mapping progression and story paths
  
• Reimagining clutter systems and decoration
  

As you can see, there’s been a lot on our plate so we’ve been a little quiet on socials as of late. We’re really hoping to focus on production this year and nail down the narrative so it can be locked in. We are hoping this means we’ll have lots of content to show when we do have the time though!

What are we doing:
Jasmine

• Interval Puzzle art
  
• Polishing GDC Build art
  
• UI art clean up
  
• Tutorial book concept
  

Julian:

• Creating SFX lists
  
• Implementing SFX and VFX for UI
  
• Tutorial implementation
  
• Task-list and item description design fixes
  

Jess:

• Narrative item art creation
  
• Rewrite item and task-list descriptions
  
• Lighting improvements and implementation for interval puzzles
  
• Plotting out story trees and story paths
  

Thank you for your support! We hope to show you more soon!

Cheers,
Jess and the Momento Team

Note: Julian, Jess and Jasmine are all parents so we are each splitting our time between caring commitments and working on the game. This means we only have 2-3 days each week to work on Momento, we are dedicated to making the best game possible but this limitation will mean production may take longer than usual.

[h2]Current Goal: Take a nap 😴[/h2]

Happy holidays, everyone! It’s the festive season 🎉 and the Momento team is taking a break over the Christmas - New Year period! Although how much of a break does one really get with young children? As I write this Julian is lying on the floor distracting Issy with toys. 🙃 However we did get an awesome sleep-in until 8am this morning whilst extended family looked after her.

A lot has been happening over the last month and a bit! We released our Steam Page alongside our trailer in the Wholesome Snack on December 6 and now have over 18,000 wishlists! 🤯 I think it’s time we had a look back on our year in review:

• February: The Momento team was formed and we started brainstorming some game ideas. I think there was a second-hand shop repurposing idea in there somewhere, and some sort of zoo tycoon inspired game. But Momento was the one that really struck a chord.
  
• March: 👶 Issy made her entrance into the world. Jess went on maternity leave whilst recovering from major surgery. Momento was chosen as the idea to take forward.
  
• April: Jasmine and Julian began experimentation whilst continuing to work contract work for four days a week. 💪 (Jess in the trenches)
• May: We pitched Momento on TikTok and it went viral! (If anyone tells you maternity leave is a holiday… deck them)
• June: Julian and Jasmine finished their contract work and the Momento website was built. (From my vague and distorted memories… taking care of Issy got slightly easier at this point)
• July: Jess returned to work! 🥹 Julian and Jess now worked two days a week each whilst splitting care for Isabelle. Momento website went live.
  
• August: We put together a submission for Screen Queensland grant funding. We created more rooms for the game, and we got covered by Gamesradar!
  
• September: Started on prototype production and started mapping out individual story-paths. whilst preparing to head off to GCAP in early October.
  
• October: Julian and Jasmine headed to GCAP where they pitched to some publishers. We applied for more grants, continued prototyping, put together our Steam Page, and made a game trailer for the Wholesome Snack.
  
• November: Julian worked every available Momento 😁 to get a prototype ready in time for our end of year showcase with Screen Queensland. Meanwhile Jess and Jasmine worked on finalising the Steam Page, even more grant funding applications (the applications never end…), and getting everything ready for the Wholesome Snack.
  
• December: Ramped up for the Wholesome Snack and Steam Page reveal! ✨ Then we did some end of year stuff, celebrated receiving the Screen Queensland grant, and participated in the showcase at the Screen Queensland residency. Currently we are enjoying a little breather before we knuckle down to work in the new year. 🫡
  

Happy Holidays! 🎀
Lots of Love 💕
Jess and the Momento Team