I’ve had a lot of time since Alpha to read a lot of feedback, chat with fans, developers and publishers, and experiment with some changes. The polish is going in! I wanted to shine some light on how the game has been progressing since Alpha.

First off, I’m delighted that so many players have voiced their love of this little game. I’ve heard from people who who have been waiting for an immersive, high-style exploration experience like this, and they’re over the moon that it finally exists. The music gets its fair share of praise - it’s unique and beautiful and does a great job of getting you in the zone. Someone said that this game is a rare example of a game that “knows what it wants to do and does exactly that.” And, to my immense relief, the ending is working. Well, for all these comments, thank you..

Of course there was constructive feedback too. Some problems are straightforward to solve: Some feedback isn’t clear, and some creatures act glitchy. But some problems are difficult to find a simple solution for: The purpose of a central mechanic - collecting and throwing seeds, and destroying trees - isn’t clear or always rewarding. Some actions feel repetitive. Sometimes you don’t feel like exploring so you head straight for the exit. I’ve been debating and experimenting with solutions to all of these and I have to be mindful of iteration time spiraling out of control.

Thinking about feedback about seeds has been a crazy ride. In Alpha, collecting a set of seeds that you found had four small purposes: One, their layout hints at available paths, like coins in a Mario game. Two, when you collect all five, the world changes its color palette. Three, the collected seed is displayed on your seed chart, lightly encouraging you to collect them all. Four, you are given more seeds to throw, and throwing one plants a new type of tree. This might seem like plenty, but I was receiving comments that the there’s no point to collect and throw seeds. Sure, i can see that, they don’t let you complete the level any faster, and there’s no explicit purpose to planting trees (it’s more decorative.) So, I wonder, should there be a stronger purpose?

One solution I brainstormed with my developer friend Nick Letizia was to add Planters. These are hidden throughout the world and, when you threw a seed into one, it would grow a special tree in the planter, and also grow this tree throughout the world. These special trees would provide you with boosts through the world, helping you travel faster and with more style. Cool idea, right?

There are issues with this idea, I’ve discovered after implementing a quick draft. One, you have limited seeds to throw, and when you know you need to save them for planters you’re less likely to plant trees where you want to grow forest, or throw them at creatures (there’s a bit of discovery to be found by experimenting with who you hit.) Two, I don’t want you to be able to fill two planters with the same type of seed - it should be more like a lock and key - so I need to take away your seeds after filling a planter. Three, it’s a big feature and I’m running out of time to live with it for awhile. Four, and this is the one I find really tricky, the introduction of a very explicit goal like this kind of fights the feeling and purpose of Shape of the World. I want you to wander, experiment, and get lost, but a feature like this drives you on a very straightforward quest. Maybe it’s best if throwing seeds isn’t much more than just a thing to do, like skipping stones or playing with a ball. Maybe you should just plant trees to garden.

Currently, I’ve settled on a much simpler solution. In a game with lots of walking, speed is your currency. So now, when you destroy a tree, you’re given a little speed boost in the direction you’re looking. If you find, or plant, a cluster of trees, and you’ve got the technique down, you can propel yourself through the grove. It’s simple, fun, and gives seeds and trees a purpose. So far I’m sticking with this, and the longer I play with it the more fond I am with it. If you want to speed up, just find a pocket of trees and fly through them.

Thank you for sticking with me for so long as I explore what this game is. Beta is on the horizon. Until this game comes out, remember to go take walks, bike rides, boat rides, whatever your thing is. Go explore!

We’ve been working hard since the new year and Alpha is now officially complete! We are sending it out to our extended team and a healthy dose of trusted companions to help us gather feedback. Now we move on to the Beta build, which as you know is one of the bonuses for many of our backers.

What’s in the Alpha Build?

The game is great fun from start to finish - nine distinct and colorful areas to discover and explore. We’ve added a ton of assets to populate the world. It’s bursting with plants, animals, monuments and a few surprises along the way. There are lot of practical, non-glamorous features too: menus, settings, save points, etc. Our talented artist Brent Silk has composed an incredible, dynamic soundtrack throughout, and he’s currently making it even more responsive.

Shape of the World at GDC

Our friend Michael Lyndon, a Houdini extraordinaire from the film world, has contributed his talents towards one particular effect in the game. If you are at the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco and don’t mind some spoilers, Mike will be presenting a talk about his process at the Houdini SideFX booth. Be sure to say hi. Stu will also be at GDC this week on official 9-5 business, but tweet at him after working hours and he’d love to say hello!

Onward to Beta!

After GDC wraps up we are going to review the feedback from the Alpha build and get right back to work. We will update you all when we have an estimated date for that, and when we will need all backers to ensure your contact info is up to date so we can send out the Beta. Until then, we will leave you with a few screenshots. Be sure to follow @shapeoftheworld on Twitter, where we’ve been posting lots of little animated snippets of the game as it progresses.

Thanks again for all your support! It's happening!

It’s hard to believe that last summer we were at E3 with just an early concept demo of the game (and midway through our Kickstarter Campaign) and now, 16 months later, we are headed back to LA once again with our latest and greatest build (the first half of our Alpha build) to show it off at IndieCade16! We were thrilled to find out we were selected as part of their Digital Selects feature. If you are in LA on October 14-16 come by and say hi! We will be there along side other great games (and fellow Kickstarters) such as Hyper Light Drifter and Night in the Woods. 

