The game is out! (Patreon)

Hello, it's been almost a week since the game released in early access. I was sick with a pretty bad Covid-like cold for the week before it came out, so I wasn't able to add as much as I wanted before then. But in the last week I added the electric bees and extension ladder into the game on a whim (both ideas that have been on the peripheral for a very long time).

Looking back once more

Since the game released I have been slightly overstimulated. At the same time, I've felt the urge to try to rush new updates out and also the desire to relax and bask in the sense of victory. The launch has been extremely successful by my standards. Lethal Company has officially "survived", with some of the lowest lows of any project I've developed and actually finished. I'm glad I was able to document the whole process. 

Looking back, the single most important turning point and lesson in its whole development was in October of last year when I removed the elevator from the game and made it so the randomized indoor levels were behind a simple front door which teleported you in. I remember that when I tested this, I instantly felt I had done something right (on almost a subconscious level). Knowing why it was so good wasn't possible yet without hindsight, but writing this list put it into perspective:

Half the ideas of the game required removing the elevator, but I don't think I was going to get any of those ideas until the elevator was gone and the game was brought into a different scope.

Now

There is a potential decision paralysis from how many options I have to add to the game, and I have to remind myself that I can take my time. My priorities right now are improving the mansion, adding new outside enemies, and adding some unique map hazards to the mansion which I have recently gotten a couple ideas for. (Some advanced high security is in order, which could make the game feel like a heist.)

Here is the concept art for the daytime birds called manticoils (a name that randomly popped into my head that sounds weird enough to exist. Probably because they reminded me of manta rays for some reason).

And here is concept art for an enemy that doesn't exist yet: