A look into how we develop! (Patreon)

I had a realization today, how we develop maps is pretty distinct!

One thing that kept coming up in patron builds was people noting that whilst there was a lot of maps, usually with distinct details, they could feel empty or incomplete. This is true, and it's part of our approach!
Being two developers mainly who work on maps, assets, scripting, etc for everything within them, we had a problem of burnout/freshness that arose. How do you keep the ideas flowing, the levels engrossed in new and exciting details and architecturally poignant designs?

The answer we came to was to never just work on one at once! Me and shack work on all of our levels at once, in no particular order. For me I'll spend a few weeks on Belgrade, some on the revamp of Chasm, some on Karbash, and in between I'll be making new art and coming up with ideas constantly. If I have an idea, I use it! I won't wait for one map to be done to do so, meaning I can always dynamically work on each.
Peri is built more like an art project, a series of paintings, than it is developed in a typical way. So when we do builds you'll get to a lot of stuff that's yet to be fleshed out. But as we get closer and closer to end of development, we finish up the geometry, and now we get to the fun part: NPCs, scripts, writing, quests, everything.

This is the bow on top, as it ties everything together. Imagine a Deus Ex level with no NPCs or scripting: it would just be a bunch of empty areas with nothing to encourage you to explore! But as we refine things further and further and further, what were once empty shells evolve into life filled worlds of decay and stark loneliness. Where a man in a gasmask can tell you to fuck off, but productively, and in a direction that makes you become part of the world.