Streaming every day on YouTube! + Song Updates

I won't be posting every session as I'm currently streaming daily as I work and it could get quite spammy with notifications! But I do recommend you subscribe and follow our Youtube if you want a ping when we are going live. The times I'm live will change depending on how I'm feeling or what my sleeping pattern is like. The mic will be on when I'm able to, but due to the office being shared that can only be within set times. You are welcome to come and chat, ask questions, or get updates. Since the Kickstarter, I want to keep as open as I can for as long as I can about the development of the game. Although naturally, we will keep some work under wraps for the sake of spoilers.

For those not on Kickstarter, here is a quick update :

Hi everyone! Hope you had a lovely holiday season! We're back to work and organizing a lot of admin for the game, working with the new budget we have to sort out concept art we will need and start work on the first two songs of the game, one being a musical platforming section! We don't want the songs to be restricted to just boss fights or bad guys but use the music in more inventive and interesting ways to really explore this idea further.

Gameplay Updates

The first song will be a Billie "I want", and is currently having the piano demo recorded, pretty excited! It starts a few minutes into the first moments of gameplay, establishing Billie's wants and desires as she runs around the enchanted forest with her friends. This will also be a nonlinear song and extremely modular, swapping lyrics and verses depending on how fast you platform through an area, or what direction you take. It's certainly quite experimental but I'm confident we can do the idea justice!

NOTES:

• Gameplay: Run around freely
• Needs a little looping section between verses.
• Or an alternate short verse for when she’s getting lost/not progressing.
• Will be little hazards.
• Billie’s part is very positive and hopeful and excited, basically listing why this is such a good idea, however, Lou & Lily are responding (call and response) in a way that is trying to be supportive but also expressing their concerns. There is definitely a humorous tone to the antics, as they’re keeping Billie “safe” while she’s oblivious to it.
• Song ends with Billie saying something like “see I told you everything would be ok!” to which they begrudgingly agree
• Her main motive is she’s not meant to leave the village
• Wants adventure
• Be a hero
• Learn more about magic (specifically her magic…)

Imagine this scene from The Spongebob Squarepants Movie but in gameplay! With hazards attacking in time to the music, but fairly harmless due to its early stage within the game, Billie is very fortunate to have her friends by her side.

The most complex parts will involve the looping stems when the player gets lost or does not progress. 

The second song will be a tutorial song from Aristotle, teaching the player in true musical style how to use their magic power-ups!

This song will be the focus for February! More details to follow soon.

So what's the plan going forward? Whilst we work with publishers to secure a deal we will be working on the prologue up to the cat pirate level with full polish. With fees, canceled pledges, and taxes we made £104,000! It does make us short of our second stretch goal, but as mentioned before, we will finish this game! This section of the game will help for any future pitching to publishers. When we receive full funding for the game we will instead focus on blocking out the entire game start to finish without polish and return to polishing the chapters later.

Here is some sneak peeks from the prologue featuring the troll boss, a brand new mini-boss to be featured in the next testing update!

I will be sorting out alpha testing keys with the next playable update. Right now the free public demo on steam is our most updated built version of the game to date. You will be assigned your own steam key if you are on a Patreon testing tier once the next update goes live. 

You can also get Fantoccio's song now on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon! Funds from this will go back into the game, so every loop helps.

- Katie