Hey Space Octopus Fans,

Work continues as we drive towards our First Playable Milestone, next month. We’ll shed a little more light on what that exactly entails in our September monthly update.

As for stuff we’ve made progress on - this week was definitely a good week! We used the weekend as a somewhat formal get-together where we continue hone in on our milestone requirements. From drafting design documents and building systems to exploring new art avenues, there was plenty for everyone to do!

As with most game development, it’s important to ensure there’s documentation. Every studio is different in how they document but usually there is a desire to have a living Game Design Document or establishing one-sheets that highlight systems and design plans. This is definitely not always the most glamorous work, but it is crucial to organize a game, especially a game such as ours that narrative and system driven. We’re starting to see the puzzle pieces align and the full vision on the project is coming together!

Art-wise, we are looking at a variety of explorations! While we were extremely happy with what we built for the game jam, especially in the time we had, we definitely cut a lot of corners to get things done fast. We, unfortunately need to rebuild everything from the ground (literally) up.

Our first priority is to determine how we’re going to rebuild the Fire Watch tower, taking into account that we’ll need to do some more research to make it look more realistic. In addition, we’re building some “hero” assets to help continue developing our art style, which should hopefully help answer any questions we have before we jump into full Production (ie. We’re currently still in Pre-Pro.).

Also, while our forest was convincing with one tree, we should probably have a couple more:

Lastly, we’ve been pushing the development of our tools. We’re taking a deep dive into Unreal and it’s awesome to see how much power the Engine gives creators to adapt to it’s pipeline. We’re creating some unique systems that would not be possible to implement without the solid framework the Unreal Engine provides.

That’s it from us this month, folks! Be sure to check back in with us in September!

-Space Octopus Studios