Gather around, explorers! ✨ With our updated demo and with Townseek on the horizon, we thought now would be a great time to take you on a Tour of Explora! There's many unique places and cultures to discover within the world. With so many locations, every couple of weeks, we want to give you a closer look at some of the towns, characters and stories you'll meet in the game.
What better way to start this tour than from the town that you come from? From under the waves and in the middle of the ocean, we're starting this tour with a closer look at the steampunk town of Sharkdwell, home to Capt. Jawline, Sir Reginald Sharkingston and, of course, to you! 🦈
Let's get ready to depart on this journey together, shall we?
Sharkdwell is right at the centre of Explora's vast ocean, and is a popular hub for trading! Back in its former days, Sharkdwell was an unremarkable mining town hidden deep away in the ocean. It became prosperous after Sir Reginald Sharkingston stumbled upon a cave full of a mineral he named Sharknite. That mineral turned out to have amazing energetic properties and changed the town forever. With it, Reginald helped fund and push through the invention of airships, the creation of mechanical legs, and the creation of Sharkdwell's steampunk culture!
Over a century has passed since airships were invented, and merchants now roam the world, trading between towns. Nowadays, Sharkdwell is the most important town of the ocean, and sharks are apex adventurers. While the average shark doesn't interact much with outsiders, others depart to nearby towns, bringing goods from the land.
The merchant and host for Sharkdwell is Capt. Jawline, your friend, mentor and boss, in that order! Jawline is a retired airship captain and spends his days as a merchant at Sharkdwell. Alongside that, he works as an airship mechanic and helps train new sharks for exploring and trading. That includes you, his favourite pupil!
Jawline is also a direct descendant of Sir Reginald Sharkingston. After tweaking your airship, Jawline hands you Reginald's Journal, allowing you to use it as your own. As you learn the ropes of exploring and travelling around, he asks you to help him find its missing pages. Could there be a secret reason for his sudden request? 🤔
Sharkdwell stocks many unique items in its trade and some favourites among seafolk. Some of the common items you can find in stock include the Algae Soup, Musical Conch and Mechanical Legs. Experienced traders can also get their hands on more airship supplies, as well as a plethora of sea creatures that can tag along with you on your journey. 🪼
Being in the middle of the ocean, most of what surrounds Sharkdwell is water. But travel around, and you'll find places full of resources! There's the Shark Depths, the mine where Reginald first discovered Sharknite, and Atlantis, a fishing spot that fish love to gather around. While most of the landmarks you'll discover are on land, these places are a great way to start collecting items beyond trading.
As a bit of behind-the-scenes development, Sharkdwell and the decision to theme the story around sharks were very much made up on the spot! Townseek was originally made for the Global Game Jam in 2021. Like every game made during a game jam, we had a tight time limit to work with and brainstorm ideas. When we were thinking about how to theme the player's blimp in a unique way, that's when the juxtaposition of a shark flying among the clouds came to us. And we went with it!
That led to everything else, from the idea of using a steampunk machine to fly around, to having the sharks take a central role in the world. For us, Townseek is a game about how travel and getting to know the world changes you. We thought there'd be no better way to represent that growth than going with a species that's never walked the land!
This also presented a fun design challenge! Early on, we were split between the decision to have sharks walk on the surface or looking like traditional long-tailed sharks, we came up with the idea of mechanical legs that they could attach and detach at any time! This also helped us improve the story, and show how determined Reginald was to explore and travel beyond Sharkdwell. ⚙️
Well then! That was our first stop, and quite an important one to begin with! Next week, we're highlighting the catfolk town of Meowosville, so keep an eye out for those feline troublemakers! 🐱 Meanwhile, feel free to join our Discord server to talk about your favourite part of Sharkdwell or which other towns you're eager for us to cover next!
We'll catch you up ahead on the next stop, so get on your airship and set sail! Cheers! ✨
– Whales And Games 🐳