Autumn Update 2024
Ahoy friends! As cozy season sets in, it’s time to share the spoils of a busy summer voyage.
Heads up: This post includes animated GIFs which are best viewed on your browser!
Demo Artwork Update: Timelines can be completed early??
In my Summer Update I celebrated completing my Character Sprites sprint 4 months earlier than projected in my Spring Update timeline, and now I celebrate the completion of my entire Demo Art Timeline 1 month earlier than that same sprint!
Above: Updated Demo Art Timeline – now COMPLETE
This feels like a big win compared to my initial estimate of Q2 2025. Every stage started off slow because I was learning and developing a workflow as I went. This experience has taught me to trust the (often painfully slow) experimental process that does eventually lead to flow. It’s also brought to light additional art that will be nice to have if we can make time. But with the MVP stuff done I can now change gears for a while to focus on other important areas of the demo and beyond with a significantly more tangible vision of what the game is and what remains to be done.
But first, let’s take stock of this season’s progress! As always, please bear in mind this is all subject to change throughout development.
Demo Art Milestone 4: Item & Miscellaneous Sprites – Complete!
This was a short sprint consisting of a small selection of item-sized prop and ingredient sprites.
Above: Some items and props you may find in the demo
There’s not much to say about this one. Moving on!
Demo Art Milestone 5: UI Mock-ups – Complete!
This sprint was about designing and refining new and existing interface elements for the demo and beyond.
Regarding the mild spoilers ahead, please do as the next screenshot says. (Shh!)
Above: A faceless dialogue box allows nature to get a word in hedge-wise
It was around this time that Bryan began the transition from our previous aspect ratio to widescreen, as reflected in some of the following mock-ups!
Above: A pop-up for achievers
Above: Achievement sticker collection (mild spoilers)
Above: Progress Log (save/load) menu
Above: Updated Settings menu, with alternating Control schemes for Gamepad and Keyboard
Above: A tasty new recipe for Crabby’s Cookbook
During this sprint I also refined the aesthetic and functional design of the map menu, which I went on to complete in the final leg of my demo art timeline: Level Design!
Demo Art Milestone 6: Level Design – Complete!
This map saw many revisions in the last month and a half. It was a significant challenge to translate the full scope of my mind’s hazy dream world into something concrete and seamless. Ensuring accuracy between the game world and the overworld map was brain-breaking in itself, and anticipating the future beyond the demo (at least at the surface level) required every drop of creativity I could muster. It took much trial and error before any of this started to feel right, but the path forward is much clearer now that it does.
As for you, some of that dream haze must remain. It’s more fun that way! So I’ll only show you the overworld map as it will appear in the demo (and next month’s postcard!)
Above: Moonshell Island’s demo overworld map
Does it spark your imagination or curiosity? If you were to visualize your own dream world, what would it look like? How fascinating that by sharing these worlds we invite others to explore them too, and the line between dream and reality blurs.
Anyway, that about sums up my progress from the summer. What’s the team been up to?
Demo Concept Art Update: First look at the Cat Bros!
Thanks to Ain, we have two new character concepts to share with you: Wedginald & Bigglesworth – aka the Cat Bros! These two are based on my actual cats, so naturally they’ll be troublesome and recurring characters in the full game. We also aim to include them in the demo!
Above: Cat Bros concept art by Ain
Don’t you just wanna hug them and feed them too much - or is that just my cat mom instincts talking? Ain’s character concepts are a perfect fit for Moonshell Island. I hope we have time to make sprites of these guys soon~
Now let’s hear about this season’s technical progress from Bryan!
Demo Technical Update: A word from Bryan!
Most of our technical work this summer has focused on two core game systems: combat and narrative scripting. One of the key areas of overlap between these is pathfinding, which is basically a fancy word for how objects and characters in the game move around each other.
Since Moonshell Island’s scenes can be quite large and detailed, the challenge is figuring out how to manage all the necessary data efficiently while ensuring NPC movement feels dynamic and interesting.
On the combat side, I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with different behavior patterns for each nomster, mixing in little bits of randomness to keep Sam on her toes. We’ve still got polishing to do, but encounters with enemies are feeling more impactful every week!
Above: Combat system improvements in progress
Handling the game’s many narrative interludes is a fascinating and challenging project unto itself. After lots of updates to our internal scripting tool, I had to bring the actual game code in sync with the newly added features. Some of this work is pretty straightforward; other tasks, like enabling NPCs to autonomously navigate the map, have been mind-bending at times.
Meanwhile, I’ve been refactoring UI to suit the new 16:9 aspect ratio, updating stale logic in some of our old code, and thinking about how to abstract cutscene and narrative events from the core game engine. There’s lots of cool learning in tackling these milestones, and I’m so excited to be collaborating with Sam and Ain as we work our way towards a fully-featured demo!
Above: A peek behind the veil into…code chaos?
Whoa, thanks Bryan! I can just barely wrap my mind around all the progress you’ve made this season, nevermind explain it so neatly. What I do know is the future of Moonshell Island is looking strong thanks to the technical foundation you’re building, and we sure are lucky to have you on the team!
What’s next?
I’m quite pleased with the progress we’ve made over the summer, and that my timeline experiment was such a success. Had my pace not improved, it would be near impossible to get this project to a pitch-worthy state in the window of time I now have. That window started closing when my employer gave me 5 month’s working notice of lay-off at the beginning of September.
Now that I’ve lost my job, I am faced with the choice of a) redirecting my energy to changing my career in ways that would disrupt this project – or – b) putting all my eggs in the Moonshell Island basket while I still can.
For now, I choose Moonshell Island. If I have to drop everything to find work, I’d rather do it when the game is pitch-ready. I have enough of a safety net that this strategy probably won’t spell my untimely doom…
So what’s that strategy look like? It’s not as defined as the demo art timeline was, but here’s a first crack at my Pitch Ready Demo Timeline:
Above: An optimistic estimate of how my time will be spent leading up to Pitch Ready status
This timeline is likely inaccurate, but there’s no question this is going to be a tight race to the finish line. There’s gonna be some wiggle room, but in a perfect world I’d like to be pitching by February 2025.
I don’t expect this to be easy, so I’m taking what opportunity I can to recover before I start another big push. Writing postcards for October will be a nice change of pace, so please sign up for a qualifying tier* if you’d like to receive one!
*Shooting Starfish or higher tiers receive a new postcard every 6 months!
Above: October 2024 postcard – Demo Overworld Map!
On that note, I want to thank you for your continued support. Every bit buys us a little more of the precious time it takes to make Moonshell Island a success. We never would have come this far without it.
Wishing you all a comfy cozy spooky season!
Your friend,
Sam
