Introducing: the Dev blog! Finally!

Karinett
Mar 17
3 min read

Updated: Mar 19

We've been busy setting up the company and prototyping our first project, and having a regular Dev Blog has always been part of The Plan! As such, here's a sneak peek at what we've been up to!

Month 1: January 2025

The first week was primarily spent setting up the Cloud server for our chosen version control, P4V, as well as getting our first project (Codename: "Snowglobe") set up in Unreal. In addition to that, we spent time narrowing down our Company logo!

The Evolution of WTP

Project: Snowglobe

As for the game itself, the biggest priority was to get the basic mechanics set up! In Snowglobe, the main mechanic is to tilt a board in order to deftly maneuver our little penguin to the final goal!

This is the very first pass on our main character! More exploration and modeling was done to try out different body types and penguin-looks, but ultimately we loved this guy best.

Our main character (currently unnamed)

A bunch of debug options were also set up at this point so we could easily test our physics behavior, as well as the ability to switch between levels. While I originally considered generating the levels programmatically, it quickly became clear that we wouldn't have our desired level of control this way-- it was also needlessly complicated. Level streaming it is!

Month 2: Feb 2025

February was an inspired month for us, really driving home the idea that we have the ability to create and have a blast while doing so. We may be industry veterans, but starting something new is still nerve-wracking as well as exciting in the best way possible.

Our front-end flow and level selection system is now working, and it's a big step in bringing everything together. This is because having it allows us to "close the game loop". Saving progression and level unlocking isn't in quite yet, but as a player I can now complete a level, see my results and move onto the next one.

A lot of discovery work has also been done on the Art front-- everything from the UI's look and feel, to the character design as well as the creation of level props...

Here are some screenshots from our m2 build:

... and that's all for now! Look forward to the Month 3 update, coming soon!

Month 1 changelist

P4 and project setup
Basic screen flow
Basic mechanics (board tilt)
Diff camera options hooked up for debug/testing purposes (Forward/Follow/Overhead)
Some physics setup for the penguin behavior
Debug level (generated) and debug level switcher set up
Set up level streaming for sublevels
Penguin can be spawned via debug command, also respawns automatically when hitting kill volume

Month 2 changelist

Pause + post game screens added
Level select grid/tabs populate fully based on database information
Level select flow + next button (post-game) work as intended
Restart level works now
Next level button automatically greys out when it detects it's the final level/zone available
Arrows in level select screen auto-hide when you cannot tab further in either direction
Added placeholder animations for screen transitions and buttons
Added simple animations to pickup counter and post-game presentation
HUD reworked to use slot system for modularity
Stubbed in Credits + Customize screens
Fixed the disappearing cursor bug