Designing the game interface! (Patreon)

Hey everyone! It's time for another update from beyond the veil, so here's a little taste of what I got done this month with Imp's help. We've had some conversations about where to take the look of the game and I think between the two of us, we have the right combination of influences to really get this post-mortem idea jamming. While there's still a lot of work to go, It's a thrill to see our first game getting so close to completion. Each new piece of the puzzle provides context for the next, allowing us to intuit decisions pretty holistically. It's not effortless by any stretch, but we're pleased by the way the game is shaping up, and hope to give you something you'll enjoy by the time our first demo drops.

Here are various ideas we tossed around for what the notes themselves should look like. As with most of the game assets, these will be open for modding by players, allowing them to be replaced with user-created graphics if so desired. Still, it's important for the default look to be parsed at a glance, especially one so core to gameplay. One of the design goals of highest priority is for the interface to be easily readable out of the corner of a player's eye, since attention will be focused so intently on the play field itself. To this end, we have been making lots of adjustments to the GUI shown in the first announcement post for the game. Color,  placement and animation are being experimented with to achieve the optimal result, hopefully something that will be both accommodating and pretty to look at simultaneously. Expect this and other elements of the game to turn out slightly differently by the time we conclude development.

Another area I'm still figuring out is the exact formula for giving the game a spiritual aesthetic without relying too hard on recognizable iconography from real life. One of the ways I wanted to show the mishmash of human experience is through urban decoration such as the sticker ideas you can see above in conjunction with esoteric imagery that reflects cultural notions from around the world. However, I quickly started to run into difficulty creating a mystical vibe through wholly original visuals, and this is another aspect I'll need to tweak until it feels just right. Stickers (and eventually graffiti designs) will cover many surfaces in the game and help emphasize the collision between the secular and the divine, so it's important to nail a balance down fairly quickly. I hope to show off some more ideas sometime soon, as I was especially proud of the badge concepts I worked out in the Fall.

Development for the game is reaching an exciting stage as we begin to finalize the actual in-game assets. Starting to see my work incorporated into the game engine is not only quite a satisfying experience, but it's also great for understanding what works and what needs adjustment. With DD's programming as a foundation to build upon, I'm guided closer and closer to the end goal with each bit and piece we add in. More ideas for story elements are starting to come to us as well--But that's something we'll keep close to the chest for right now! We're excited to present you all with a tangible preview sometime this season. To see development continue on a more granular scale, be sure to watch our biweekly streams on the WanWanDev Twitch channel on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We are in the process of readying a test build for patrons in the next couple of months so we can test performance of the game on various machines, get some feedback, and also provide people with a first song of the game to try out. We'll have a more concrete date set for the test build of the rhythm game once we finalize core assets for the UI.

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who continues to support us, all this progress is thanks to you, and brings us closer to realizing our ambitions one step at a time!

~ Julian