Diary #6: the characters of Twinkleby

[p]Stockholm is still a surprising 20°C degrees and sunny as all heck, but the leaves are slowly shifting to gleaming gold and burgundy – fall is nearing, and with it; our September 23rd release date 🎉[/p][p]For today’s diary, we’ll chat about the cast of Twinkleby. The many personalities traversing the archipelago, and the development mishaps we’ve run into along the way.[/p][p]The first character we created for Twinkleby was Theodore, and as the first character, he went through a lot of experiments. The first draft of Theodore, that we mostly threw together so we could start concepting animations and have an inhabitant for our houses, was very orange, and is to this day lovingly referred to as “football-head Theodore” by the team. Even at this time though, we knew that Theodore would happily wiggle his moustache when drinking coffee (something seen much later in the game-reveal trailer).[/p][p][/p][p]Pictured: original Theodore drinking coffee, and wiggling his moustache[/p][p]From the moment he made it into the game, Theodore went through animation tests and interaction tests. He was then quickly joined by Wallis, and the two of them would together learn things like “walking down the stairs”, “talking to each other”, and “glitch out while reading a book”.[/p][p]As we then started working on the trait system for the game, Theodore and Wallis started developing personalities of their own. They got to try out being introverted and extroverted respectively, and in the first test of these mechanics, extroverted Wallis chased introverted Theodore around and round the smallest island in the game, which – you could say the experiment was a great success, but we’re not sure Theo and Wallis would agree. In this scenario, neither of them had a chance of becoming happy, and well – being able to make the Neighbours happy is one of the core features of Twinkleby.[/p][p][/p][p]Pictured: Theodore and Wallis reading books together, after they’d made peace over the Chasing Incident[/p][p]When an island is full (as in; the max number of Neighbours have moved in), and every Neighbour is happy, they will sing you a song. In fact; we created the song very early on as we concepted the “music assembly” feature for the game, and we not only knew that this would be one of the major beats of the game progression, it would also showcase the different characters and show different styles of singing and emoting.[/p][p]After the Neighbours have sung their song, they will open their bags (gasp!) and offer you rewards. Among other things, they sometimes carry map fragments; an item that will allow you to unlock hidden islands on the map.[/p][p]There are many ways to make the Neighbours of Twinkleby happy, as they now have a big range of traits to cater to. We have bibliophiles who long for rooms furnished floor-to-ceiling with literature and creative types who want nothing more than to make music and paint; we’ve got a mail-mouse who longs for cheese (and mailboxes to deliver letters to) and a lady in a gorgeous coat who only visits winter wonderlands; nightowls and gourmands; outdoorsy hikers and plant-loving Neighbours with a green thumb – there are many ways to attract specific residents to your islands, and just as many ways to cater to their wishes and make them happy.[/p][p]Pictured: a group of Neighbours singing their song[/p][p]But the road here was long, and paved with many animation glitches and character mishaps (“the mishaps keep mishappening” is a phrase uttered many times during development). Overtime, the glitches have made their way into the real world, being named, printed, and taped to the wall of our meeting room.[/p][p][/p][p]Pictured: character mishaps, proudly displayed on our meeting room wall[/p][p]And digitally, the character journey has been documented by our devs as they’ve shared their work in game development communities. On tumblr, Theodore has grown quite a reputation for his terrifying transformations. In fact, the first piece of fanart ever created of Twinkleby was this incredible image made by tootkin, where Theodore eats a lemon and reacts in proper, glitched-out fashion.[/p][p][/p][p]Pictured: art created by tootkin, where Theodore eats a lemon and his head glitches out in response[/p][p]As the release of Twinkleby gets closer with each passing day, it’s fun to look back at the road that led us here. The many, many design iterations, the series of mishaps that shaped Theodore and Wallis as characters way outside the realms of the game, and how wild it is to finally see all the Neighbours happily go about their lives in the game, tending their gardens, reading through their libraries, or – one of their favorite pastimes – standing at the island edge and stare into space.[/p][p][/p][p]Pictured: a grainy screenshot of Theodore standing at the island’s edge staring into space, the word “man” written in the sky above him in reference to the horse meme[/p][p]Next week, we’ll be back to chat about the Twinkleby calendar; the holidays and festivals celebrated by the Neighbours, and what in-game events you can expect to experience this fall and winter.[/p][p]See you then—and in the meantime, sparkle on! ✨[/p]