Hello Sweepy Heads!
We're back with another Clean Sweep Devlog! If this is your first time here and you don't know what Clean Sweep is, let us tell you!
Clean Sweep is a comedic 3D character action RPG where everyone in Cleanland is a personification of a real world cleaning product! As the Town Janitor you'll befriend the residents of Cleanland and team up with them to fight germs!
This is Jess, creative director, art lead, and size 9 shoe wearer, and I'm bringing to you LIVE: the updates from JUNE!
Progress
Programming
First and foremost, Tech released Update v2.0.0.1! It was a general bug fix galore; check out our patch notes on steam for the full list, but look forward to route event improvements, combat balancing, and UI fixes. As always, if you encounter any pesky buges, report them in our Discord Server!
This has also been a big month for C++. We've moved the reward system and MORE data (specifically combat data) to C++, and plan to migrate and update Mission Data and Combat Data with C++ in the near future!
In other news, we've replaced the time manager, modified our music subsystem to be a bit more reliable, and updated our hitboxes further to be easier to manage on our end. Also, germs will be getting more abilities and getting upgraded soon! 👀
Lastly, in the words of Thomas Jefferson: we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of refactoring. Tech is the one department I don't have any influence in, and I still have no idea what that actually means… but stay posted for MORE major refactors. 😎
Design
This month, we found our groove again as designers 🕺 and met to plan some pretty exciting new additions to combat… and by that, I mean NEW GERMS! It's no secret that we're currently really unsatisfied with combat; we decided it could be beneficial to look at how successful games that are comparable in genre to Clean Sweep present their enemies, and use what we observe and learn to improve our own enemy designs. We really want combat to feel silly, goofy, rewarding, and most of all, fun! We hope that by improving our current germs in terms of animations, behavior, teamwork, and movement, we'll be able to bring more energy and interest into combat. We also want to add new germ types…
Germs that fart!
Germs that snipe you with snot!
Germs that get they goop awn!!
Germs that are uh. Well. Germy!!!
Needless to say, we've got LOTS of exciting stuff in the Thought Chambers, and we're excited to put it all together for your gaming enjoyment. 😎
Aside from that, a lot of our attention has been on developing tutorials for the new features added in the update, namely the new Party loadout menu, the Items loadout menu, and Encounters, our new approach to overworld combat. We've also been workshopping the flow of the first day and the tutorials in general – we want to make sure the player experience is streamlined and informative, but also not overwhelmingly info-heavy.
Animation
Soap's re-retopology is complete! Now, it's onto re-skinning for animation on tech art's side, and re-texturing on the character art side. We can't wait to see our beloved businessperson optimized both in their topology and in their financial investments.
Art
All things considered, this has been an exceptionally quiet month for art. And that's because it's been a kookoo-bananas-life-update-surprise kind of month, and I've got some mondo burger life changes coming in hot… and by that I mean I got a big boy jorb and I need to move out! BUT in terms of what DID get done, my main focus has been on planning for the future of asset production for both myself and the Art Assoapciates, taking inventory of what needs to be done in terms of texturing and modeling, and making sure we have a solid itinerary of what needs to be completed to achieve our visual goals.
As I say every month, our environments need a lot of work. One piece of feedback we received in our recent feedback discussions (more on this in the Writing Section) that I want to implement moving forward is making each map/area have a cohesive color palette. With having to rush our environment production to get the demo out (once upon a time, lol), there wasn't much room for aesthetic fine tuning (everything is just kinda BRIGHT and COLORFUL but not in a meaningful way imo) – in the spirit of future proofing and intentional design, I think it would be Pretty Epic™ to get each of our areas (since they'll be one big overworld map in the future) in a state where they're not only architecturally interesting, but also polished, cohesive, and fun to look at!
On that note, our Assoapciates modeled and UV'd a few props, I did some brief texture work on the beach house, and as always (except for that one time the germs took over #NeverForget), I made the devlog image! Hot weather is best enjoyed with a well-garnished colorful alcoholic beverage, and we hope that this image manifests that for you in your near future.
