Kickstarter

Hello everyone! We wanted to drop a quick line and updated you all on our development progress with Crowman & Wolfboy.

The past few months have been dedicated to level construction and refinement. The final couple of levels are being built as we speak. We will have over 30 levels in our initial release and that's only the first third of the game! The second and third parts will be delivered via updates on iTunes. Since all of the ground work will be laid out by our initial release, the subsequent releases will come much quicker.

We will have some surprises within a month or so; so keep your eyes peeled!

In the meantime, here are some new screenshots to enjoy :)

Greetings to all of our Backers!
We hope this update finds you all well.

Over the past couple of months we’ve had a couple small focus groups playtest Crowman & Wolfboy. This marked our very first external testing. Gathering information from these sessions has been very insightful; confirming certain thoughts we’ve had as well as opening our eyes to completely new thoughts. We’ve made some improvements to the game based around our analysis of user feedback. Such things as being able to turn around in the air, faster user input response times (which was initially an issue with iPads and has since been greatly improved), some small level design adjustments and a stronger tutorial introduction. Here are some in-game screen shots of the first level, the tutorial level:

In addition we’ve also optimized some of our code and artwork to improve runtime. The first environment (forest) is near complete and we have begun constructing the city levels (second environment). This includes such tasks as setting up collision boxes, placing camera zones, finalizing city enemy AI, placing background and scenery artwork, and so on.
In the coming months we will conduct further testing and refinement as we finalize level construction.
Stay tune for more tidbits!

-Wither Studios 

2013, Year of the Crow and the Wolf.

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season!

As winter sneaks up on us here in Pittsburgh, development on Crowman & Wolfboy is going as strong as ever. The good thing about being indie game developers is that we can actually take a few days off to see our families during the holidays. Despite a little vacation time, we are still pushing right along and making steady progress with the game.

Right now we are working on refining the games UI (user interface) elements, finalizing sound design and music, continuing level construction, integrating progression saved data (saving progress of learned abilities and levels unlocked), and preparing for our final stretch of Alpha Testing.

The excitement continues to grow within our team as we get increasingly closer to the Beta Phase of development! When we're ready to pull the curtains back and show Crowman & Wolfboy to the world, it's going to be a day of great pride for us and we think you'll be delighted to see how far it's come :)

-Wither Studios

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the radio silence on Crowman & Wolfboy lately! This lack of news is not wholly unintentional. We have decided to become less expressive on the finer details of development so that we may preserve some mystery to the game. After all, we don't want to give away all the secret wonder that is Crowman & Wolfboy before you have a chance to experience the adventure for yourselves ;)

Please know that development is still going strong. We have all of the gameplay and main game mechanics implemented and are currently fine tuning these. Making every player interaction feel seamless and instant is crucial to a successful game. The team is very excited about the final player control scheme we've decided on, it fits perfectly! We can't wait to share more details about that with you!

In addition to fine tuning, the programmers are currently working on finalizing A.I. (artificial intelligence) for some really cool new enemies! Each environment will have unique enemies that inhabit those worlds and try to prevent you from reaching the end of the level. Our programmers are also working on optimizing the games code, to get the best performance we can. Some changes to how we handle artwork importing has also changed, for the same purpose.

With the new player controls comes new level designs. The artists and designers have the new levels designed on paper and are building the physical levels, in engine, as we speak. The individual levels will be somewhat bigger than the original levels (from the beginning of development) but they will still be "bite sized" in order to cater to the on-the-go play style.

The iPhone5 and iPad3 have added to the extra development time as well. A little bit of a curve ball, as we'll need to have the game fully functional on these newer devices as well. This isn't too big of a hurdle by any means, though, and in the end will actually allow us to do more (with the more powerful technology).

There are also some new secret, hidden features that we're building that are going to add a lot to the overall experience. Think of these as a reward for the dedicated gamer who explores and takes the harder paths :)

When the game is closer to Beta, we will give you all a heads up. I hope you are all as excited to play Crowman & Wolfboy as we are to share it with you!

Thank you all for the continued support!

-The Wither Team

We've been working hard since the last update and have made great progress!  In the coming weeks we will be testing different movement controls. When production began in fall of last year, we set out to use a joystick to move the characters around on screen. The team quickly discovered that this was not the best fit for Crowman & Wolfboy. We then implemented Tilt controls, where you tilt from side to side to move the characters back and forth. This feels good and is a pretty solid mechanic, but there is one last approach we would like to try before settling. As for the other movements, jumping and attacking are very satisfying to perform on the iDevices! For now we have scrapped the Dive action, as it didn't serve enough purpose in our level designs. In addition, we've added some nice new features to the jump, such as hold to glide down slowly and tilt to adjust the arch of the jump. 

The next big milestone is the Falling level. Here is a shot of the Portal, which is the first falling level:

You can see that there are some slight changes to the design. Instead of giving players full range of the screen, the hole was moved up and the characters are now more restricted to the bottom of the screen. This is due to the fact that with the hole in the center (below the characters), it was too difficult to tell when the object would be getting close to you. This change makes a much clearer distinction, letting you know when you should move out of the way. The controls remain tilting and you have three hit points before you die.

In the coming weeks/months we will be finishing up some polish artwork as well as building a level creator to help build levels more efficiently. The team will also be continuing work on sound effects and music composition.

Lastly, in an attempt to get the game out to everyone sooner, the Wither team has decided to release the game in 3 parts, via updates. The initial release will include the Shadow Planet (including the Dark Forest and the Dark City), the first Space level, the Moon world and will end with the Portal.

It has not yet been decided if the updates will be free or paid. Regardless of that, all of our Kickstarter backers who've supported us will receive all updates for free! :)

Thanks for your continued support and interest!