Devlog — 10 Days of Development on Tawa: Lost in Time
The last ten days have been especially busy for Tawa: Lost in Time.
Development hasn’t focused on one single major feature, but rather on many different systems that are now slowly starting to work together.
The main goal remains the same: build every level of the game, make the adventure playable from beginning to end, and then go back to enrich each area with more exploration, combat, events, and secrets.
🦊 Naya and Tawa Are Becoming a Real Duo
The game continues to revolve around Naya and Tawa.
Naya is the main playable character, while Tawa accompanies her throughout the journey.
I’ve continued working on their identity and gameplay, especially Naya’s animations, weapons, movement, and combat.
Tawa remains a quadruped companion and an important part of both the gameplay and the story.
🌴 The First Levels Are Becoming Real Adventures
Levels 1 and 2 are still being expanded and currently serve as the main testing ground for many of the game’s systems.
Exploration is now better structured through objectives such as:
Find Tawa
Meet Physo
Explore the ruins
Find a way out of the area
A compass and Point of Interest system has also been added.
The game can now guide the player toward important locations while still trying to keep exploration natural.
The idea is not to turn the game into a simple list of markers to follow, but to give players enough information to understand where they should explore next.
📜 The Story Is Growing
A large part of the last few days has also been spent working on the story.
Dialogues for the upcoming levels are gradually being written so that the overall direction of the adventure can be established early.
Naya’s past, the artifact she carries, and the real reasons behind her journey will become increasingly important as the story progresses.
Physo will also have a special role.
At the beginning of the game, he simply appears as a mysterious bird.
However, there is much more to this character, and some of those answers will only be revealed much later in the adventure.
Several new characters connected to Naya’s people are also being developed, each with their own motivations, relationships, conflicts, and opinions about her.
💎 Collecting, Inventory and Trading
One of the biggest recent additions is the game’s economy and inventory system.
A collecting system is currently being integrated.
Players will be able to find resources and items while exploring, store them in their inventory, and eventually sell some of them.
A merchant system is also being developed.
Resources and crystals collected during the adventure will be used to purchase different items and equipment.
Several problems with the inventory and shop interfaces have already been fixed, although this system still needs more work before it is considered finished.
⚔️ Combat Is Still Evolving
Naya’s combat system is also receiving a lot of attention.
Recent work includes:
improving weapon positioning in her hands;
working on spear animations;
improving hits and damage against creatures;
adding visual effects during attacks;
improving how animals react when they are attacked.
The dinosaur AI is also continuing to evolve.
Carnivores can hunt other creatures, while herbivores behave differently when threatened or attacked.
The long-term goal is to make the world feel like a small living ecosystem rather than simply having enemies waiting for the player.
👹 The First Bosses Are Being Prepared
The different levels are also planned to include their own major encounters.
Several ideas are already taking shape.
The forest may feature a large creature or dinosaur as its first boss.
The tropical area should feature a huntress accompanied by raptors.
The desert will also have its own huntress, along with a much more unusual creature.
These encounters are planned to mix combat, dialogue, and small cinematic moments rather than being simple health-bar fights.
🧭 A Lot of Invisible Work
A large amount of development is unfortunately much less exciting to show.
The last few days have also included fixing technical problems such as:
transitions between levels;
returning to the main menu;
compass markers disappearing after changing levels;
interaction UI appearing multiple times;
mouse controls inside shops;
collected items sometimes displaying the wrong name;
interactions between Naya and the inventory system.
Each of these may look like a small issue individually, but fixing them is essential to making the game feel much more stable and polished.
❄️ What Comes Next?
Development will continue across the planned biomes:
Forest → Tropical Island → Desert → Snowy Mountains → Swamp → Japanese Forest → Tawa’s Island
The existing levels and biomes are definitely not being abandoned.
For now, I prefer to continue building the overall structure of the game and establishing the story so that the complete adventure gradually becomes playable.
Once this foundation is solid enough, each level can receive much more content: ruins, optional areas, combat encounters, creatures, resources, merchants, secrets, and additional events.
There is still a huge amount of work ahead, but little by little, Tawa: Lost in Time is starting to feel less like a collection of prototypes and more like a real adventure game. 🦊🦖
Thank you to everyone following the development and testing the different versions of the game. ❤️