Developer Diary 9: Two milestones reached! Are we happy now?

In my opinion, a person is happy when they can live their life freely, when they believe they can create their own happiness.

Happy people endure tense situations and take strength from relaxation. Tension and relaxation are never out of balance.

Happy people appreciate what they have and strive for more, within their means.

Happy people do not think about what happiness is or whether they are happy, they simply have small, repetitive "moments of happiness" and do not wait for "great happiness".

First milestone: Our prototype is finished! This is such a moment of happiness.

We put four months of work/passion into a design document (almost 70 pages) and six more into this prototype. It contains almost the entire first level, as well as cutscenes, a lot of options (e.g. save/load, settings of audio, graphics, two languages, a easy mode), German dubbing, own music (lofi beats with bought instrumentals, we are only human after all ;))...

A mini-game, yay! Or not?

The prototype is a vertical slice, the assets are final, as are the controls. The prototype even got a mini-game! Yes, yes... I know everyone in the world hates mini-games in adventure games... I like them. Sliding puzzles are my favourite. I don't like those "door-cracking puzzles" though, you know, when you have to put the bolts in a certain position for some reason... But for me putting pictures together is quite relaxing. I also really liked the mini-games in Fran Bow ;) Sascha is, well, of a different opinion... That's why I always take over the mouse (if I didn't have it all the time), if it comes to mini-games again... like the torn letters you had to put together in Black Mirror. Anyone remember that? Don't worry though, our mini-game isn't that... let's say "intuitive". Hmmm... I think there will be a blog entry just about minigames... preferably by Sascha, because he doesn't like minigames that much, would be more exciting.

We had help from many test players, you are great!

We created a Discord channel and invited people to a little test round. A whole range of people took our prototype to task.

People from the gamer scene, people who have nothing to do with video games (yes, they do exist...weird people, I tell you...) and of course we had adventure pros with us. Most of them came from the Adventure-Treff forum. Best forum!

Special thanks to the meticulous Mudge (you always find something XD), as well as to the quiet Teeoretiker, to the biting !-R4aptor-! (especially for trying an orderly system for "bug documentation"... it was a good try), to Esme, for the valuable stimuli and inspiration, as well as to Max Pauer with super comments and to Leif and Lisa, thank you for your eyes and your time <3

Jana, thanks to you too, you joined the adventure live at my vernissage. :) Claudia too! Thank you! Even though you crashed our game. XD

Thank you all for the negative criticism, which was useful and never hurtful.

But also thanks for the encouragement! Like the ones we received from Möwe and earthlingJen, for example.

We often don't see our game as a whole thing, but concentrate far too often on the parts that are not yet finished and buggy. That's why it has to be a pat on the back sometimes.

So... and now? Now rest of the game have to be created, which we are of course working on right now, but we need help. Help, not only in terms of money, but also PR/marketing help... We are just two artists who know a bit of programming.

We have a splendid prototype and with it we are now looking for a publisher or for renewed state funding (BMVI, Nordmedia, ...). A "hybrid form", state-funded, with a publisher could also be a possibility. We don't know yet which address we will go to first, but we are convinced that we have chances everywhere, because we can make this game, the proof is there.

Second milestone: Steam Wishlist

Last but not least the second milestone, we are now on Steam and you can put us on your Wishlist. It was a bit more cumbersome than we thought... all gamedevs. know what I mean at this point. But, now it's done.

to steam

I hope you all still have some room on your lists for us? That would be great :)

See you later and feel free to write me/us an email or on Insta, FB, Twitter... If there are still questions/queries/suggestions/etc...

Your Jasmin