Ciao. It's been a while, wanted to give an update on Boars development, goals, give an AnimeCon recap, and share a lil devlog we posted showing the evolution of Boars over the past 2 years! 

It's a lot of text but we want to be open!

Devlog

We posted a lil devlog showing how the project has evolved these past 2 years. It started off as a uni project to learn Unreal with only 2 of us and now we're a team of 5 and have most aspects of development covered!

Boars

After AnimeCon we took month break from the project because it was quite the grind! Irl a bunch of us were moving countries and changing jobs so we wanted to make sure we didn't get burnt out by forcing out more work.

If you didn't know, we're working on Boars in our free time so this is why we may have bursts of faster development and moments where not as much happens.

We're back and feeling refreshed though, so what are our current goals for boars?

Development

• Movement system (game feel, landing mechanic, polish and balance)
• AI (creature AI foundation and 1 prototype but working creature!)
• Movement system but low low priority: a simpler grab inspired by white knuckle, rope swinging, wall running and bar swinging on dynamic objects.

Design

• Level sketches. Blockouts for testing fun but not 'game ready' or finalised.

Art

• Character. The model, art, clothes, gamefeel and VFX.
• Creature concepts
• Better materials, animations
• Improved tools for decoration and prototyping.

Audio

• Exploring and cleaning up the 'apex music system' (dynamic music influenced by style and gameplay).

Anime Con

AnimeCon was very COOL, all the volunteers were very helpful and made us feel welcome. We had technical issues and everyone was helping us out by loaning us an extra laptop. We're lucky that the indie community is very supportive of each other :')

We spoke with a AA producer and he gave us a lot of feedback. It was very encouraging when he said "I think you're closer to a vertical slice than you think" :D

People were constantly playtesting at our table, we were exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was very fun and satisfying. We had people playtest from all ages and backgrounds and learned a lot:

Movement System

• It's intuitive
• It's fun, apparently
• It feels smooth
• Everyone struggles with wall climbing (but people who play 2D platformers like Celeste are really good at it)
• Everyone struggles with bar swinging (looking up or down to jump off up or down)

People liked the artstyle, especially flooded level. They could see the Dishonoured/Team Fortress 2/Half-Life inspiration!

We got comparisons to many of our inspos, like: Mirrors Edge, Dishonoured, Dying Light, even Counter Strike surf.

One of the highlights: a kid played while we were away trying other games out. He played through both levels and when he got to the end he hung his head in his hands and went "Whaaat? Nooooo!!" and then replayed the levels a bunch of times :face_holding_back_tears: .

Also got the chance to try many cool games, I will list some of my faves below!

Skirmish (One-Button) https://store.steampowered.com/app/869710/Skirmish/

Streep (Puzzle) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3132570/Streep/

Placeground (Chill/Decoration) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2854340/Placeground/ 

Spilled (Cozy) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2240080/Spilled/

Autogame Deluxe (Party) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1952450/Autogame_Deluxe/

Towns of Yore (City Builder) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669380/Towns_of_Yore/

And if you're curious you can find all of the indie games here https://animecon.nl/en/?option=com_quix&view=collection&id=150

End

If you read all that, GJ. As usual, thanks for supporting us and joining us here. Will keep you posted on any more developments!