Hi! And welcome to this new devlog!
Current goal
This month, I’m continuing to work on the demo!
I clearly underestimated the amount of work required to go from a “game in development” to a “game that’s presentable on Steam, even with the ‘in development’ label”: a robust save system, UI, options (language and accessibility), “real”, etc. All those small things that improve the game’s quality of life and give it a finished feel, but that I hadn’t worked on at all until now.
Game updates
Save system: already started last month, I’m now extending it to cover all of the game’s features.
UI: we’re moving from placeholders that have been there since the very first prototypes to a real interface: splash screen, main menu, credits, pause menu, options menu, and in-game popups! I had to find an art direction that is consistent with the rest of the game. I still have a few doubts and some ideas for how to evolve it further, but that will come in a second phase.
Options: in addition to the interface, some options have now been implemented. I started with the ones that seem most important to me: accessibility and language. Audio and video options will come later, but they are of course planned.
The currently available languages are English and French, and I plan to add more soon. What Surrounds Us contains very little text, and most of the translation work is actually on the Steam page.
As for accessibility options, it is now possible to adjust the colors to make the game accessible to people with color blindness. This option felt like a priority, since What Surrounds Us can sometimes look like an Ishihara test.
“Real”: camera movements in cinematics, animations, musical intent, etc. This is where most of the work before the demo lies, and I’m only just getting started.
Social media updates
YouTube / Instagram / TikTok:
If you’d like to support the development of What Surrounds Us, please consider wishlisting the game on Steam, nothing is more important for small developers!
View game pageSee you soon for the demo!