Target Dates & Alpha Build

We know summer has come and gone and we’ve missed our initial target date. We apologize for that but unfortunately we felt like we would be unable to deliver the experience that we promised by our original date. We are still hard at work and will be finalizing an exact release date soon. Our intention is to have this game in your hands by Spring/Summer next year. What you can expect sooner than that is an Alpha build. We’re aiming to wrap it up by the end of the year. If you would like to playtest the Alpha build (and be willing to provide us with feedback) please send an email to hello@shapeoftheworldgame.com with “alpha” in the subject line. Thanks to those who have already contacted us. We’d love to hear your opinions so we can incorporate them into the Beta build and beyond. 

Game & Audio Progress

We’ve hired a couple 3D Modelers to help us make an amazing array of assets, both environmental models and strange, spiky, squishy creature models. Our audio artist Brent Silk has been not-so secretly posting some of his tracks (works in progress and a peek at the official soundtrack) on his Soundcloud page. 

The first half of the game is largely done, now, and that’s what you’ll be able to play at IndieCade. Stu has been refining the environment and player paths, enhancing gameplay systems such as monuments, boardwalks and underwater growth, and sprinkling in a couple new critters. There’s also a brand new UI front end, complete with working chapter jump points for the entire game. It’s really coming together and we can’t wait to get it to you.    

Rewards Update 

For those of you that backed as at the “Indie Dev” tier we will be contacting you (via email and Kickstarter’s messaging system) to set up a time for your Skype chat. Get your questions ready! Physical reward production continues. Mockups of the box set have begun and they have us excited. 

Unwinnable 

What a great name for a video game digital magazine! We recently talked with Stu Horvath over at Unwinnable about how we approach exploration, incentives and enemies (or lack thereof) within Shape of the World in their latest issue (Sept 2016). You can subscribe to their monthly online magazine here.

Radio Silence  

We apologize for the lack of campaign updates over the past few months. Stu was temporarily sidelined by the final crunch period for his day job. But that period has now passed so expect more frequent campaign updates, tweets and facebook posts. Thanks for following along on this journey and for your continued support!

Hello from Stu:

Hi everyone from around the world who has discovered this strange little project I’ve been building! I’m so delighted to have a curious audience wondering what exactly I’m making here. A few of you have played the Pre-Alpha build we released to gather feedback at a critical juncture, and I want to sincerely thank you for your feedback. To the rest of you, thanks for holding on as we craft this project! It’s continually improving and I won’t release it has become something truly spectacular.

Making Friends Across the Pond:

A couple months back, audio designer Brent Silk and I had the pleasure of dining with the creators of the beautiful Forerunner Magazine. Their unique limited-run magazine has them traveling to meet and get close to some of the most interesting, underrepresented indie devs around the world. Their latest West Coast road trip brought them to Vancouver where we and others showed them our home, beautiful Vancouver, Canada. They met with us and our friends at Over the Moon Games (They were the ones that convinced us to do a Kickstarter in the first place after they funded The Fall.) I was delighted this month to finally get a copy of their brand new magazine in the mail and read their article about Shape of the World. Check them out if you want to support amazing, atypical journalism about the world of indie developers.

Pre-Alpha Feedback:

In March I sent out a Pre-Alpha build to some of our close friends and industry allies. Since then we’ve been collecting and reviewing feedback. In response to this feedback, the team and I are implementing changes, driven by the inspiration that comes when you have time to reflect.

Some of the areas we’re concepting now:

• Interacting with a full range of inhabitants. More creatures, and more ways to engage with them. Have you been following the sneak previews on Twitter? 
• Ensuring there is always something new and unexpected to discover. 
• Balancing the feel of the open world with landmarks to help you find your way 
• Finding those special moments for secret surprises for those who venture really far off the path.

Switching Gears: Life & Responsibilities

One of the realities of indie games is that they are often our side passion projects that happen after our nine to five lives. And sometimes nine to five turns into nine to ten or eleven, which leaves little time for development. It’s an unfortunate reality. For the next couple months I will be scaling back my hours on Shape of the World to fulfil my responsibilities at my day job. I will always be present to provide direction, but I will be creating less content. This is only a temporary situation. 

Since the start of the Kickstarter campaign, our team of 3 has grown to several people which ensures development can continue even if one team member needs to temporarily scale down. The rest of the team is still hard at work and I’m always there for support. It’s hard for me to take a step back from the thing I feel so passionate about but sometimes responsibility calls.

What Comes After Pre-Alpha? Alpha!

The next step is to complete the Alpha that we can send to fans and industry pros for feedback and further testing. Do you have experience testing video games? Are you interested in literally shaping the game with your feedback via a short survey? If you’d like to take part in our Alpha test group send us an email to hello@shapeoftheworldgame.com with the subject line “Alpha” and we’ll be in touch.

Rewards:

Canvases are done and ready to hang. All that’s left for rewards is to make the art book (it’s still a little soon for that) and to box it all up! We will be ready to ship all the physical rewards as soon as the game is complete.  

So How is the Game Progressing?

Great! I’m really excited where the game is headed. Part of this is directly due to the Pre-Alpha feedback. It’s helping me prioritize what to add and how to refine the game mechanics and landscape. I know now which moments are surprising and captivating, and where I can put the next set of moments which can take your breath away. 

I won’t be rushing development for the sake of meeting a release date that is too early for the current state of the game. I hope our backers will agree that spending the remaining time responsibly rather than madly rushing through the last stages of development is in everyone’s best interest. What this means for backers is that our initial plan to release in Summer 2016 will be postponed. However we are determined to stick with the “2016” part and believe that is entirely within our capabilities. I hope I have your support! 

Here’s a little look at what things look like behind the scenes. I’m carving out a large forest of huge gullies. But without a player running around, nothing has grown. Instead, you can see all the points where you can change the growth and color recipe.    

As always, thanks for partaking in this journey with us! If you have any feedback or comments, we’d love to hear from you. We couldn’t be doing this without your support.