Hello everyone!! 👾💫
It’s good to be back in the spring season! As I’m writing this blog, the sun is shining and we can feel its positive energy radiating! ☀️
📌 Where we’re at right now!
So much work has been done! We are incredibly proud of how far we've come, but we still have a long way to go. As of now, we still need to polish some specific parts of the map and catch up on cinematics and bugs that have remained unsolved after being pushed back for the last few months. Otherwise, the level designs are mostly complete!
🔧 There are still many things to do!
It’s been a very long process, as every area of the game is now the result of several iterations, updates, new ideas and major changes… One of the previous main path areas - a full biome - is now completely hidden and optional! 🤫
Of course, some areas we worked on will never appear in the final game, either because the gameplay wasn’t fully satisfying, or because it would have taken too much time and energy to make them functional. Usually, when that happens, the team was not fully convinced by the initial version anyway… In the end, we followed what felt right for us as a team.
🏙 The long road to Metropolis...
One of the areas that has been a long challenge was Metropolis.
We wanted you to explore an old city, climb buildings and discover that you can sneak inside and find a whole new place! 👀 Some of those details have changed, but most of the original intention remains.
One of the very first mockup of the biome
When we started prototyping Metropolis, the first big challenge was the lack of clear objectives on how to manage circulation in such a large space. For most players, directions didn’t feel obvious, and they kept getting frustratingly lost. The next iteration we developed to solve this went a bit too far in the opposite direction. It closed the space too much and players would have been overly guided, which didn’t match our original intent for this biome.
Two years and eight iterations later, we ran some promising playtests! The spaces are now large enough to keep the atmosphere we wanted, while still giving you the satisfying feeling of getting “pleasantly” lost in the gigantic city of Metropolis!
And how were you supposed to climb buildings? Jumping alone isn’t entertaining… mostly boring! So, we tried adding some platforms. Then, some enemies. Then, grappling crystals. Ice. Energy flowers. We couldn't even tell you how many versions of this biome we made, but it’s definitely more than 10… 💪
Evolution of the first building right side for the last 3 years
🧩 The bigger picture.
Of course, we didn’t work on this specific biome the entire time. The whole game went through various stages and adjustments, as we regularly circled back to areas that still didn’t feel quite right. Rest assured, we’re getting more satisfied every day with the current result and we’re preparing to finally let our baby game go and be played this year. It’s not always easy to let go… 😖
🖌 A glimpse at MIO’s early days
And since the experimental process applies to everything, here’s some early research for our lovely MIO!
👀 Little sneak peeks here and there…
First, big shout out to our French community, we definitely felt your excitement and impatience during the Games Mades in France event two weeks ago, where we showcased MIO and discussed the development process! Hope you enjoyed watching Mister MV struggle with the Demo's main boss, you'll soon be able to measure the difficulty yourself...
Yesterday, we also shared brand new gameplay footage during AG French Direct, offering you a glimpse of what’s waiting for you in MIO. We hope it makes you as excited as we are!
📅 What’s next?
🚨 Something’s coming.
We won’t say too much… but let’s just say next week will be a very interesting one. There’s something exciting marked on our calendar, and we’re counting the days. You should too!! 🤭
On another note, well… we have to talk about the elephant in the room: Silksong is coming this year too! And Constance - we tried the demo at the last Gamescom and it looked amazing! It’s going to be a fantastic year for metroidvania enthusiasts, and we can’t wait to play all these incredible games. 🥰
By the way: thank you for all the love you showed under our X post poking fun at both MIO and Silksong being released this year, it was truly heartwarming! 🫶
Thank you all again for all your love and support, it really means a lot to our team! ❤️
We’ll see you next week... 😉
Bye, little robots!! 👾
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1672810/MIO_Memories_in_Orbit/