Oh, hello,
Welcome to a Newsletter/Devlog/Blog-Post/Thing!
We wanted to do some more long form updates, to let people know what we were doing, making, and thinking about, both in terms of Key Fairy, and beyond!
So what have we been up to for the past couple o’ months?
Key Fairy Development!
We've been expanding the forest, with more Ecosystems!
The Keep
They wander northward in fallow light, as statues loom, and soft soil is smothered by the creeping paves of THE KEEP!
Where the earlier parts of the forest are filled with wild beasts, the Keep is dark, dour and quiet.
Paved, dark, and littered with traps, our hero is ascending further towards the [REDACTED] smothering the forest.
The “Creatures”
As they dance through this solemn land, the fairy's footfalls scatter the “creatures”.
Crows litter the Keep, scavenging for what trinkets they can find, and bringing them back to their secretive covens (crowvens?).
Even these birds are not immune to what consumes the forest, with some crows known to assemble into a hostile cloaked form.
Water
Oh but alas, though quick on their feet on soil or stone, our poor fairy is easily whisked away by the rushing river that courses strangely through the forest.
We have been trying to make the water work for one-hundred years. But now it sort of does!
Water is hard in our stark black-and-white art style, but we got it to work using dithering, combined with particles to produce foam and a scrolling texture effect that follows a spline.
The water is important as a metroidvania element, blocking progress until you find a way to cross it!
What else have we been up to?
Tex?
I (Tex?) got lost in the sauce experimenting on a cozy sheep herding game!
I ultimately decided to bench this prototype, and I talk about why in this blog post!
Niosis?
I (Niosis?) have been learning about poetry and playing copious amounts of Mythic Bastionland, a TTRPG about strange arthurian knights seeking out myths. Here is Carrowmoor, land of bogs and other more interesting things.
I haven’t been up to much personal art this month, but maidens with swords and dungeons full of ghouls are never far from my heart.
Announcements und’ Events!
We are preparing for a series of back to back events from the 1st of October to the 20th!
Melbourne International Games Week Steam Festival (October 1-10)
We'll be in Melbourne, for international games week, and we'll have a demo on Steam, for international eyes!
We are also going to be delivering two (2) talks in Melbourne! We will be talking at Freakon on the 6th, and at Freeplay Parallels on the 9th! If you are gonna be at either of those events... cool!
PAX Aus (October 10-12)
We'll be in Melbourne, showcasing at PAX! Come say hi! (If you can't make it to Melbourne there will also be a steam event!)
Steam Next Fest (October 13-20)
We’ll have a demo as part of Steam Next Fest!
How different will this demo be from the last one you ask?... We'll have to see! It will definitely be more polished, but we don't want to spend too much time making unique demos instead of developing the full game!
Oke, goodbye now!
If people like this we will try and make it semi-regular! To stay up to date with what we are making (both in terms of Key Fairy and beyond) you can hit the Follow Button on Steam, or join our Discord!
We hope you have a lovely week, that you may sleep well in the moonlight, and prance gaily through the days!
Lots of Love,
Owl Machine