Writing
The writers have been having lots of meetings about character development as well as the introductory days of the game. We got some awesome feedback from top Sweepyhead and #1 Glaive enthusiast, Talos, which spurred discussions on what can be improved writing-wise.
Talk To The Town is extremely clunky, and it would be much more impactful if the player met the NPCs of the town in an introductory welcome event (and also for a Secret Plot Reason of Secrecy and Intrigue). Writing on that event has been completed, and we're in the revisions phase of its first draft. Since it's such an important event both in exposition as well as first day flow, we're working with Tech and Design to make sure that the narrative beats work seamlessly with design's vision for introductory gameplay.
Speaking of (and tying back into design), the writers have been discussing changes to the first day tutorials, since with the inclusion of the Janitor Welcome Event, a LOT of things happen at the beginning of the game. We want our players' brains to be able to soak up ALL that yummy information… which means we need to pace it properly (and put in our Signature Zingers and Sillies). 😎
Another planned feature that we're excited to share is text effects! We had an Isaac Newton moment in our feedback discussions where a metaphorical soap bar fell on our heads from the Soap Tree… we MUST remember that one of our design pillars is GOOFY! Silliness should exude from every facet of the game, and text effects will be a great way to spice up dialogue interactions.
Production
In exciting production news, we've been in contact with a potential publisher! 👀 We may need a bit more time in production and polish, but at the very least, we got some great feedback on the game and met some epic people. 😎 We made new friends, and at the end of the day, that's what Clean Sweep is all about! <3
Otherwise, with each of our lives getting more hectic and outside obligations taking priority, we have decided to postpone our submission to the Epic Megagrant, and instead focus on the next submission period. While the current version of the game has new features from our last submission, we think it could be more different. Y'know what they say: First impressions last a lifetime… and SECOND impressions last a slightly less impactful lifetime. Needless to say, we want to use our next submission strategically. Though we're holding off on submitting this round, we're going to be keeping our goals relatively the same because we want our submission to be polished.
And now… for our great finale…
We're going on break!
The devs have been absolutely wiped (haha cleaning), and with all of us approaching the precipice of True Young Adulthood in one context or another, we decided that it would be beneficial for our mental health as well as for our personal lives to take a step back, focus on our outside priorities, and regroup in a couple months.
SO. We'll be officially AFK from July 1st until September 7th aka Labor Day, though our labors of production will fully resume on October 1st.
We know you're going to miss us. But distance makes the heart grow fonder.
Dev Corner
This month's Dev Corner question…!
What's your favorite flavor of soap?
Jess: From someone who really wanted to eat bar soap as a child, I think I'd have to go with orange and basil.
Nelson: Anything fruity
Renee: For liquid hand soap, I like rain.
Patrick: Pink flavor
If there's something you're gleaming to ask the Clean Sweep devs, join our discord linked below and submit a question!
Assoapciate of the Month
The Assoapciate of the month is Nora!!
Introduce yourself!
Hello~ I'm Nora! I'm a mechanical engineer by degree but had the privilege to work on combat programming and keyframing. Getting to work on this project has been fantastic and I hope to one day champion the Clean Sweep fanclub. #sweepyhead
If you were a janitor, what would you clean with?
I would want a pair of spray bottles that I keep on my belt like cowboy guns. One would be soap and one would be water. Maybe I could have a towel lasso too. Yeehaw!
What Clean Sweep food item do you want to eat?
Contaminut Shrimp 😋 omg I would demolish so many of those.
If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?
I'm already a fruit! haha. This is a tough question, but I think I would be a strawberry! Or maybe a nectarine. I wish I had a pomegranate aura but I'm not mysterious enough...
Thank You
Thank you for reading this Clean Sweep Devlog! You can find devlog updates on our Steam page or on itch.io. If you want to follow along with our game, check us out on our socials below.