We have a trailer!
Greatings everyone and welcome to the Ghostland Yard steam page! We finally announced our very first game, Ghostland Yard, a 2D precision platformer!
We hope that you will enjoy the trailer, we put our heart in this video: we really wanted to showcase the mood of the game without spoiling too much.
About the game:
Ghostland Yard is a precision platformer 2D inspired by one title who shaped this genre for the last decade, Super Meat Boy. You play as Poe, a little ghost who begins his journey as a Ghostland Yard investigator, but everything went wrong on your first day...
The controls are simple and accessible - move left, right, jump and that's it! Almost instant respawns and smooth character controller keep you running through the world in your quest for the thuth.
What makes the game different from the other platformers out there ?
This is a tricky question: as it is our first game, we wanted to start with a very basic concept, and the 2D platformer seemed obvious to us, but it's not an easy task as there is a lot of indie developers making platformers games. We chose to focus our efforts on two pillars: the game feel
and the content
The game feel
Making sure that the player has the best possible experience while playing our game is our top priority, so we dedicated a lot of resources into the character: the movement, the jumps, the animations, adding some juice and other small elements to help the player enjoy moving accross the levels. We are making a difficult game, but the players shouldn't blame anything else than themselves for their (possible) failures: the controls have to be perfect and the player has to feel 100% in control of his avatar.
The second focus of ours is the render of the game. When we started working on Ghostland Yard, we took a look at the other titles in our category and observed something: more than half of the 2D platformers titles have a pixel-art direction, the other half is mostly minimalist/flat vector art. And this is perfectly understandable as pixel art is one of the most accessible art style for small teams, but we have the chance to count in our members a talented 2D artist, so we opted to try to have an original look, and went for an hand-painted art style.
So we took the challenge: make the game as pleasant as possible to play and to watch!
The content
For our first title, we didn't want to go full crazy on the scope: we wanted to avoid a development hell, so we had to implement very strict limits. One of those limits was: no additionals features on the character. You can jump and you can run and that's the end of it. So we had to be smart to propose a pleasant experience and to keep the player engaged through the game, to that end we introduce some cool gameplay elements in each new world.
We wanted to make a difficult game, but an accessible one, so we created different ways to enjoy the game with different objectives:
- Reach the end of the stage: this is the way to unlock new stages and to reach the end of the game
- Collect each soul per stage: there is one soul to collect in each stage, and you might unlock some hidden stuff if you collect enough of them!
- Earn every badges per stage: if you are fast enough to reach the end, you'll earn one of three badges
- Complete the bonus stages: there is one bonus stage per world... if not more!
And there is more in the backstage, but we won't communicate too much about that for now as it is not cooked enough!
FAQ
- When the game will be released? We plan to release the game mid-february 2023
- How much the game will cost? We are not 100% certain yet, but it will range between 10$USD to 15$USD, we will adjust the price regarding the content (in hours of playtime) and the level of polish we can put into the game
- Will the price be adjusted per country? Yes. We want as many players as possible to get their hands on our game and are fully aware that 10$USD might not sound that much for some, but quite expensive for others.
- What is the current state of the development? We are roughly 75% to 80% done with the content of the game. We are confident (for now) that we can deliver the game in time for February 2023
- Will the game offer some challenge? Yes. We designed the game to be somehow challenging, but accessible for most of the users. "Easy to pickup, hard to master" was -and still is- a strong guideline for us.
- Is there any assistance to help me beat the game? Yes. Accessibility is very important to us, and with that in mind we will propose some ways to help you beat the game. Note that enabling the assistance will disable the achievements for your save file!
- Will the game release on other plaftorms? Yes. We plan to release the game on PC -on steam and other marketplaces-, but there is more... We plan to release the game on Nintendo Switch 6 months after the PC release, and maybe on other consoles if the game hits its financial goals.
- What is the size of the team working on the game? We are 3 developpers in Obelisk Studio: a project manager, a 2D artist and a programmer. We have a partnership with a sound studio, "Le Refuge" in charge of the sound & music part of the game.
- Will you develop some additional content after the release of the game? To be absolutely honest, we don't know yet. Being an indie studio is kinda random and if we do have some visibility for the coming months, our efforts will be put into completing the game development, releasing the game in his best possible state and then focus on the Nintendo Switch release.
And that's it for this first post, more will come in the coming weeks days as we have a big surprise coming, you might be able to get your hands on the game earlier than February 2023...
Talk to you soon,
Thibault