(Sorry for the delay posting this here!)
HAPPY 2025!~
Happy Holidays, from Santa Cleaner and us!
We’re winding down for the year to take some deserved rest before we hit the project again in the new year. A lot of our focus these last few months has been on “How many assets can we get ready before the end of the year?” And while we didn’t get everything we wanted, we got a lot of what we wanted. In narrative, in art, in audio, and more, to the point it made it difficult to decide which highlights to share this update.
UI:
One of the biggest updates we’ve done to the game is updating our UI with the help of Sasquatchii’s Designs! While there were things we really liked about our previous UI, we wanted a more overall cohesive experience. As such, we decided to give the whole UI an overhaul, and the results are gorgeous!
There’s still work being done, but we’ve been in love with the progress so far.
Editing:
We’ve also completed most of Act 2’s editing! Act 2 is the largest act in the game, with some of the stickier puzzles, but it’s also been more fun t work with. In addition to editing our exploration content, we’ve been able to drill down on the granular levels. Some lines we edited to better match our polished assets, some were to support gameplay changes, and others were in response to questions like, “Does the information feel repetitive?”, “How does the flow feel between levels?”, or “Can we give this moment more narrative oomph?”
Act 2 also introduces one of our favorite characters, and working on their interactions with Essie has been one of the highlights of editing.
Art:
Art-wise, we’re continuing to plug away at zoom-in images! We’ve gone through Act 1 to update all our flyers, papers, and cryptic images, and are currently working on Act 2’s in tandem with editing. A lot of zoom-in images are used for puzzles, so there’s been a lot of back-and-forth to make sure they give you the information you need while also interesting to look at.
Audio:
Excitingly, we now have sound effects for all three acts of our game! Putting in SFX is a huge part of assembling and polishing, and it’s one of the moments where levels start feeling “finished”. We’ll start implementing them in earnest in the new year, but here are a few sounds you can expect:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1scgdwrblelaISw8KTEvD-5zTDz691-CU/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f4PpTf_CpikvoREa2si6wXksudRML0t2/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QW7QWkyFcfWP1FFVFvdjYoVL8ySJnkx1/view?usp=sharing
There's one particular sound effect that was a standout for us, intended at a key narrative moment. We can't share it because of spoilers, but we think it'll hit players just as hard as it hit us the first time we heard it.
Thanks for reading, and have a happy rest of the year!
