[h3]In our last Dev Deep Dive, we looked at the tricky balance between player freedom and technical performance in Modulus. If you missed it, go check that out first, itâs full of behind-the-scenes stories about how we keep factories running smoothly, even when players push the game to extremes.[/h3][h3]This time, weâre exploring another challenge: how a small team blends art, audio, and design into one seamless experience.[/h3][h3]
Jarvs (Head of Comms): Letâs kick this off:
How do you make sure art, audio, and gameplay all work together? [/h3][p]Thatâs a lot of moving pieces.[/p][p]
Oliver (Senior Engineer): Lots of back and forth.[/p][p]
David (Game Director): Exactly. Being a small team helps. Communication between disciplines is fast. For one feature Iâm working on, Iâve got a chat with Antoine on art, another with Oliver on programming, and Iâm handling design. That iteration loop is super quick.[/p][p]
Antoine (Art Director): Our task management system is a big help too. Everyone knows what needs doing each sprint \[sprints are two-week timed action plans], and when assets will be ready. That way programming can be timed with art deliveries.[/p][p]
Jarvs: And none of the meetings feel like filler. Everyone shares progress in Slack too; animations, bug clips, sound tests, everything. [/p][p][/p][p]
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[/p][p]It's so cool to get a window into what everybody else is doing. Not only is it interesting from a learning point of view, but it makes you really proud of the people you're working with, because youâre always seeing how cool what they're doing is. Plus it makes you excited for when it's all implemented. We learn a lot from each other because of that as well. It's something really special about Happy Volcano, our Slack is a goldmine.[/p][p]Right, moving on:[/p][h3]
Has one teamâs idea ever forced a major change in anotherâs work?[/h3][p]
Mick: All the time. Sometimes itâs as simple as, âNo, thatâs not possible,â which already shapes design. But the best is when a system proves flexible enough to use elsewhere. Our event-based onboarding system, for example, can also power Creative Mode. Thatâs the kind of enabling back-and-forth that makes things better.[/p][p]
Oliver: Audio is a good example too. Our sound designer
\[Almut Schwacke] didnât know every technical detail, so we brainstormed together. Operators, for instance, donât run on their own timers but are synced under the hood. That made audio cues tricky, so we worked out new solutions together.[/p][p]
Jarvs: And what about the really big reworks; the kind where one change ripples through the whole pipeline?[/p][p][/p][p]
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[/p][p]
Oliver: The islands. Originally we didnât even have them, just set levels. Switching to editable islands meant a lot of redesign between art and programming, plus making sure saves didnât break. It was a huge back-and-forth.[/p][p]
Antoine: Buildings too. Each building goes through a long pipeline: modules, numbers, polish, props, export, import. At one point David realised the ratios werenât right and asked for a redo. Painful, but necessary.
\[Check out the Art of Modulus Deep Dive series for more on how the buildings are designed][/p][p]
David: And it wasnât just tweaking. If Antoine has 100 modules instead of 150, thatâs rebuilding from scratch. Over time we refined the pipeline to test ratios in-game first, so we donât lose weeks of work.[/p][p]
Mick: If I remember correctly, in the early version, like really early, post prototype, it was the player's job to assemble the building. You would feed them modules and then there was a diorama or something that you had to click on to put them in place. I remember this, but never saw it in full action. I think it was just small buildings. [/p][p]So maybe Antoine, at some point we can outsource this to the player and you can stop having to redesign, and then players can just make one long string of shapes that goes into the sky. You know, that'd be awesome \[
laughs].[/p][p]
Antoine: I love the idea, but Iâm also terrified by it.[/p][p]
Jarvs: That idea of releasing control of the designs?[/p][p]
Antoine: Yeah, exactly.[/p][p]
Oliver: Still, Creative Mode really is the perfect place for players to design their own buildings from scratch. That freedom feels right.[/p][p]
David: Who knows, maybe one day Creative Mode brings that back.[/p][p][/p][p]
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[/p][p]Every feature in
Modulus is the result of cross-discipline compromise, a negotiation between whatâs fun, what looks great, and what works under the hood. The teamâs ability to iterate quickly is what keeps the game evolving without losing its vision.[/p][p]In the next part of our Dev Deep Dive, weâll look at the impact of playtesting, the moments when player feedback changed everything. [/p][p]Donât forget to
wishlist the game, and give it a follow whilst you're there. Every
follow the game gets, helps Steam recognise that people are excited for
Modulus! It also means that you will be notified when we drop the next part of this series.[/p][p][/p][p]Catch you soon Module Makers.[/p]
- [p]Team Happy Volcano. [/p]